so I was looking in the Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS community, and saw something. there's a staggering lack of Takeru x Kiku fics. so here's something I thought I'd write. note that this takes place after the Ignis War, which is still ongoing. so like with the story I did where Yusaku talked to Aoi I wrote before we found out she had been under house arrest, don't think everything here will happen in show.

It was a good day for Den City. The Ignis War has been stopped thanks to the combined efforts of Playmaker, Soulburner, Blue Maiden, Revolver, Ai, Flame and Aqua. They were able to stop Lightning, Windy and Bohman. Not to mention got SOL Tech's higher-ups, especially Queen arrested. Now Akira was running SOL Tech. Go Onizuka had even redeemed himself by sacrificing himself to revive Earth. Jin finally moved past the incident, and even started going to school. Jin was below Yusaku's class due to being a recluse. But thankfully he had his brother and Yusaku to help him.

It was now Valentine's Day, and we find Yusaku walking to school alongside Takeru and Jin.

"You know, it still seems like a horrible nightmare, being forced to fight you guys and hurt you," Jin said.

"It's over now, Jin-kun," Takeru said. "Lightning can't hurt you anymore."

"I really want to duel, but after everything that happened, I'm scared to pick up a duel disk."

"Well, I still use physical cards," Yusaku said. "If you want we can have a tabletop duel later."

"Yeah, they're still done sometimes back in my hometown," Takeru said.

"Speaking of which, why are you still here?"

"Well, it's way out of the way. I feel like graduating from here then heading back."

"Everyone!" a female voice said. The group turned to see Aoi Zaizen with a smile as she ran up to them. Alongside her was Miyu. After they won, Miyu's consciousness was returned. Then her mother learned the truth about what happened to her ring, and apologized to Aoi. Miyu was even arranged to transfer to the same school. "Looks like four hanoi kids are here."

"You realize, Miyu, that people can misinterpet that?" Yusaku said.

"Oh, right, sorry. So Jin-kun, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing better. I was thinking of trying a tabletop duel with Yusaku later."

"That sounds wonderful."

"The benefit of physical cards, huh?" Aoi said.

"Yeah. Virtual cards are cool and all, but nothing beats the feeling of a good old-fashioned physical card."

"Hey, I heard we're getting another transfer student today," Miyu said. "I wonder if it'll be another Lost Incident kid. Not that Specter creep." Everyone went silent at that. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Miyu-chan, Windy involved his partner in a car crash. He's dead."

"Oh. I didn't realize."

"It's alright, Miyu-chan. But I am curious as to who it is this time."

"Yeah, it's like Den City High is the place for transfer students to go," Takeru said. "Den City High. We will take all transfer students."

Everyone except Yusaku laughed at that, who just let out a light chuckle.

"Takeru-kun!" a familiar voice to one shouted. Everyone turned to Takeru who froze, which was weird from the fire guy.

"That voice... It can't be..."

He turned around and saw his childhood friend Kiku wearing the Den City High uniform.

"K-k-k-Kiku?"

"Yeah, I just transfered here. Don't worry, your grandparents came too."

"Hey, we were just talking about the whole transfer thing. I'm Miyu, and I just transferred recently."

"I'm Jin Kusanagi."

"Yusaku Fujiki."

"Aoi Zaizen."

"Kiku Kamishirakawa. Thanks for taking care of Takeru-kun."

"It's no problem," Yusaku said.

"Oh, we better hurry or we'll be late. Let's go!"

She grabbed Takeru's wrist and dragged him to school, happy to be going to school together. The rest followed after them. Yusaku, Jin and Miyu suddenly stopped and looked behind them. Aoi noticed and looked at them.

"Is something wrong?"

"Just our imagination?" Miyu wondered.

"I don't think so," Yusaku said. "I doubt we'd all imagine that."

"The Ignis are no longer a threat, so what was that?" Jin asked.

"We'll have to figure that out later," Aoi said as they all followed. Meanwhile a shadowy figure came out, looking at Takeru and Kiku.

"Vengence will be mine."

okay that ended different than intended. this was meant to be a typical valentine's day story, but somehow I ended up making that ending. I guess because this was a last minute idea, and no way was I gonna be able to get it done that soon. I'm gonna try to finish before the end of the month at least. some people might not like what I did to Onizuka, but like I said, this is written after episode 89 debuted. so he might have a different fate canon.