Resolve and Despair
Proxy's POV
"Come on." I shake Gloomy Ruby once again, but nothing happened.
After finishing my duel with the girl, she seemed to fall comatose, I wasn't sure why, not how that happened, but the guilt over it was all on me. She was acting crazy, I thought that if I defeated her that would cause her to snap back to reality, but instead I was left with an unconscious body of a Charisma Duelist. I didn't want to leave Gloomy Ruby there, alone, but it wasn't like I could do anything to help her condition if I stayed there, so I stood up and looked up for Playmaker's current location on my Duel Disk.
Once I found him, I jumped on my D-Board and surfed off to catch up with him. I had to tell about what just happened to someone with more experience at dealing with the virtual world of LINK VRAINS. At least Blue Angel would probably be in better condition because of Playmaker and Ai being her opponents, or so I hoped.
Following the map that pinpointed Playmaker's location for me, I found myself starting to leave the city's grounds and enter a small forest, or park. There were particles of data falling around me like show as I speeded past them and looked around for the familiar form of Yusaku's avatar. There was complete silence in the air the closer I came to reaching the red dot on my Duel Disk, but something about this quietness gave me chills. I couldn't tell what it was, nor why I suddenly felt that way, but there something horrible in the atmosphere around, it could be just because of what happened to Gloomy Ruby. The guilt for falling to save her was still weighting over my consciousness.
Once Playmaker came into view I jumped off my D-Board and landed next to him, but what I saw made me clench my fist in both anger and… despair? He was kneeling next to Blue Angel who lied on the grass with her ponytails undone, eyes closed, there wasn't a sight of life, just like how Ruby was after my duel with her. Playmaker held out his Duel Disk toward the unconscious body while his head turned and his cold green eyes glanced at me. His gaze made me feel uncomfortable to the point where I had to lower my head in order avoid seeing him.
"It's too dangerous to be here, you should leave." He told me and turned his attention back to Blue Angel.
"I defeat the second Knight of Hanoi that Ai detected." His reaction didn't came too late, as his shoulders flinched slightly at my words. "It was the Charisma Duelist Gloomy Ruby, she tried to push me off a rooftop and kill me before forcing me into a duel."
"So Hanoi went after two Charisma Duelists, but I don't see the point of it when they already have put their virus in Blue Angel's Duel Disk." Ai commented.
"We should go and remove the virus from Gloomy Ruby after this." Playmaker responded.
Yes, please do so. I wouldn't be able to bear it if someone ended up in comatose forever because of me. I stepped back and gave Playmaker and Ai space to work.
"I will eat Hanoi's program." Ai said and a huge monstrous black head with a single eye came out of Playmaker's Duel Disk.
The monster, which was in fact Ai itself, opened its huge mouth and began to suck in some sort of purple data from Blue Angel's body. The color was different from Gloomy Ruby's crimson red, but it was probably just an unimportant detail. Ai chew on the data that it swallowed and returned to its small form, but nothing happened. Blue Angel remained unmoving and no user activity was shown to come from her avatar.
"Wake up, Blue Angel!" Playmaker shouted, but that showed no result as well. "No good, she isn't responding."
Both Blue Angel and Gloomy Ruby were unconscious without signals coming from their avatars. I clenched my fists, it was pointless, not even Playmaker could break Hanoi's program. What were we going to do then?
At that moment I felt a surge of burning passion inside of me. I would say that the feeling that surged through me was anger, a strong sense of justice and a desire to destroy the Knights of Hanoi for what they have done to the Charisma Duelists, but it wasn't that. The only thing that I could think about was how disgusting it was to turn innocent people into victims of a conflict they had nothing to do with and how weak I was to not prevent it. My fear of Hanoi didn't disappear, quite the opposite, these thoughts enhanced it.
This incident showed me the true might of the people I was helping Playmaker to fight. Turning people's avatars mad and then sending them into a comatose was such a horrible and terrifying power. It was insane to want to say the words that were burning inside my chest, but seeing this made me want to be a bigger part of this conflict. I said it many times before, but I wanted to protect everyone from the evil malice that represented the Knights of Hanoi, even if this was a pointless virtual world. I found myself committed to finish this conflict and bring back everything this fight took away from the users while standing beside Playmaker.
