Summary: Now that he's defeated the WIND-Attribute Ignis AI, Jaden goes over to retrieve him, only for him to re-encounter an unexpected face...
However in the VRAINS' dimension something else happens, unexpectedly tying in with Jaden's unforeseen journey...
"It is nice seeing you again, Yuki Judai!"
Episode 3 - Unprecedented Meeting
...
Jaden then looked at both AIs lying in front of him, Windy slowly waking up and ordering Echo to do the same. The tall AI now had a hole where Glow Neos' lightning rod used to be.
Jaden then remembered what type of Deck Windy had, to which he asked the AI, "What do you know about Aoi Zaizen?"
"...What?", asked Windy, both him and Echo now fully standing up. He was atop the tall AI's wrist again.
"I've noticed that you two use Cyberse monsters", explained Jaden, now holding Aoi's Deck. "I want to see if you know anything about her."
"...Well yes, she was one of the people that fought against us in humanity's side", Windy remarked as Echo crept backwards. "Of course, she was one of the weaker units, someone easy to take care of! Bohman got rid of her easily!"
"Bohman?", Jaden asked. He then stated, "So that means that there was a war between humans and AI."
"And we would have won if it wasn't for Lightning's over-controlling personality!", Windy exclaimed with hatred. He was then quick to murmur, "Looking back, he really was a traitorous scumbag, I'm not going easy on him if I ever see him again!"
Jaden simply decided to not pay any more attention to him, so he instead activated his Duel Disk again, choosing to summon three specific monsters.
"Come on out, Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin, Elemental HERO Neos, and Marincess Great Bubble Reef!", the red-jacket duelist chanted.
In front of Jaden there appeared all three monsters in front of him, Neos in the center with crossed arms.
Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin; Level 3 WATER Warrior Effect Monster; 600 ATK, 800 DEF
Elemental HERO Neos; Level 7 LIGHT Warrior Effect Monster; 2500 ATK, 2000 DEF
Marincess Great Bubble Reef; Link-4 WATER Cyberse Link Effect Monster; Left, Bottom Left, Down, and Right Arrows; 2600 ATK
"Hey, why are you summoning monsters like that, we already finished the duel!", Windy exclaimed irritatingly, still salty about losing to a human.
"Do you guys know anything important about Aoi?", Jaden began asking the monsters in front of him, seemingly ignoring the AI. "I want to see if I missed anything that happened before being revived here."
"And why are you even talking with them, humans aren't capable of-!"
"Aoi was very worried about everyone back then, mostly about her loved ones", began explaining Aqua Dolphin, hand in his chin as he tried to remember anything important. "That last wish she had was said purely out of desire to see her brother again, though, which inadvertently caused almost everyone to be revived."
"Yes, seeing Zaizen so distraught can be a hard sight to take in", added Marincess Great Bubble Reef. "Then again, seeing humanity suffer in general is hard."
Windy was flabbergasted at what was happening before him. Humans weren't supposed to be capable of communicating with Duel Monsters, only the Ignises were! Yes, there were moments where he'd seen humans try and understand what they trying to say, but a full blown communication?
Who was this guy?
"...How are you doing that?", asked Windy at the red-jacket duelist.
Jaden simply gave him a short glance, but it was quick enough for the AI to identify that his eyes were glowing in blue and yellow.
"The dimensional scramble Aoi caused also made several other changes", Jaden described. "For example, Sabatiel has a different effect now."
It's now a bad card, Yubel stated.
"Wait, let me see", Aqua Dolphin reached for the card, to which Jaden gave him the Spell. The Neo-Spacian studied the card before stating, "Huh... there are still some scenarios out there where this is useful."
Still not as great as before, the demon insisted.
"I'm also noticing Yubel is mostly invisible again", Neos pointed out. "This is probably another side effect of the reorganization of dimensions."
"Yeah, but Yubel being visible to other people was not supposed to happen in the first place", Jaden added. "I was surprised at first when I suddenly saw Aoi being able to see her, but I'm guessing that was a side effect itself of what Darkness was doing with the blue portals."
"So your partner being invisible is supposed to be normal?", asked Great Bubble Reef with a tilted head. Jaden nodded in response.
"Yeah, only a few people can see it", Jaden remarked.
"What is even happening anymore!?", Windy asked frustratedly, now ordering Echo to leave. "It's obvious that you're some sort of weird lab rat, I'm not going to stick around to hear some more nonsense from you!"
"Wait, you're not allowed to leave!", Jaden turned to face the AI. "Don't think I plan on letting you get away!"
"Well too bad, I'm already getting away!", Windy taunted at the duelist, before both him and Echo were suddenly swallowed entirely by a large canine.
Ahrima, the Wicked Warden; Level 4 DARK Fiend Effect Monster; 1700 ATK, 0 DEF
"Huh!?", Jaden asked with surprise, the entire forest around him suddenly being enshrouded by dark fog.
"This sensation!", noted Neos.
"Yes, I feel it too", Aqua Dolphin agreed in a fighting stance. "And I don't like it."
"I feel an oppressive darkness surrounding us...", noted Great Bubble Reef worriedly.
This feeling..., Jaden remarked to himself, a humanoid figure slowly becoming to appearance in front of him. The red-jacket duelist was quick to notice this as his eyes glowed even brighter.
