Chapter 1 - Log-In Okami

Link Vrains is an online network that connects the whole of Den City, and is owned by the SOL Technologies corporation. Virtually terrorists known as the Knights of Hanoi once tried to destroy this network. As well, rogue AIs tried to use the network to destroy or conquer humanity. All these tragedies were put to an end by one duelist; the mysterious user known only as Playmaker. Using a rare deck, and advanced duelling skills, he was able to save the network and the world. After his last enemy had been dealt with, he vanished, some say he's looking for something. This is not his story, but that of those we'd potentially saved the future of.

It's the final lesson of the school day. As the students waited out the clock, a fairly tall student sits quietly as they doodle small cartoon-like monster faces in their notebook. Their eyes look up from their book to glance at the clock hanging on the wall, before going back to their book. They move a strand of red hair out of their eyes to look down at their book more clearly. Their mind wanders, and their hand moves on its own, making his pencil just run a circle at the corner of the notebook.

The bell rings as the clock strikes the end of day. The student jumps in his seat at the sound of the bell. "Alright class, pack up and I'll see you all on Monday." The teacher grabs their bag at the side of the desk and just leaves. The students are still in their seats when they leave. With the permission to go, students pack up their bags full of their equipment to leave. "Ey, Ichigo!" The red-haired student jumps in their seat again, dropping their notebook. The label reads 'Inu Ichigo'. "Yo, Ichigo." The student looks up after picking up their book. A blonde student in the same uniform, but a hoodie underneath the jacket was calling out to them. "Are you busy tonight?" The blonde student looks cheerful, and friendly. Around their neck is a lanyard with their name on it, YUU Arashi. "Oh, Arashi." Inu says, packing his bag as they talk, "What's wrong?" "Nothing, I was just going to ask if you want to join us in Vrains tonight? We're going to log on around 9-ish."

Inu's hearing starts to cut to a ringing sound as YUU speaks. He stands there after he's finished talking, and stares at Inu. He starts waving his hand in front of his face, "Hello? Anyone in there? Earth to Ichigo? Are you in there?" Inu snaps out of his self inflicted trans, and answers him, "Sorry Arashi. My mum found out I forgot to do last week's homework, so she wants me to do all of this week's work in one night." Inu grabs his bag and swings it over his shoulder, "Maybe another time, kay?" He says before heading to the door. After he has left, another student comes up behind YUU, "What was his excuse this time?" they say in a joking manner, "You'd think he hates us with how much he blows any of us off." YUU turns around, "Nah. He's always so polite when he does it. I saw him turn down a confession, by hooking the girl up with the captain of the baseball team." "The one with the soul patch?" "Yeah. Maybe he has another reason to turn us down." YUU says, looking back towards the door.

Inu is sprinting down the school hallways. He doesn't stop after leaving the building. He continues down the street, heading towards his home, "I'm sorry Arashi. My mum had me do all of my homework last night after finding out." His face is red, with sweat pouring down his forehead as he reaches the top of his street. He looks back to see that no one he knows is behind him. He stops and rests against a wall; his hand on his chest as he tries to catch his breath. He loosens his tie to cool down before looking down the road to his house. "The truth is Arashi. I don't think you'd want me with you in Vrains."

Inu walks into his home, and takes off his shoes by the door. He takes his bag upstairs, and has a shower to cool down after his daily exercise earlier. He doesn't come down from his room until dinner, then he's back upstairs. He sits in his room under the light of his desk lamp, his fingers effortlessly tapping the same two keys on his computer, as he stares into the blank screen. Bored, he almost falls asleep on his keyboard, but instead his head slams against the desk itself, instantly waking him from his trans. He taps some keys to bring back his screen, showing that he was half way through a game of solitaire. He leans back in his chair, and looks at the time. "9.08" He says to himself. He opens one of his desk drawers, and takes out a fairly new model duel disk. "I've never actually used this properly before." Looking at the screen again, he ways his choices. "Maybe I could meet up with him. But what if I'm right and he wouldn't like me from out of class?"