"Playmaker, Proxy, look out!" I shook my head, returning my thoughts back to the present as Ai called out to us.
I could hear the sound of sirens coming from the distance behind my back. I turned around and noticed a few drones with bright red lights flying toward our area. These machines were something unseen by me before, but the sound they were making and the fact that I was standing along with Playmaker next to the body of the unconscious Blue Angel told me that I didn't want to stay there to understand what the purpose of the drones was.
"I'm logging out." Playmaker told me.
As he said that his body turned into blue pixels and disappeared. Not wasting any time I followed suit and logged out as well, leaving the area. Sorry, Blue Angel and Gloomy Rose, but I swear to find a way to save both of you!
The light that blinded my vision during logging out disappeared after a moment and I found myself lying in the comfort of my bed. Taking a few deep breaths I sat up and crossed my legs before focusing my mind to think everything through. My arms moved to wrap themselves around my body as I leaned my head forward and pressed it against the bed sheets. Such horrifying power was in the hands of the Knights of Hanoi that I had no idea how we could possible win against them. The only thing that was clear to me at the moment was that Kusanagi would be the only person who would be able to help us reach the end of this. I had to hurry and get to him as soon as possible!
3rd POV
Den City's hospital was a huge building where the city's best doctors worked and saved the lives of people every single day. A black limo stopped in front of it and the driver walked out to open the back door. Before he could however, Akira Zaizen pushed it open and ran into the hospital as fast as possible. A few moments after that a second, black and red sport car stopped right behind the first. Evan walked out of it and took of his black sunglasses, carefully putting them in the inside pocket of his black coat he sighed and followed after SOL's security manager.
Going through the various corridors of the hospital, seeing all the patients that needed medical help and taking in the awful smell of medicine that was in the air, the white haired man found it enough to make even him anxious about Aoi's condition. Then there came the doctor and two nurses, pushing a hospital bed with the young Zaizen's fragile body lying on it. Seeing his little sister in such a condition would probably turn Akira mad, in fact, one of the nurses had to calm him down and pull him out of the way so the doctor could do his work and take her to the exam room. Seeing there was nothing he could do to help there, Evan leaned against the nearest wall and took out his phone, writing a quick SMS to his sister.
"You are the one who called me?" Evan stopped typing and glanced over at Akiza, as the older man approached a boy with blue and pink hair.
"Yes. I found her unconscious on the roof." The boy confirmed.
Evan had to put a hand over his mouth and turned away for a bit so the others wouldn't notice the small smirk. Even in a situation like this, with a girl that was like a sister to him in comatose, he couldn't help but smile at little things like the current conversation between Akira and the boy. The fun part about it was, he knew that the student hadn't found Aoi by an accident.
"Thank you." Akira said before turning away, his look showed that the next thing he was going to say was uncomfortable for him. "Um… I don't know if I should ask this, but are you and Aoi…"
Evan groaned and rubbed the spot between his eyes. Was Akira really going to suspect that every person that has seen Aoi at least one was her boyfriend? Yusaku felt where the conversation was going, but he didn't show any change in his poker face and answered straight.
"We are just classmates."
"I see." Akira nodded. "Things are fine. Go home."
"Ok."
Yusaku nodded and turned around to leave. He should go to Kusanagi after this, but there was nothing for him to share about the incident that the hacker didn't know about, so instead he would go back home and think about it on his own. Finding more information about Blue Angle's condition and saving her was his main priority at the moment due to three reasons:
First, since Playmaker was the last person she was with and Akira was head of SOL Technologies' security, the company might give him trouble that he didn't need. Second, the virus that infected her and made her go mad was created by Hanoi so solving a way to destroy it would not only give him an edge in the fight, but also help obtaining more information about the organization. Three, Blue Angel wasn't a part of his fight so she didn't deserve to suffer because of him. It was a conflict between Playmaker and Hanoi, innocent people shouldn't get harm because of that.
"Wait a second." Yusaku stopped as Akira called out to him. "What's your name?"
Yusaku turned around to face the grieving man and answered: "Fujiki. Yusaku Fujiki."
There was no point in coming up with face names and lying to the man. Yusaku Fujiki was just the classmate that found Aoi's unconscious body and took her to the hospital. The one that Akira would probably go after would be Playmaker, but if SOL was unable to unravel his true identity until now, they probably wouldn't be able after the incident either.
