Lament of the Lonely
Within a secret dark server of LINK VRAINS, was hidden the main base of operation for the Knights of Hanoi. Currently, two of them were standing in a black room with green lights, having a discussion. The first one was a man with crimson hair with a visor covering his face and featureless eyes, his name was Revolver, the leader of the Knights as well as their best duelist. Next to him was, with gray hair and light blue eyes, Specter the second-in-command of the organization.
"So, are the preparations all going according to plan?" Revolver asked his subordinate.
"Yes, everything is on schedule, but I still think that putting all of our focus on just Playmaker could be a wrong decision." Specter said. "There were other duelists who were also able to push back our attack. Even if none of them has an Ignis, they could prove to be obstacles in our grand plan."
"I disagree, there are three reasons why Playmaker is the only real threat to our plans." Revolver stated, turning around to face Specter. "One, SOL Technology is after the Ignis as well, since Playmaker doesn't work with them, it's more than likely that they will use the Charisma Duelists to try and catch him. Second, only the Ignis knows our secrets, and because of the first reason he would most likely entrust them to only Playmaker and on one else. Third, once we our plan is complete, and we exterminate the creators of the Cyberse World, LINK VRAINS will collapse and with it, all the other duelists will be gone too."
"You are completely wrong about how this is going to play out." A third voice called out.
Revolver and Specter turned to the side, as a new person came to join in their little chat. His entire face was covered by the front piece of a black knight helmet with a golden stripe going through it in a manner than made it look like a grin. Over the metal mask, was a large white hood with three green spikes coming from each side. The rest was pure white royal outfit with green accents, a short cape with a knight driving on it and heavy metal boots. His left arm was more slender and ended with sharp claws. It also had a green metal cuff with blue lines and a deck attached to it.
"Picaro…" Specter muttered the newcomer's name. "I thought you were busy, didn't expect to see you come here any time soon."
"I just got some important business here, so there is that." Picaro put his claw on Specter's shoulder, making the latter narrow his eyes. "Or do you want me to notify you in advance for my visits from now on?"
"That's enough you two." Revolver stated firmly, forcing them to break whatever argument they had. Once they did, he turned toward Picaro. "So, why do you think that the duelists of LINK VRAINS could be a bigger threat to us than Playmaker?"
"It's simple." Picaro stated, walking past the crimson haired duelist. He looked at the black wall in front of him and continued. "Playmaker isn't as simple of a target as you think. I personally know duelists who are watching over him. It will take a lot of our resources and time to track and defeat him, and if we do, they will show up to take his place. When that happens, believe me, none of us is going to be on the winning side."
"Your worries are ill-founded." Revolver stated. "Once we get the Ignis, those duelists won't have enough time to respond. But even if they do, every opposition will be crushed by the rightful power of Hanoi."
"So that's your final saying?" Picaro turned back to face the other two knights. "Two of ours were caught and banned, the same thing happened a few days ago as well. Are you just going to stand aside and do nothing as our forces decline?"
"I feel as if there is more to the reason you brought this issue." Revolver pointed out. "You have some personal agenda, don't you?"
"Wrong." Picaro waved his claw. "I do admit that I want to crush some of them by my own hand, but that's because I know what those certain people are capable of. Their influence over both SOL Technology and inside LINK VRAINS is too dangerous to turn a blind eye on."
"So you want us to turn our resources to hunt them down?" Specter asked annoyed how the duelist was trying to drag on this conversation. "It would be a huge mistake to turn our attention away from the Ignis now that we are so close! You won't really listen to this idea, right Revolver?"
"I don't suggest for the Knights of Hanoi to do anything!" Picaro gripped his claw into a fist. "All, I'm asking for is to be allowed to use my own resources in case they make a more threatening move than just hunting down our pawns."
"I might think about that." Revolver answered simply and turned away. "If that's all you have to say, then I will be going."
With those last words, the leader of Hanoi logged out, leaving Specter and Picaro as the only people left in the black room.
