DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yugioh or anything else in this story save for probably a few own made characters. Everything else is owned by their respective owners(Konami, Kazuki Takahashi etc.)

SPOILER ALERT for VRAINS ending!

Author's Note: I did not know of the concept of Yugioh till very recently. I have watched bits of all the seasons, most for VRAINS, 5Ds, GX and Duel Monsters. I never got into ZEXAL though I'm thinking of starting it,and Arc-V is a so-so for me, I know the basics and general plot but not in depth like who fights who or who the minor characters are.

Chapter 1

The Start of a Bad Day

Fujiki Yusaku was not having a good day. The hero of LINK VRAINS had spent five hours of the past night in LINK VRAINS patrolling the server. Disturbances had recently been on the rise and he was trying to track down the lowlife trying to disrupt the peace that had reigned since Ai's war declaration against humanity.

But in Yusaku's thinking, if he could sacrifice 5 hours of sleep so that he could sleep soundly for the other 2 or 3 hours then it was well worth the cost. He was shaken from his line of thoughts by a familiar voice, "Yusaku, class is already over.."

Ai's voice shook him out of his line of thoughts, and he blinked a few times to clear the grogginess in his mind, and saw that his class was already empty. Everyone must have already moved off to their own after school club activities. Takeru would have woken him up from his nap, but he was taking a day off from school today, saying he had to meet someone. Grudgingly he packed up his books and got up to head off to the Duel Club.

It was a short walk to get to the Duel Club. It wasn't very well known in the school since Den City High School was a sort of prep school. Most of the students were more focused and joined other clubs that would or could in some way help out their future careers, though that didn't stop them from following dueling, and as result Playmaker. He forced the door open and swiftly closed it behind him. Only then did he notice that all the eyes in the club room were focused on him.

After a long tense moment of awkward silence, the club president, Hosoda, said, "Ah.. Fujiki-kun, you arrived at just the right moment. We were just going to discuss the participants for the upcoming Inter High School Dueling Championship. Why don't you take a seat?"

'Dueling Championship? Better not get involved with this.' Yusaku thought as he took his usual spot at the back. He closed his eyes and tried to tune out the chatter in the room, desperately trying to get some rest.

Hosoda was about to explain the format for the Dueling Championship when something struck him at that time.

"Before we get to the format for the Championship, shouldn't we at least decide upon who should be participating in the Championship?"

The Dueling Club members looked thoughtful and everyone agreed to decide who would participate. Well, almost everyone, no one noticed that Fujiki Yusaku was dozing off into the world of dreams, ignoring all the activities going on in the Duel Club.

After a bit of debating and schedule discussion, it was found out that some members had prior engagements set in stone during the time of the tournament and so the final five that were left were Naoki Shima, Club President Hosoda, Zaizen Aoi, Homura Takeru and lastly.. Fujiki Yusaku. The registration form was passed around and filled by the respective participants, and only then did it come to the attention of Hosoda that while they had called Homura and convinced him to join, they hadn't asked Fujiki whether he wanted to join or not.

He swiveled his head and turned his gaze throughout the room.. and he saw him instantly, thanks to his outrageous blue-pink hair, sleeping peacefully. He sighed and said, "Can someone please wake Fujiki-kun?"

Of course, out of the majority of the sensible members in the Duel Club, the one who chose to wake up Yusaku was Naoki Shima, his self proclaimed best friend. He grabbed his shoulders and started shaking him awake, which led to Yusaku pushing him away and while Naoki stumbled to retain his balance, Yusaku's heaves of breaths went unnoticed to everyone.

Yusaku looked around and grimaced as he remembered where he was, but quickly covered it up. He swiveled his head and located Club President Hosoda, staring anxiously at him. When he raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner, Hosoda quickly spoke up, "Well you see Fujiki-kun.. to participate in the Inter High Dueling Championship, we need 5 members and unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances, some of our members are unable to attend, so we were hoping that you would-"

That was as far as he got before Yusaku cut him off by holding up his right hand, "There are three reasons why I must reject your offer: One, I am an average duelist at best, you should take someone better than me. Two, I don't even have a proper deck to play with, my current deck is just a mismatch of cards. And three, I am not interested in this Championship." He said while holding up three fingers.