With that the conversation between the two was officially over and Yusaku knew it. He had no need to waste any more of his time in the hospital, so his legs began to move again and lead him toward the nearest exit.
"Now that his sister is in this status, Akira will definitely go after Playmaker with everything he got." Evan muttered as Yusaku walked past him.
The Cyberse Duelist stopped in his tracks and glanced at the older man from the corner of his eyes. That randomly dropped comment sounded like a threat, no a warning about what SOL would do next. A warning addressed toward Yusaku. His cold green eyes met with Evan's malicious red ones for a slight second after which the boy turned around and continued walking.
Evan followed the Cyberse Duelist with his eyes until he disappeared behind a corner, then returned his phone back into the pocket and walked over to Akira. He had no idea what to say to a man who saw his sister bedridden and surrounded by a medical team and feared that one wrong word could turned the situation ten times worse. Not just for him, but for Playmaker and Proxy as well, since Akira would definitely go after them.
"You sister is strong, she will come out of there just fine." Evan tried with reassuring words, but Akira wasn't even listening to him, so he gave up just after the first sentence. "I will make the person responsible for this pay, trust me on that."
Even Evan himself knew that those words were an empty promise that he would be unable to fulfil. He had no data on the real culprit, so he would have to rely on Playmaker to find the monster who caused this pain to Aoi. Evan looked down at his hand and clenched it into a fist thinking how he would crush every Hanoi that took part in Zaizen's suffering.
Roxy's POV
"Did you find anything?" I asked Kusanagi, who was running through some data on his computer.
We were both currently in his truck, trying to figure out what caused Blue Angel and Gloomy Ruby to lose consciousness. For some reason, despite how important this was, Yusaku didn't show up and that would slow down the progress. I didn't understand what might be more important, Hanoi was definitely connected to the case, so that alone should have been enough of a reason for him to appeared and help out, but no such luck apparently.
"I can't identify anything the source of the problem and the hospital's data doesn't have anything about Zaizen's condition yet, so I'm unsure what I'm supposed to look for." Kusanagi replied while tipping on the keyboard.
"Is there truly nothing that we could do from here?" I asked him.
Wanting to help Blue Angel and Gloomy Ruby out from here was naïve and I knew that, but there should be something even we could do for them. I wouldn't forget the screaming I heard while dueling one of them until this case is closed and both Charisma Duelist were safe once again. It didn't matter what I would have to do in order to get it done, even if it meant to fight true Hanoi, I would do it. A virus that can steal people's consciousness, I didn't want to imagine what would happen if it gets used against my friends. Hanoi already showed with Ruby that it didn't matter whom it was, they would still hurt them, so liking it or not, I had to step up.
"I found something." Kusanagi finally said and moved aside a bit to let me look at his finding; several images of Blue Angel's and Gloomy Ruby's avatars… "I compared their avatars' data before and during the incident and this showed up."
Saying that, Kusanagi clicked a few more buttons and red areas appeared over the avatars. With Blue Angel it was on her Duel Disk, but with Gloomy Ruby, it was on her entire body, and most strongly on her chest.
"This red coloring shows new pieces of data that probably made up the virus they were infected with." Kusanagi gestured toward the screen before us. "I can't tell what sort of data they used since I don't have access to the avatars themselves, but you can see that there was a difference between the two."
"Blue Angle was infected through her Duel Disk." I noted and focused most of my attention of Ruby's avatar. "And Gloomy Ruby… she was infected through her avatar?"
"Unfortunately, yes." Kusanagi nodded to my guess. "They were infected with different versions of the virus, which would explain the difference in their behavior and why your opponent was much more aggressive than Blue Angel. That's all I can say until I get more information from the hospital's data."
I nodded and sat down on the chair next to Kusanagi. This data was useless, we needed a lot more to make a difference. Only if I was as good at dueling and hacking as Playmaker was then maybe things would have gone differently. I reached for my Duel Disk and took it in my hands while watching Kusanagi doing his work.
3rd POV
Evan took a deep breath while staring at the unconscious girl, a single large glass dividing his room from hers, only this time it wasn't Aoi Zaizen that he was looking at. The seemed to be a young adult, probably in her early twenties with long raven black hair. Her face was pale, a sight that she didn't go out often and there were shadows under her eyes signaling for the long nights she must have spent awake. Her name was Ume Kita, but her real self was irreverent as most of the people she have meet in the last few months would know her as Gloomy Ruby.