"Impressive, your nonsenses were able to make Revolver rethink his position." Specter stated, annoyed. "But this proves that I was right about you all along, you are too cowardly to be part of our noble cause."
"Safe your petty insults for someone who might care." Picaro turned to leave. "Compared to the kind of power that I had witnessed, you are nothing more than a second-rate duelist."
"Second rate, huh? And what are you then?"
This caused the hooded duelist to stop in his tracks. Clenching his hands into fists he thought about it, but every time, the same person popped into his head saying the same insult to him, over and over, to the point that he could no longer deny it.
"…A third rate." He finally answered through gritted teeth.
Roxy's POV
"Um…" Sense returned to me slowly, as I heard the sound of someone clicking keyboard buttons. My eyelids slowly fluttered open as I began to wake up. When I did, the first thing that I saw was Kusanagi working on his computer, then looking down, I also noticed the warm green blanket that he had probably put on me while I was asleep.
At first, I was very confused to find myself in the hot dog truck, since I went to sleep on a bench last night. I know, I know, not the best or smartest idea, but I would feel bad sleeping in someone else's property when they have already don't so much for me. Kind of like how I felt right now.
"Good morning." Kusanagi greeted me and took a sip from the cup of coffee that sat on his desk.
"G-good morning." I smiled back at him, though I felt anything but happy right now. "I'm sorry if I created difficulties for you, but I did go to sleep on the bench outside… So, um…"
"I moved you." Well, that proves what I thought had happened. "It's not safe for a girl like you to sleep outside in the open like this? Many bad people might show up during the night, so I carried you back into the truck."
"I'm sorry for troubling you." I bowed to show that I was apologizing, then handled the blanket back to him.
"That's not mine."
"…Excuse me?" But he just said… What is going on here?
"Someone came and put the blanket on you last night before I came to take you." Kusanagi pointed out. "I don't know who it was, but surely it was very noble from their side to do something like this."
Some bypassers took pity on me and left a blanket? This made me feel ever worse because it wasn't just Kusanagi and Playmaker that help me, but random people on the streets too. I was only a burden for everyone.
"Since Yusaku is at school and I'm about to open soon, you can go out and have some fun."
I wasn't sure if Kusanagi was talking seriously or trying to joke with me since I had absolutely no understanding of the town, no friends, nor money, so there was absolutely nothing for me to do other than go into LINK VRAINS. Or, I could find a cheap lodging and a job to pay with. Not many options there either…
"Could I help you by working on the shop for free?" I asked Kusanagi. It would be a start and I surely couldn't demand a payment after he did so much for me.
"You don't need to do that for me." He waved it off and clicked a button that made his computers go back into the wall where they would be hidden by the public eye. "I have been able to manage the shop on my own for years."
"But I don't have anything else to do." I told him. "This way, I could at least start to pay back my debt to you and Playmaker for helping me in a moment of need, so please?"
"Ok then." Kusanagi sighed and I mentally cheered for this little victory.
He opened the attendance window and I stepped beside him, waiting for customers to show up. It didn't take long because there was a huge mass of people coming out during the morning, either because they have to go to school or work. Many of them did indeed need some fast breakfast before the start of their day.
At times, the work became too much for me to handle with many orders coming one after another, but somehow I managed to keep my cold and serve everybody. Of course, Kusanagi was the one doing all of the cooking, I knew how to make food, but my skills were nowhere near good enough to make food for others, so I acted like a waiter of some sort. My mine purpose was to make the coffee put the hotdogs and sandwiches together after Kusanagi has cooked the ingredients and so on.
"This is actually really fun." I told my 'boss'.
"I know, right?" Kusanagi smiled and turned to look at everyone who was eating on the benches or with groups of friends and such. "It's part of why I choose to work this, every day I get to see different sides of Den City and meet different people."
"This surely sounds like a good job." I replied. "But isn't it lonely to stay here alone most of the day?"
"Sometimes." He nodded. "But I often have talks with the customers, so it isn't bad."