As expected Naoki was the one to react most vocally among the rest of the members, "Hey! Come on, Fujiki don't be such a stick in the mud. We're asking you to join, it should be an honor that you are allowed to even compete at such a high level tournament. You don't have to worry about your shoddy skills, I'll teach you the skills that the great Playmaker passed onto me!" He shouted loudly, waving his hands as if they proved his supposedly real dueling prowess. Hearing this, Yusaku and Aoi let out a light sigh of frustration, which luckily went unnoticed by the rest of the club.

Hosoda intruded in at this point, to actually control the flame instead of flaming it further. "Maybe we can fix that problem," He said, seeing that Yusaku was interested, "If you weren't forced to duel, would you at least be willing to consider our request?"

Tanaka, another duelist who had been silent till now, stood up in shock at the club president's words, "But president, how will that work?! If he won't duel then aren't we already handicapped before the championship even begins?"

Hosoda knew he had a point, but they needed five members to even stand in the playing field with their competitors. Since Tanaka and Sato were unable to join, so Yusaku was their only choice, no matter how many conditions came with him.

"Well?" Hosoda turned back towards Yusaku, prompting him to reply with a curt nod, after which he got up to leave. Nobody tried to stop him as he shut the door behind him.

It was about 4 in the evening when Yusaku reached Kusanagi Koichi's hotdog stand. His younger brother, Kusanagi Jin, was assisting him with maintaining the tables since he still hadn't reached the level of expertise which would qualify him to act as a substitute cook in place of his older brother. Jin saw him and gave a light wave, which he returned with one of his own. It always gave him a sense of relief that the younger Kusanagi was starting to come out of his shell. Maybe one day he could come out and fully integrate with society like Takeru had.

"Will you be going to VRAINS now that you're free from school, Yusaku?" asked his best, and only, partner Ai. His tone was excited, and he had the right to be. They had recently been going into the furthest parts of LINK VRAINS and had discovered many new Cyberse monsters hidden in the Data Storms. Yusaku would be lying if he said that he wasn't as excited as Ai, but he still wouldn't let it show. Though for now there were other problems to deal with.

"No. Right now I'm going to ask Kusanagi-san if I should join this Dueling Championship.. he might be able to help me make up my mind." He replied.

Ai's eyes widened in astonishment, "EHH! I thought you would have already thought about declining their offer. What's happening? Is the great Playmaker finally going soft or something?" The AI with free will teased.

Yusaku rolled his eyes, "Shut up." And opened the door to the back of the truck, entering into the well known area that had served as Playmaker's base of operations for more than a year.

"Oh.. Yusaku! You're here earlier than usual, did something happen at school? Koichi asked with a lace of concern in his voice.

With a nod, Yusaku collapsed into the empty seat while throwing his bag to the side. After a moment's pause he spoke, "There's an Inter High Dueling Championship that's being held and our school is participating in it."

"So?" Kusanagi asked but then seemed to get the point, "Wait a minute, are you going to join?" He asked in shock.

"I've been asked to," Yusaku clarified for him.

After a momentary lapse, he started shifting his hands again lest he burn the hotdogs he was cooking, "I think you should go."

"I told him the same thing of course!" Ai boasted out loud.

"No you didn't," Yusaku coldly corrected him, leading to Ai's pride shattering into pieces. "Why?" He asked, turning back to Kusanagi.

Kusanagi finished off the hotdogs he was cooking and turned off the stove before answering, "Yusaku, you have dedicated your entire life to fight Hanoi and then Lightning and the others. You need to look beyond that now. Why don't you at least join the team? No one will fault you if you don't win, especially with that bad deck you have for show."

Yusaku thought about it for a moment before finally giving off a sigh of resignation, "Fine, I'll tell them tomorrow."

"No need to, I'll tell them today." A voice interrupted from the side putting Yusaku on guard until he recognized the speaker, allowing him to sink back into the chair.

Zaizen Aoi was standing in front of the stand, fishing out money from her purse which she handed over to Kusanagi along with her order of one hotdog.