Evan did watch Proxy's duel with her and saw everything that happened during it. After it ended and Gloomy Ruby was rendered unconscious he used his connections to look up her profile personal data and gave an anonymous call for an ambulance where she lived. He heard what the doctors had to say about Aoi's condition, that there was no damage, but something caused her brain to not wake up. That hit Akira hard, Evan didn't need to be a mind reader to see it, but when he got called to work and had to leave Aoi, the white haired man knew that something was going on.
"There you are." Dr. Souma called out.
"Is there any change in their conditions?" Evan asked.
The doctor paused for a moment and looked at Ume's room before handling Evan a folder. The white haired man looked at the item questionably, but finally took it and opened to look at the papers inside of it. Reading through them, he felt like cursing due to the information written on the documents, but held himself back. Finishing up, he handled the folder back to the doctor and pressed his head against the glass. When he learned that Aoi was hospitalized, he thought that it would be the worse new for the day, but in just a moment everything became ten times worse for him. Gulping hard, he asked the doctor a simple question.
"How long do they have?" He gritted his teeth in anger. "How long before complete shut-down of their organs and brain-function?"
"I don't know." Souma shook his head. "Zaizen's condition seems to be stable, so I think that her life is out of danger for the moment. But for Kita, we tried everything, all of our latest equipment. Nothing was able to stabilize her, my colleagues give her three days to live, at most."
"I see…"
"Her conditions are beyond or specialty." Souma put a hand on Evan's shoulder. "If there was a way to save her, only two people that I know of would be able to find it."
"Three." Evan corrected him and pulled out his phone. "Four, if we count on Playmaker as well."
Souma nodded and walked off, leaving the white haired man on his own. Evan looked down at his phone, watching the picture of himself, Avice and the girl with black and blue hair from when they were younger. He ran a finger over it and managed to smile a bit, feeling his confidence coming back. Strength and willingness to keep moving forward burned inside his red eyes.
"I know that you are there, so show up already." Evan narrowed his crimson eyes and turned around, coming face to face with Emma.
"You were able to feel my presence? Am I that special to you?" She teased him, crossing her arms under her chest.
Evan restrained himself from answering that question. He wasn't in the mood for playing or teasing, his mind was currently preoccupied for other, more important thoughts so that smirk on her face which he usually found charming and the holier-than-thou aura around Emma was enough to make his spit in disgust. They both knew each other well enough to not need any masks when talking with one another.
He knew that there was nothing holy about Emma, he was a treasure hunter that wouldn't hesitate to backstab even her own customers. She in return knew that he was a devil in a business suit, a man ready to throw anyone who isn't useful for him under the fire, all the sympathy that he showed to humans was just a pity in disguise and if there wasn't anything to pity them about, he would straight up ignore their existence.
"Akira already left, so why are you still here?" He asked her in a low tone that almost sounded like a hiss.
"Come on, can't I stay to see my number one employer?" She asked him with playfulness that the young man straight up ignored.
"I bet you already told Akira's bosses that their security manager's sister has connections to Hanoi, didn't you?"
"That's what they paid me for, so of course I did." Emma replied, not dropping her smug smile even when admitting that she betrayed someone who trusted her. "Do you actually have a problem with the way I'm doing my work all of a sudden?"
"I'm not interested in how you do business." Evan shook his head. "But Akira is making a huge mistake right now."
"Hm?" Emma titled head, confused as to why he would say something like this to her. "I don't think that I follow."
"Since Playmaker was the last person his sister dueled against, he is going to go after him." Evan responded. "I thought about it, infected exactly the SOL Technology security manager's little sister with a virus was too big of a coincidence, wasn't it? I don't have any prove, but this all seems to be going according to Hanoi's design."
"I don't know anything about that, but it's not part of my work, so it doesn't interest me." Emma replied and turned to leave.
"There was a second duelist along with Playmaker, you know about them, don't you?" Evan asked, causing the woman to stop and glance back at him.
"Depends, what is you interest?" She asked back.
"My interest if for you to not tell Akira about them." Evan crossed his arms. "That avatar known as Proxy is a source for lots of my data, so I can't have him going after her."