"Does Pla- I mean Yusaku," I quickly corrected myself, how could I almost reveal his identity here?! "Doesn't he help you from time to time?"
"Yusaku isn't… very good with people." Yes, I think I got that one figured out yesterday. "But after everything he went through, I can understand. Hunting the Knights of Hanoi and getting revenge for what they did to him and my brother is his own way to cope with the trauma - to face it."
"That… sounds very sad." I admitted.
The idea to live with the sole purpose of getting revenge on a group of people that hurt you in the past, it sound so tragic, so unbelievable and hard. If it was me in his shoes, I couldn't imagine what would have happened, but one thing was sure. I wouldn't have had the courage to face her fears like how Playmaker was doing every single day of his live.
"Kusanagi, I want to help Yusaku be happy again." I turned toward the older man. "I want to help him come out of the darkness and enter the light."
"I know." Kusanagi had a bitter smile on his face. "I understand how you feel, but for now, we should leave him on his own."
I nodded to him and turned forward. Just in time as another customer came and I happily took their order.
3rd POV
In another part of the city, a man with white hair and wearing a business suit was standing on the oceanside, watching the beauty that was this so called Stardust Road. The name itself brought back memories that he thought were long forgotten. It was sad that he had never came to this spot during night time when it's side that the true beauty of the ocean shows itself.
Then there was the sound of footsteps that approached him from behind. The man turned his crimson eyes to the young woman with long pink hair with lavender bangs and pink eyes that approached him. Like usually, she wore her violet motor biker outfit and had a charismatic smile on that would make any man fell for her. He however was an exception to that rule.
"I have been waiting for you, Emma." The man told her and turned back to the ocean.
"I saw that. It's not like you to choose places like this for our meetings, so it has to be very important, doesn't it?" Emma asked.
"Not really, I just haven't been able to see the ocean from up close ever since I came to this city." The man replied, crossing his arms behind his back.
Emma narrowed her eyes at the simplicity of that man's logic. "It's proven to be a bad business tactic to say things like this to your hirer, but you are can be a very weird person at times."
"Yeah, I already know that." Emma caught a small change in the man's voice. It was still very serious, but there was now that little playfulness in it, like the voice of a child trying to break past the serious figure before her.
"As much as I like talking with you, I surely hope that you called me here for a job."
"I heard that Akira and SOL Technology have hired you to get information on Playmaker. So, I will tell you now that there is nothing significant information that you could find on LINK VRAINS' servers so just don't bother with that ghost hunting."
"Aww~ I'm flattered that you think so much about me." Emma gave a mischievous giggled at the man's words. "But you know that it's my job as a treasure hunter to get to the bottom of things, so I can't give up on the job."
"Of course, all I'm telling you is to not expect finding anything special without hacking both the Knights of Hanoi and the SOL Technology's Data Bank."
This perked Emma's interested into the subject even more. So both the Knights of Hanoi and SOL Technology had very important data about Playmaker? If that's so, then why won't SOL Technology allow its employers to use the info and track the vigilantly using it? What was Playmaker's connection to the Knights of Hanoi? So many interesting things were going on around, she was going to have a lot of fun stealing all the information.
But then, a frown formed on Emma's face, making her look like a kid whose candies were taken by their parents. It was all because of that man before her, he knew everything that was going on, the information collected on his secret servers would make any data broker jealous. Emma wasn't stupid, far from it, so she was able to put on the pieces. He didn't tell her about SOL Technology's Data Bank just because, there was a bigger game there. It wasn't about him taking their information either; she knew that he had far more data about what's going on in the city than SOL could ever collect.
As a treasure hunter and hacker, it made her angry that this man had everything, yet he didn't bother with anything. All the information in his server was just lying there catching dust, while she could have sold it for a good prize. It wasn't like Emma hasn't tried to find where he hides all the data, but despite all the researches, she was never able to get anywhere near it. What's worse, this man knew about her intentions, this is why he would use any chance he got to tease her about that SINGLE failure in her whole carrier.