"Thank you," Yusaku replied with a grateful tone, and he truly was. She had been helping him on a daily basis, by taking notes for him when he slept in class(not that he needed them, but he appreciated the effort nonetheless), or lying about his prolonged absences from the Duel Club and the school when he was searching for Ai for months, and he hadn't gotten to thank her even once during the time, so now seemed like a good moment to.

"Hey, Yusaku, you can thank her in an even better way, don't you remember?" Ai piped out from his duel disk, prompting a memory to spark up in the boy's brain.

He ruffled around his bag for something, finding which he took it out to reveal a bunch of... Duel Monsters cards. He handed them over to Aoi, as she flipped the cards and her eyes widened in astonishment. "These are..." She started, but changed her words, "How did you get these cards Pla- Fujiki-kun?"

"We have been messing around in the Data Storms for the past week and we found a lot of Marincess, Salamangreat and even cards for our own deck. Since we couldn't use those cards as well as you do, Yusaku decided to give them to you and Soulburner." Ai replied in a proud tone.

Aoi bowed her head low, "Thank you! I don't know how to-" She was cut off before she could convey her thanks as Yusaku interrupted her by interjecting, "Don't thank me. Those cards belonged to Aqua, she would want you to have them."

She lifted her head up and looked like she wanted to say something, but then apparently decided against it as she kept herself silent. Then, a second later she spoke, "Accepting these cards just made me remember something, what are you going to do about your deck?"

"You're going to have to be more specific." He replied in a neutral tone, not understanding where she was going with this.

She looked embarrassed and looked away for a moment, she looked up again and spoke, "I meant the deck that you would use at the tournament."

This confused Yusaku. What was wrong with his dummy deck? Was it too powerful, and might give away his identity as Playmaker? No. He had specifically put in cards with no synergy with each other. Not even a grade schooler would lose to this deck, probably.

"What's wrong with my deck?" He asked, his puzzled eyebrows rising as he questioned back.

"You can't seriously be asking that?! You're PLAYMAKER! The Hero of VRAINS! You can't be using that deck in real life.. it-it's disrespectful to another duelist if you go easy on them when you could have won otherwise." Said Aoi, stuttering a bit at being so upfront with him.

Ai apparently decided he also wanted to add to his growing list of problems and continued, "You know, she has a point Yusaku-chan, you can improve your deck as you want, it's not like Playmaker is a fugitive now. It doesn't really matter if someone figures out your identity in real life."

Yusaku sighed and rubbed his hair with his left hand, partly in frustration and partly in annoyance, and then spoke, "Fine, I'll think about it."

Aoi and Ai's faces lit up with small smiles. Even Kusanagi gave a light smile, though it went unnoticed by the people present there. Kusanagi quickly wrapped up a hot dog and gave it to Aoi, which she took and then left with a wave.

Kusanagi then wrapped up another hot dog and gave it to Yusaku, who proceeded to eat it in delight while relaxing in his chair. But just like always his paradise was bound to be interrupted in one way or another, and this time it was Ai.

"Yusaku! You can't just sit here all day, we have to go get cards for your deck! If we don't hurry all the shops will close down!" Ai voiced out in a scolding tone, making Yusaku sigh, but nonetheless he complied with his digital partner and got out of the comfortable chair while finishing up the remnants of his meal.

"I'll be back before it's too late, Kusanagi." The multi haired teen said while opening the door of the truck, and after seeing the cafe owner's nod he closed the door behind him. It was going to be 5 p.m. soon, so it would be best if he headed to the nearest (and cheapest) card shop as soon as possible. He didn't even have to say a word to Ai as the duel disk was already displaying a nearby card shop location.

"Since I am so great, I already took the liberty of looking up the various card shops in the district, this one will be the best one for you to go to. Aren't I awesome?" Said the Dark Ignis in a boastful tone, his eyes clearly conveying his condescending attitude.

Yusaku's only reply was to roll his eyes as he started following the map. While he was walking towards his destination he saw a bunch of advertisements on Go Onizuka, Blue Angel and many other charisma duelists whose flashy names and equally flamboyant appearances he couldn't be bothered to learn in this lifetime. Though the Blue Angel posters surprised him, since Aoi Zaizen hadn't donned her original virtual persona for a long time. It showed how dedicated her fan base was, even if half of them supported her for her physical appearance rather than her exceptional dueling skills. Taking a turn while pondering on the topic, he wound up exiting the commercial district and entering a residential one.