Inu puts down the duel disk on the desk and returns to his game. The screen has frozen, so he reboots the window. After loading, a pop-up ad appears advertising Link Vrains. 'Be your best self! Live your alter ego!' Inu gets an idea after reading that. He grabs the duel disk off the desk and straps it to his arm. "I can create an avatar that looks different from me, and meet up with them. Then if they like my personality, then I can accept their next invite."

Inu pushes the button on the dual disk, and a holographic screen comes up, along with a character customization screen for his avatar. "Okay, gender. I could be a girl so they wouldn't think it's me, but then I might have to deal with those weirdos in leather coats and hats." Inu selects his gender, and goes onto customising the features. "Might go with grey hair because it's lighter than my red hair. Royal blue eyes instead of my hazy, and lighter skin." Inu customises his clothes, choosing navy or black colours for the trousers and jacket, with a white and black desert scarf around the neck. "Is this enough to look different from me?" Inu asks himself before seeing the extra menu for customising. He pushes it to reveal he can give his avatar animal features. "Woah, I can give him a wolf head and tail? I've actually seen some people that wear that in real life, and they look like they're having fun. Why not?" Inu has finished creating his avatar. The end result is of a wolf man in black and navy.

"Okay, name? Well, he's a wolf, so Okami would do it." He saves what he has made and prepares to enter into Link Vrains, but a red light is flashing on the screen. "Deck missing? Oh right, I need that." Inu starts fiddling with his drawers until he pulls out his real life deck. Holding his arm out, he scans the deck as a whole; the screen shows every card scanned, and Inu goes about making a deck from them, including multiplying the ones he needs copies off. "Okay, now I'm done." Inu stands up and takes in a deep breath. "Let's do this.", He shoves his fist into the air, "Into the Vrains!". He's engulfed in a blue light, turning into a sphere around him that takes him into the network. As he's being transported, his body starts changing, replacing the clothes with that of his avatar, and his head for that of a grey wolf.

Inu appears in Link Vrains. He stands in an alleyway, alone. Inu, now as his avatar Okami, sees his reflection in a window. He's filled with excitement as the first new thing he's done. He starts sprinting out of the alleyway, and enters a virtual representation of a small village. Looking around, he can see groups of people walking about as friends. Looking up to the sky, he can see people surfing waves of code, duelling with their monsters beside them.

He starts walking, his head still looking up to take in the world. "Wow, this is unreal." He snaps out of it, and shakes his head, "Right, goal. Find Arashi, and befriend him. But...where did he say he was meeting his friends?" Inu has a sudden realisation that his plan wasn't all that thought through. As he pounds his own head, he fails to look where he's going, and accidentally walks into a large visitor of Link Vrains. They drop something onto the floor because of being knocked, and turn to see Inu was the one that did it. He's grabbed on the shoulder, and forcefully spun around. "Uh, hi?" Inu says with an awkward smile as he stares down this hulking brute in viking armour. "Well?" They say, crushing the spilt drink in their hands. "Are you going to say sorry for spilling my drink?" Inu sees the cup, and realises what he did, "Oh. I'm sorry about that..." "Not good enough" The viking says, cutting Inu off.

"You humiliated me. Now it's my turn." The viking grabs Inu by his wrist, touching his duel disk. As Inu struggles, the Viking forces Inu to accept a duel request. He throws them away after accepting the duel. "You humiliated me. Now I'm going to do the same to you, with a duel. And I will crush you." Inu tries to back out of the duel, "There's a mistake here." "You accepted a duel. You can't back out now. Only see it through to the end." Inu just stands there, unmoving. His eyes start to shake as he looks around him, the Viking's shouting has brought attention to them. The gossiping and mindless chatter of the crowd spark anxiety into the wolf. With no way out, and with his back against a hard wall, his heart starts to beat faster until he feels something pump inside him. Looking into his reflection again, he remembers he's not known as Inu here. He looks back at the Viking, and tries to stand strong.

To be continued…