"Thanks for the heads up, old guy." Emma's mischievous smirk widened, as she knew that the last two words had hit a nerve.
Just like how she hated when he reminded her about that failed hacking attempt, he hated when she called him an old man. The difference between those two was that, in fact, he was younger than her by a few years. Despite that he was still able to get offended by the word 'old'. The white haired man stared at her for a few seconds before taking a deep breath.
"Now, about the job I have for you, it's going to be something a little bit harder than usual." The man said, perking Emma's interest once again; she liked challenges like those.
"What is it? You want me to hack the National Guard?" She chuckled.
"Something more important than that. I want you to spy on SOL Technology for me. I have their data, but there are many things that only the security manager and those above him know and talk about."
"Hm, you want me to spy on the organization that already hired me?" Emma put a finger on her lips in thought. "That doesn't sound morally correct, so you must make sure to give me a big compensation for the work."
"Ah, yes, you are absolutely right." The man shook his head. "How much do I need to pay you as compensation? As much as SOL did to get you to keep an eye on Akira, or less?"
"Less." Emma sighed, she knew that he wouldn't pay her more. "But how do you know about Akira?"
"I don't." the man replied, turning around to completely face her. "It was just obvious that SOL would so something like this, but thanks for proving me right."
A hallow chuckle escaped Emma's mouth as she stared at the person before her. She failed to one of the oldest tricks in the book. The white haired man returned his hands into the pockets of his pants and walked off, leaving the young woman on her own. He got into a red car and drove off.
Roxy's POV
"Your hotdog." I put the food on the table in front of Yusaku, who was working on his tablet.
"The cutie got you some food, you should at least thank her." The A.I. told him, making me blush at the word 'cutie'.
"Be quiet." Yusaku stated firmly before grabbing the hotdog and taking a bite from it.
"Sheesh, you are so mean." The A.I. pouted.
Yusaku didn't answer and just kept on working – probably on something related with the Knights of Hanoi – while the eye on his Duel Disk was staring at me. It gave me a creepy feeling to know that a machine of all things was watching you. But then again, this A.I. acted different from most other artificial intelligences, almost like there was something alive inside of it.
"Playmaker is so stiff, he doesn't even know how to talk with a cute girl." The A.I. words took me aback, I felt my cheeks getting warm from the sudden compliment. "You are blushing, did I embarrass you?"
"N-no." I turned my eyes away from the A.I., its words along with the playful voice were a bit too much for me to handle.
"Eh? But your face turned all red, you are definitely embarrassed." The A.I.'s eyes turned into a mischievous look.
"Y-you really like playing with others, don't you?" I asked back, maybe a little too rude, but I didn't want an A.I. of all things to talk down on me. At least not again.
"Hey, I'm just trying to have a normal conversation. Mister stiff here, is no fun. All he does is either telling me to shut up or muting me himself. It's so cruel~!"
This time I giggled a bit at the A.I., not because it was making fun of Yusaku, but because of how he expressed it. Ok, maybe also because it was billions times better at expressing itself than Yusaku, and we have known each other for just a few hours! That alone spoke a lot about Playmaker's character, although his cold personality was something that was obvious for everyone.
"You are supposed to hold a low profile." This time Yusaku spoke, addressing the A.I.
"Well, maybe if you actually talked with me, I wouldn't have a reason to try and speak with others." The A.I. had a point there.
"What do you understand about human interaction?" Yusaku raised an eyebrow. "You are just a program that doesn't have your own discretion."
"That's rude!"
"I'm going to use the computers to try figure out Ai' programming, Kusanagi." This time, Yusaku didn't respond to the A.I. and instead turned toward Kusanagi.
The A.I.'s, or should I say Ai's eye widened upon hearing this. Kusanagi simply gave a solemn nod, so Yusaku stood up and walked to the truck, opening the door. Putting his school bag inside, he stepped in and left the Duel Disk on the table, before connecting it to the computers. I and Kusanagi stood at the door and watched them, the Ai complaining about how Yusaku was going to see his 'darkest secrets' and 'private parts'. The little guy really had its way to make people laugh, but the fun last so long until Yusaku finally muted it.