"I see… So what will it be for me then?" Emma asked back with her brilliant smirk.
"Your carrier as a treasure hunter won't prematurely end with the accidental erasing of your account."
"Geez." Emma shook her head and rested it in her palm, before glancing back at the white haired man. "You are truly merciless when you get serious, aren't you? Fine, I will play along but this is the only time I will make such a discount."
Evan turned toward the window once again and crossed his arms together. He wasn't as open mouthed as he used to be and Emma took note of that, but it wasn't part of her business. As long as he paid for her work, his personal life was none of her concerns, which was more than she could say about another person that she knew. She glanced at the unconscious girl behind the glass, then left the white haired man alone with his thoughts.
"It seems it went well."
Inside the dark room that was part of Hanoi's hideout Dr. Kogami commented at the events that were taking place in LINK VRAINS. Two Charisma Duelists were infected with a virus that only a genius like him could create. The chaos that would ensue after such a devastating move would lead Playmaker right into their hands and along with that so called 'hero', they would finally obtain the Dark Ignis – the only obstacle between them and their mission of saving humanity from the destructive force that represented the Cyberse and its creators, the Ignis.
"Yes. Now Playmaker will comply with our demands." Revolver stated. "But there is trouble among our ranks as well. I gave order only for Blue Angel to be infected, but I heard that someone has put our virus in another Charisma Duelist as well."
"That someone was me." Picaro raised his claw. "And it's not your virus, but a modified, better version created by me, so there is little you can do about that."
"I didn't gave you orders to act!" Revolver exclaimed. "Your disobedience to get revenge on that duelist could have compromised the whole operation!"
"That's enough Revolver." Dr. Kogami turned around to look at the two Knights of Hanoi. "Picaro wasn't disobeying orders. I gave him permission to use the advanced version of the virus for a test. His orders came from me, so there was no need for him to ask you for permission, was there?"
"No… but father…" Revolver didn't know what to make out of that.
He was the leader of the Knights of Hanoi, their face, Kogami's soon. All of his actions so far were to help his father, to save humanity. It angered him that his own father trusted more in a selfish recruit as Picaro than in his own biological soon.
"No but, Revolver. Ignis must be eliminated from this world and that's the mission I entrusted you with." Kogami replied.
"I know how important it's to eliminate Ignis and the Cyberse." Revolver stated. "But I don't understand what the necessity to create more chaos with a second infected was."
"Second infected?" Picaro titled his head confused. "Don't you underestimate me by thinking that I would be pathetic enough to put the virus in just one user?"
"What?"
"The modified version that I use has the ability to stop the brain and body function of the victim. I thought that if I put those in a few of the top Charisma Duelists the rest would get scared and leave LINK VRAINS. A few deaths to save the lives of thousands, doesn't that count as a noble sacrifice?"
Revolver didn't even want to respond to these words. A green circuit formed under his feet and he disappeared in a cloud of pixels, moving to another area. Picaro turned toward Kogami and bowed before him, putting a fist against his own heart, the demonic knight lowered his head.
"If you excuse me, there is something I have to take care of. Make sure that no one will get in Revolver's way." With those words, a circuit appeared under the demonic knight and he disappeared as well.
Roxy's POV
"I broke into the hospital's data and checked a bunch of stuff." Kusanagi told us.
It was the day after Blue Angel and Gloomy Ruby's hospitalization and our team was finally able to gather to make a plan of action. As usually, Kusanagi and Yusaku were on the screens, commenting about the data they found while Ai and I acted like we understood what they were saying.
"Wow. You hacked into the hospital's records?" Ai asked and narrowed its eye. "You invaded their privacy. That's a crime."
"Hacking itself is a crime." Touché.
"So defiant!"
"Be quiet." Yusaku interfered before turning toward Kusanagi. "Did you look at her chart?"
"Yeah. Aoi Zaizen is in a coma." Well, that was pretty obvious since my opponent ended the same way. "The cause is unknown. It's not a physical issue and I tried to look at the additional data found on her avatar during your duel, but I found nothing."
"Then it's probably a virus." Ai stated. "A computer virus that invades the brain and controls people."
"Hey, that is what I thought as well!" I pointed out. "Gloomy Ruby was definitely not in control of herself when I fought her, so that must be the cause!"