After some twists and turns he was passing near a park when he heard something. A gruff teenage boy speaking in an aggressive tone, "You little brats should just hand them over. They'll be in much better hands than your useless ones." Part of Yusaku just wanted to ignore the entire thing and just walk away, but picking on little kids was so low that even his lazy policy wouldn't allow him to run away from this. Taking a deep breath, he peeked around the corner into the playground.

Sure enough, a gang of five teenagers, high schoolers from their looks, had cornered a group of kids. A girl was standing in between the gang and the cowering kids defiantly, "You call yourself duelists but steal cards from children? How lower can you get?" She boldly declared. This seemed to anger the gang's apparent leader as he raised his hand and attempted to bring it down. The keyword being attempted as his hand was grabbed from behind by Yusaku's. The attacking boy was startled a bit, but quickly his face morphed with anger as he wrenched his hand free from the blue-pink haired duelist.

He spoke with a sneer and his tone was grating on his ears, "Well look at what we have here boys, a guy who wants to play at being a hero. Listen here smartass, if you know what's good for you then you'll walk out of here quietly, if not we'll then we'll have to do introductions, won't we?"

Yusaku shifted his focus from the leader to the herd of scared kids and seeing their fearful expressions was enough for him to make up his mind. "A duel should be played with honour, and you're disrespecting any duelist's name with your actions. You have no right to trample on another person to achieve your goals." He declared boldly, with an unwavering gaze so unsettling that the punk actually took a step back.

A moment later he seemed to get back his confidence as he stepped forward while taking out his Duel Monsters deck, "Since you are feeling so confident, why don't you back up your words in a duel? Or could it be that you were trying to make us leave by just saying shit?" He sneered at Yusaku.

Yusaku was getting irritated at this point, he had been hoping to finish this quickly without much effort and this guy was drawing it out unnecessarily. But before he could reply, he chose to stop and think about his actions. His deck was, in a word, bad and didn't have any chance of holding up against even a mediocre duelist. So before he could accept the duel, he looked behind the teenage bully and eyed the pack of ten-eleven year olds, "Do any of you have a viable deck with which I can duel? I would use my own but unfortunately I'm still in the process of building it properly." He got a few shakes of yes and no in reply, so selecting a kid who had nodded in the affirmative, he stepped forward and kneeled in front of her while taking out his own deck, "How about we take care of each others' decks for some time? I'll return it to you after I'm done with the duel."

The kid who was still scared looked at Yusaku and nodded, while taking out her pack of cards. They quickly switched their decks and suddenly an echoing laughter was heard in the park.

"Oh this- this is rich! You seriously expect to- to beat me with a deck made by a kid you've never met before in your life?" He gloated as if he had already won the duel, hands clutching his stomach in mock amusement.

Yusaku glared at him, "Why don't we start the duel? It's better than hearing your grating voice all day." Some of the kids, and surprisingly the goons also, snickered at the insult, while the leader's face turned red with rage(not literally).

"Fine! Let's get on with it! I'll show you how much better I, Sakamoto Hyuga, am than a rat like you!" He spat out venomously as his face contorted with rage, while activating his duel disk. They both set their decks as they were shuffled by the disk.

"Duel!" And with both players words the duel was underway as both drew their starting hand of five cards.

Fujiki Yusaku vs. Sakamoto Hyuga

Yusaku: 4000

Hyuga: 4000

"Why don't you take the first turn? At least then you won't complain about having a disadvantage when you lose." Hyuga taunted, as he eyed his hand. Yusaku only nodded in response and tried to think of the various combos to end this duel. The deck was Trickstar based, probably made due to an admiration for Blue Angel's original deck. He could already figure out some combos looking at the cards in his hands, although he had no idea of the level of his opponent so some amount of caution had to be exercised. Candina, Lycoris, Reincarnation...! He immediately connected the circuit which could lead him to victory, and this was all thanks to his opponent handing him the first turn.