"These two have an interesting dynamic, don't they?" I asked Kusanagi.
"They sure do." Kusanagi nodded to my question.
"Why did you choose to name it Ai anyways?" I then asked, it didn't sound like a creative name to me; probably Yusaku came up with it.
"Yusaku came up with it." Funny, isn't it? Kusanagi answered my question and turned to face me. "So, what do you plan on doing?"
"What do you mean?" I wasn't sure what he meant by that question.
"Nothing specific." He admitted. "But you don't have anywhere to go, I have no problem to let you sleep in the truck, but it might be uncomfortable for you in there."
I bite my lip, Kusanagi just reminded me about what should have been my number first priority –finding a place to sleep. Helping with the food stand this whole day I didn't have any time to do some research on cheap lodgings in the city.
"Well, I'm actually about to start looking for a home." I admitted, ashamed of myself. "But I promise you to do my best and find myself a good home in no time!"
"So, my truck isn't a good home?"
"N-no, that's not what I meant-!" I began to try and defend myself, but then I noticed something; there was a small smile on Kusanagi's face. "T-this isn't funny!"
"Come and look at this, Kusanagi." Yusaku spoke up.
I stepped aside to let Kusanagi go see what Yusaku needed him for. The purple haired man sat next to the boy and began to work on the keyboard. I glanced at the text that showed up on the screens, but ultimately, I couldn't understand a word of what was being said there, most of it seemed like a meaningless string of letters, numbers and other symbols. But that was most likely only due to my own stupidity. I should stop to try and write an explanation on what they were doing.
"Um, Playmaker?" I spoke to him nervously. "Shouldn't we patrol Vrains, in case a Knight of Hanoi showed up?"
"If such a thing happens, the server's news network with momentarily showcase it and we will be alerted." U, so in other words my job as a watchman was pointless because the news would alert him about the bad guys?
"Then, what's my purpose in this?" I choose to ask another question.
"I'm simply holding my part of the deal, which was to train you." Yusaku pointed out. "Even if you don't have anything left on your life, this fight isn't yours. Only I should fall in the darkness of being an emissary of revenge. There's no reason for you to get any further involved with us, so after you learn as much as you find needed, go back to living in the light."
My spirit completely broke, it took all of my strength in order to resist falling down and crying. Playmaker didn't need me, he didn't accept to help me because it would be mutually beneficial, but out of pity. I truly was only a burden for them, a spare gear that had no part in the well-oiled machine that represented this team. Thinking about it, I had no real purpose in this world, only the prophetic words of the duelist that I meet yesterday. But should I even take those words seriously? Destiny and the likes of it, I believed in all of those. What I don't trust in was the idea that I would have some great role in any sort of important events.
I retreated to the corner of the truck and sat down, holding my own Duel Disk in hands.
"This was too harsh from you." I could hear Kusanagi's whispering, but it didn't matter since Playmaker was right about me. I was a burden, and the sooner I leave, the better for all of them.
The sound of clicking kept echoing through the still air inside the truck, they worked on actually important stuff. Something got stuck in my throat, this place looked more and more depressing to me the longer I stayed there. Perhaps it was just because I kept my back pressed against the corner, or because of how much of a weakling I was. So much, that if it wasn't the lack reflection of my Duel Disk, I wouldn't have noticed the tears rolling down my cheeks. At the moment, even the idea of entering LINK VRAINS sounded unpleasant, even depressing. Without dueling skills, I had no purpose there.
I didn't realize when, or after how long, but my view had started to turn gloomy until I fell asleep.
Chapter 8: Behind the Gears
Summary: After discoving that she had no place in Playmaker's team, Roxy logs into LINK VRAINS to try and get her mind off the hard truth. There she met with Rocketeer, who tries to cheer her on. He takes her with him to met several charisma duelists and reveals a bit of a history behind the oGears cards that they were both holding.