"That doesn't exist." Yusaku pointed out.
"You saw it for yourself. The virus infected its victim vie the LINK VRAINS system." Ai continued. "When I ate Hanoi's program there was a strange taste. It tasted super gross."
"So that must have been it." I pointed out. "But if you ate the virus, why didn't Blue Angel wake up?"
"If it's a virus, then they wouldn't have made is so simple to remove." Yusaku held his chin.
"I guessed so." Of course it wouldn't be that simple, why would it be? "Is there anything I could do to help you out?"
"If we had a removal program I would have been able to remove the virus, but only Hanoi could have such a program." Ai looked over at Yusaku. "We will need to defeat the Knights of Hanoi in order to obtain it."
"I can do that by myself." Yusaku said and turned toward me. "You should go back and home and rest. If anything shows up Kusanagi will call you."
So in other words, I wasn't going to do anything once again. I didn't mind standing away from danger and possible coma, but Gloomy Ruby was in hospital because of me so I had to do something in order to help her out. Of course, Yusaku wouldn't let me do so if he knew about my intention so I would have to go back home and log into LINK VRAINS from there. There Avice would look after me as well, so I would be just as safe as if I logged in from inside the truck.
"Make sure to call me then." I told them and opened the truck, jumping out of it.
The sun was already starting to settle down, if I stayed around any longer the Greysons might get worried about me, so I made my move toward the nearest bus station. A fair amount of people already crowded the area as I walked pass them. A late day in the big city, it sounded like a dream for a simple girl like me, but not in a situation like this. The peace and quiet were nice for my mind, it almost helped me to stop thinking of most things.
No, not just Gloomy Ruby. I could cope with her condition, seeing how Blue Angel ended up, it was what Hanoi must have planned from the start. No different outcome would have changed this current situation, so I had only the choice of moving on from that topic. I pulled out my deck and look at the Monster Reincarnation card that was on top – the only thing I had left from my actual home. Not father, nor mother were here to encourage me. There wasn't a place for me to truly call home, nor a person for me to call a real friend. This simple spell card was the materialization of everything that I had left from my past.
Beep!
A sound came out of my Duel Disk while I wanted at the bus stop. A new contact was writing to me, its name was Blaze Rose.
[7:21:13 PM] Blaze Rose: I heard something about the incident from yesterday.
I wasn't surprised to hear that, there were many users in LINK VRAINS that heard about what happened. Most of them thought that the Charisma Duelists were embarrassed from their loses, so they left. The way Blaze Rose made it sound showed that she thought otherwise.
[7:22:34 PM] Blaze Rose: I learned that there was a virus involved and was able to track down information about how to neutralize it. If you want to know, come and meet with me in LINK VRAINS. Message me for coordination.
That was just what I needed, to deal with Blaze Rose at a time like this. But if she said that there was information about how to neutralize the virus, then maybe it would be worth the shot. I had to get back home and log in quick!
The login sequence was complete and I appeared on top the building that was apparently where Blaze Rose wanted us to meet. I walked over to the edge and looked over the city, gasping at the sight of buildings that were turned into giant red thorns with a church located in the middle of the ruined area. What the heck was that? Those ruins looked dangerous, actually, scratch that, they were definitely dangerous! There were no other avatars in the area, not on the ground or in the sky, I was completely alone.
"You missed a good chunk of what happened."
I threw myself away from the edge and turned my body completely around to stand against the new person. Blaze Rose was standing a few feet away from me with hands on her hips and a smirk that seemed to be anything but friendly. I gritted my teeth at how smug she looked despite the destruction around us.
"Was that you doing?" I asked her. "Did you destroy LINK VRAINS for this?!"
"Heh, aren't you one that gets fast to conclusions?" She chuckled at my question and threw her arms in the air over her head. "This is what SOL Technology was ready to do in order to catch Playmaker! In fact, you came too late to see them catching him."
"You are lying!" There was no way that SOL could have done something like that or that Playmaker would allow them to catch him; she was definitely trying to lie to me. "I have seen Playmaker in action, he was able to escape much harder traps that whatever this is. I don't believe that it's possible for him to get caught like this!"
"It's surprising, isn't it?" She grinned while saying that. "But t's the truth. I can also show you something more than that. Right in four… three… two… Look!"