Yusaku picked up a card in his hand and pressed it down on the holographic field, "I summon Trickstar Candina, and with its effect I am able to add Trickstar Lycoris to my hand." He declared while his duel disk slid out the desired card for him to add to his hand.

Trickstar Candina Fairy/Effect LVL 4 ATK 1800/DEF 400 LIGHT

"Then I'll activate the Field Spell Trickstar Light Stage, which lets me add another copy of Trickstar Lycoris to my hand. Then I'll reveal all 3 copies of Lycoris in my hand and return Candina to my hand. This allows me to Special Summon all 3 Trickstar Lycoris from my hand." Yusaku continued his turn by activating Light Stage which covered their surroundings with spotlights and stage equipment.

3x Trickstar Lycoris Fairy/Effect LVL 3 ATK 1600/ DEF 120 LIGHT

"I'll set a card and end my turn." Yusaku declared, ending his short turn as his opponent starting laughing again.

Hyuga was clutching his stomach in uncontrolled chuckles as he was bent over his knees, " Ahahahahaha! That's it? You have 3 monsters with 1600 attack which you sacrificed one with 1800 attack to get on the field. Either you are a bad duelist, or you are underestimating me. Let me show you my power, I draw!" He shouted as he drew a card from his deck. Immediately as if a force had shoved him backwards, he was thrown to the ground. "What?! How did I take damage all of a sudden?!"

"Lycoris' effect deals you 200 points of damage for every card that is added to your hand, furthermore if a Trickstar monster deals you damage, then Light Stage will deal you another 200 points of damage. In short you take 1200 damage for each card added your hand." Yusaku explained as Hyuga ground his teeth in frustration.

Hyuga: 4000-1200➡2800

Hyuga's pupils dilated in rage as he hurriedly got off the ground and glared at Yusaku in anger, "So? Don't think your pathetic monsters will save you. I only need one turn to end you. By the end of my turn you'll be on your knees begging me for mercy!" He managed to shout out, the anger in his voice obvious to everyone present there witnessing the duel.

"Are you sure about that?" Yusaku asked, with a slight smirk present on his face. "I activate my trap, Trickstar Reincarnation! This card will banish your entire hand, and following that you will draw cards equal to number of cards banished." He declared with a dramatic wave of his hand.

Hyuga's face blanched in shock, "No way.. that would mean- I would take-" He was stuttering now as the reality of his situation dawned on him.

"You take 4200 damage!" Yusaku finished for him, as all 3 Trickstars fired their blasts at him sending him flying back.

Hyuga: 2800-4200➡0

The other teenagers watched in shock at the outcome of the duel. Hyuga's winning streak had been broken by a random kid from nowhere using a child's deck he had just got. Just how strong was this guy?

"That was Kana's deck right?!" One of the younger kids asked in disbelief. They were all jumping in joy at their saviour's victory.

"Yeah.. that is my deck.. but he used it as if he had that deck for his whole life.. I didn't know you could use a deck that efficiently." The girl called Kana, whom Yusaku had exchanged his deck with, said in awe.

By this time Hyuga had managed to get up from the floor, and the humiliation of his defeat came back to him full force, "How..how did I lose to a no name like you? Who the hell do you think you are to come in and interfere in my business?!" He shouted out in a violent tone.

Yusaku looked back in that same cold expression he always had, "My name is Fujiki Yusaku, and there are three reasons you lost. One, you underestimated the deck of a younger opponent thinking it was trash: two, you were overconfident in your abilities as a duelist; and third, I was a better duelist than you." He explained, while holding up three of his fingers.

"You-you think you can just stop my plans and get away with it?! I'll be back and give you what you deserve." Hyuga screamed back, as he started walking away. Yusaku just snorted in response as the rest of his cronies started running after their leader.

"Don't you think he'll cause trouble later?" Ai spoke up slowly from his duel disk.

"No," was the simple reply Yusaku deigned him, and he turned around only to see the little pack of kids all around him watching him intently. Yusaku almost cursed himself for forgetting that they were not alone. He would have to correct the situation somehow-

"That was so amazing!"

"Can you please teach me to duel like that?"

"Which deck do you use?"

"Will you play with us?"