Chapter 9: To Embrace Destiny
Summary: Upon hearing about the appearance of a new Knight of Hanoi, Proxy goes on to help Playmaker investigate, but instead she ends up looked in Go Onizuka. Despite that everything seems to be going in their favor with Playmaker's shift victory. However, using the cave trap in his advantage Picaro shows up and challenges LINK VRAINS' hero in a duel. Playmaker gets quickly overpowered and driven into a corner when suddenly...
Chapter 10: Just a Proxy
Summary: After her victory over Picaro and the saving of Playmaker, Proxy suddenly becomes a star in LINK VRAINS. Believing that her victory was just luck, she tries to hide in Rocketeer's private server, but the Charisma Duelist has another idea and calls on Blue Angel. Proxy doesn't want to duel, but soon the second best Charisma Duelist tells her that this meeting wasn't about a duel...
Chapter 11: Contact with a Blood Sucker
Summary: Roxy learns from Yusaku about Blue Angel's real personality as Aoi Zaizen and tries to befriend her, but she soon finds out that the girl wasn't easy to approach. She tries to talk with Rocketeer about the 2th best Charisma Duelist, when she learns that Playmaker was currently dueling her. Proxy goes on to watch, but is suddenly approached by a user named Gloomy Ruby who challenges her on a duel.
Chapter 12: Resolve And Despair
Summary: After their respective duels, Proxy and Playmaker find out that by some strange reason, their opponents has fallen into comatose. The duo tries to investigate the cause of this together with Kusanagi. However, Blue Angel, then appears on the city's monitors, and challenges Playmaker to a rematch! At the same time Proxy gets a message to met with Blaze Rose.
A/N: So, my preparational Matriculation examinations are over, so I will be able to write more chapters in the following days, or weeks, so yay! I want to apologize if this chapter appears to be short (because it is). Right now, I'm just doing build up, and that's why I released the previews for the next five chapters. Since there won't be a duel in the next chapter either, I just wanted to show you when the hype really begins!
Also, yesterday was the last episode of season 1 of LINK VRAINS. I won't talk about what happened in it since most of you might have yet to watch it, but I will say that I'm glad to see Decode Talker getting treated as the ace. I had always liked Elemental HERO Flame Wingman and Junk Warrior more than Elemental HERO Neos and Stardust Dragon and when I first saw Decode Talker I wanted it to be used as the real ace despite it having 2300 ATK. But, we also had to take into consideration how overpowered Firewall Dragon is, so that might also be a part of why YGO VRAINS is worried about using it. Who knows?
Now to the reviews:
ScalchopWarrior: I see why you would find having Advent Skull Archfiend be a ritual is weird, so I will just address the problem with its retrains. Red-Eyes Archfiend, Skull Archfiend and Archfiend Commander (I guess?) can be put as retrains, but before everything else they are part of an Archetype and are mean to work in that archetype (Red-Eyes Archfiend not so much.) And yes, both Advent Skull Archfiend and Summoned Skull are part of the Archfiend archetype, but they are mean to work as individual cards! Although Summoned Skull is a staple in Red-Eyes Burn Decks, so... Ok, I just like anything connected to that Level 6 Vanilla beastick, is that a crime?
ThePLOThand: Not exactly 3 years, but... Yeah, it's set after Arc-Tracers. Also, you had asked me about my opinion on the songs you list in your review on Arc-Tracers, but I will answer it here because you are reading this story too. I completely ignore the songs you list out. Tried to listen to a few of them, found out that I completely hate them, so there is that. I can't tell you to stop making these song lists, and I don't care about them either, so end of discussion.
So, I did it. Thanks to everyone who followed and favorited this story. Reviews are always appreciated, no matter if it's critism or something funny about the story, or you just want to curse at me. I have fun reading and responding to them, also, like with many other writers, they drive me to keep on writing these stories. So keep'em coming bois! (and gals)
Diabolic Tracer Out!