Blaze Rose pointed at the sky and a bolt of lightning fell from it, hitting the church. I felt a sudden chill run down my spine and held a hand over my heart. Why? Despite how far away I was from the church and the lightning, when it fell I felt like my heart stopped beating. It was a gut feeling that I got from watching it about something or someone. It was weird, I couldn't explain what I felt with words, but it was something… Evil.
"Did you feel the surge of power that came from this lightning?" Blaze Rose asked and I heard her footsteps getting closer to me. "Did you feel the superiority of the one who coded it? Your body language says that you have. You felt master Revolver's presence."
"W-who is Revolver?" That name didn't speak anything to me.
"The man who is going to bury Playmaker into the ground. The powerful and noble leader of Hanoi, master Revolver!"
"The Knights of Hanoi?!" I turned toward Blaze Rose and held up my Duel Disk. "You are one of them, aren't you? You were the one who infected Blue Angel and Gloomy with that virus, weren't you?"
It made complete sense. She was a Charisma Duelist herself so of course she would have access to their servers and spend time with the other Charisma Duelists, giving her many opportunities to infect them with the virus. I just couldn't tell why she would join the Knights of Hanoi. True she was all about strength and was driven by a desire to defeat other Gear users like myself, but that couldn't be the reason for her to sell her soul to the devil!
She didn't respond to my question and instead raised her Duel Disk. "Let's duel. Once I defeat you, there will be no other Gear user to stand in my way. My teachers won't have a choice, but to respond to my desire and fall by the might of my dueling!"
"The last?" I gritted my teeth at those words. "What have you done to Rocketeer?"
She didn't reply, I understand what the silence meant. The wind blew between us as we activated our Duel Disks. I couldn't believe it, Playmaker was trapped, standing against the leader of Hanoi, Revolver, and my best friend, Rocketeer, was no more. I followed with the corner of my eyes the D-Boards that flew through the wind and toward us. I jumped off the building and landed on mine with Blaze Rose following behind me.
"You robbed me and many others from the important things that they had!" I pointed at the red avatar, then clenched my fist. "I will never forgive you for this!"
While I stared at the Charisma Duelist there was no fear of Hanoi piercing my chest. All I felt were the blazing flames of anger and hatred that fueled me. I felt my desire for revenge, it was filling me, making me feel whole, giving me energy to stand even against a dangerous member of Hanoi like Blazing Rose.
"If you want revenge then defeat me and get it!" Blaze Rose laughed at me. "Come on! My heart is burning with excitement! Allow me to show you the strength of a real Gear user!"
"SPEED DUEL!" We both shouted simultaneously.
『Proxy LP: 4000 Hand: 4 (VS) Blaze Rose LP: 4000 Hand: 4』
A/N: So, there was a small change of plans with this chapter. It was originally going to be called "Gears of Water and Fire, Crash!" But I changed that both her and in Chapter 7 where I wrote the summaries for the chapters up to this point. The reason for the change was because originally I thought about putting their duel here, but then I gave up for the sake of... well... tension. Ok that's a bit of a lie. Really, I did it because the duel and the result of this outcome were connected to one another, so if I wrote the duel I would have to also write what happens after that, which will make this chapter a bit of a mess.
I don't have anything to say about the chapter in particular. Though would also say something about Proxy and how she is starting to fight her fear of Hanoi, I'm putting it in the chapters themselves so that would be pointless.
Also, [Spoilers Alert!] but apperently SoulBurner uses Ritual Monsters just like Playmaker, huh? I expected Fusions since the next Booster Set is called "Soul Fusion" but that doesn't really matter. The Ritual Monster doesn't make Salamangreat any less of a bad deck that they currently are. In fact, the fact SoulBurner doesn't have a searcher for his Ritual cards, unlike Playmaker, makes his Ritual worse by default.
Anyways, thanks to D3lph0xL0v3r for the follow and favorite. Thanks to Descendant of Flaming Dragons for the follow.
On the reviews, thanks to all for the positive responses, too bad that no one wanted to play the little game of catch from last chapter. However, I could still use a bit of advice when it comes to how to make the arrows (see last chatper's A/N for more info if interested) and, well, advice about the story in general. As many people that read this story might thing, I don't have much experience, so any critism is welcomed.
I think that I will leave this Author Note at this.
DiabolicTracer out!