These were only some of the responses he got from the kids in a flurry. He tried to call them down, but that would be an impossible effort for anyone not their parents. He raised his hands and immediately they all allowed silence to descend. "I think you all should go home quickly, they might come back to steal your decks." Yusaku explained cautiously. Their faces fell with sad frowns and pouts but they didn't say much in response.

"Why are you worried? Can't you just beat them down again?" One kid piped up excitedly.

Yusaku was about to answer that when suddenly someone else replied on his behalf, "He has stuff to do. He can't just stay here all day because you asked him to." A girl, with golden locks of hair and a look much sharper than her peers replied back. Yusaku remembered her as the one standing up to the punks before he came.

The boy who had asked the question looked thoroughly embarrassed now, "Yeah, yeah you're right, Yuna-san." He said, while bowing before Yusaku, "Thank you for helping us, Fujiki-senpai."

Yusaku held up a hand, "That's unnecessary, you all should go home quickly." Yusaku spoke up, "Make sure to not go out alone, and try to get your parents to go with you." He emphasized the importance of safety to the little children. They nodded and had turned around to leave when the little girl from before came up to him, Yuna, his brain provided helpfully. She had dragged the girl with whom he had changed decks with to the front with her. Immediately Yusaku realized what her aim was. He took out the girl's deck and handed it back to her. She accepted it back shakily, and returned his own deck back to him.

After this exchange all the kids turned around and left the park, save for one. The girl called Yuna stared back at him in a way that unsettled even Yusaku, who thought himself to be pretty unshakeable. His focus returned to her as she started to speak.

"I know you are Playmaker."

Yusaku's blood ran cold.

Author's Note: So? Did you like it? I tried to keep Yusaku in character, but it's difficult to do so when the main character is not very social. Though from what I gather, Yusaku isn't a bad person, he doesn't want to put effort in anything that isn't world ending or related to the Knights of Hanoi. Now that all that is gone, he needs to put his focus on something.

I will go ahead and address some doubts you might have:

1. Cyberse cards: I head canon that due to Cyberse world being destroyed to the point of near extinction, Yusaku doesn't have multiple copies of the same cards. In the canon, we have only seen multiple copies of very few cards.

2. Data Storm: These have Cyberse cards in them waiting to be used with Storm Access. But Marincess and Salamangreat are both Cyberse monsters, so it would stand to reason that they could also be found in the Data Storms. Yusaku won't keep Marincess and Salamangreat cards with himself if someone else could use them better and deserves it more than he does. Thus, he'll give new Salamangreat and Marincess cards to Takeru and Aoi, to give me flexibility in writing new cards for all 3 of them(Yusaku, Takeru and Aoi).

3. Duel: The duel was super short because of 3 reasons(Lucky number 3):

A) Hyuga was much more inferior compared to Yusaku(I mean look at the guy, he is undefeated throughout the series)

B) I had to give Yusaku a common enough deck that kids could have, so I chose Trickstars(the other choice was Gouki), since his dummy deck is basically worse than garbage and probably couldn't beat Naoki in a fight.

C) I don't play Trickstars so I had to research 3-4 hours to come up with such a simple combo(I did mention I am new to Yugioh right)

4. Yuna: On the topic of a little girl knowing his secret it's going to be explained next chapter, and don't worry it won't be something super clichéd that little girl suddenly hacked all of Yusaku's secrets away.

5. Pairing: It will be my Female OC. And no need to panic, OCs in my fic won't suddenly become stronger than the main cast(Yusaku, Ai, Revolver etc etc.)

6. Future Duels: I cannot make scripts for duels, so I would appreciate it if someone helped me in making duels. Just PM me or leave a review if you are interested, and I will get back to you. It would also be appreciated if people could leave suggestions for archetypes not used by important characters (Amazoness, Thunderdragons etc.) so that I could give them to my OCs.

7. Update: I'm a busy man, so I have no idea. It might be a month or two months. You can follow to receive updates on this project.

Please Favorite, Rate and Review so I can know of my own shortcomings.

Regards.

OmegaLordtheFirst

Edit: Poll is up on my profile now. Vote on it for Takeru's real life deck, I have put in Red Eyes just in case you guys don't like my other choices, but I don't want major characters sharing same archetypes(Joey, Atticus and now Soulburner).