Darkness!
"...Why, it is amusing to notice we would see each other again, Yuki Judai", the humanoid revealed himself to be a tanned man with dark shades and suit. He then added with a malicious smirk, "I hope life hasn't been too cruel on you."
"Trueman...", Jaden trailed off, both individuals now standing across each other.
...
"...Excuse me?", asked Akira at Ryoken, both in Akira's office at SOL Technologies. "What do you mean, 'Where's Playmaker'?"
"I have a feeling that he's in Link VRAINS again", Ryoken explained. "And my Knights are too busy taking care of... personal matters. I figured SOL Technologies was currently capable of locating him."
"Well, we are right now but we have our own matters to take care of first", Akira sighed in response. "How about we focus on looking for him after we're done with our initial matters?"
"...Very well then, I'll send you an email when my Knights are ready", Ryoken turned to walk away.
"But I haven't given you my email address."
"I'm a hacker."
"Right, then I guess this is where our conversation ends...", noted the CEO awkwardly. There was a slight pause between them.
The white-haired teen eventually nodded in agreement, "Take care, Zaizen. I'll talk to you later."
The CEO nodded, before Ryoken fully left the room.
...
"What are doing here, Trueman?", asked Jaden, readying his Duel Disk. He also returned the cards on the device back into their respective Decks, the Duel Monsters themselves slowly vanishing from view.
"Be cautious, Jaden...", Neos trailed off before fully disappearing.
The red-jacket duelist nodded, before turning to look back at Trueman.
"Why, I came here from Darkness' orders", the tanned man explained as he began walking to the left, Jaden keeping his eyes on the dark individual. "He has sent me here to escort you."
"And why hasn't he come here himself?"
"He's busy with other matters."
"I won't go, in any case", Jaden stated coldly. "I don't trust him in any way."
Trueman seemed to predict this, as his smirk didn't go away. That only meant bad news for the ex-Duel Academy student.
"...Then let's make a deal", Trueman offered. "The AI that I just captured earlier stated some interesting plans about overthrowing humanity. If you decide to accompany me, I'll return him to you when we're done. Refuse to do so and I'll set the AI free, far away from the two of us."
"Hrrgh", Jaden seethed at the remark. Right now he had no choice, he didn't want the first thing to happen after a dimensional reconstruction be humanity's doom. "...Fine, but it better be quick!"
The tanned man was quick to create an unsettling grin as he stated, "I knew you would eventually come around. Follow me."
All the dark fog surrounding them suddenly gathered together behind Trueman, materializing what appeared to be a completely dark door made out of ornate wood.
The man, opened the door to reveal complete darkness, "If you're so kind to go first, Yuki Judai."
Jaden saw no choice other than to do as he said, entering the door first and into the darkness. Trueman was quick to follow, closing the door and making it disappear from the inside.
And the forest was left eerily silent afterwards.
...
"Everyone, report your positions", stated Ryoken as he entered the yacht's inside, the rest of the Knight members busy with important matters.
"The heart rate is stable", Faust described.
"No visible sicknesses from what I can tell", Baira studied.
"And is expected to recover fully again in about 2 days", Dr. Genome finished with a smile.
The Hanoi Knights were still busy with taking care of James, btw. He now had a mechanical addition where his amputated leg used to be.
Ryoken silently pinched the bridge of his nose before stating, "...You mean to tell me we haven't gotten rid of the horse yet!?"
"Well, there's two major problems", stated Dr. Genome. "One, we don't know who the owner is, we'll need Aoi to help us with that, and two, the horse has been quite uncooperative ever since we took him in."
"The good news is that he has slowly been getting used to us", added Spectre from a nearby table as he happily sipped away at some green tea.
"You guys don't know how this close I was to admitting to Zaizen we were taking care of a horse!", Ryoken explained before going back to his usual tone, "In any case, SOL Technologies has agreed to help us locate Playmaker when they're ready."
"But why the importance on him?", asked Baira. "Don't tell me this is about getting your Borreload Furious Dragon back."
"No, it probably has to do with the fact that being on the system for more than three months, without any food or sleep, can drive a person mad", guessed Faust with a decent hypothesis. "Combine that with a duelist of excellent skill and you get an unstoppable force that could threaten Link VRAINS."
"No I just want my Furious Borreload Dragon back."
"Oh."
"Spectre, any important news on the network?", asked Ryoken at his assistant.
"Spectre then opened his laptop and began analyzing, "Well, from what I can see, not much has been happening. There's only a few users on right now, probably because everyone in Den City is still recovering from the dimensional reconstruction, and both Ghost Girl and Blood Sheppard have left behind recent signs of activity."
"And what are they doing...?", asked Ryoken before deciding, "No, that doesn't matter right now, just set up our system's usual defenses and we'll call it a day."
"Alright."
...
"And you're telling me that this so-called 'Jaden' helped you out while away?", asked Emma with a smile, talking to a certain girl on the other end of the phone. The woman was currently waiting for someone to arrive, so in the meantime she sat in her couch, inside her usual apartment. She could only have been so surprised after Aoi wanted to call her out of the blue.
Nonetheless, it was a welcoming surprise.
"Yeah, he helped me get back into shape, and recover some of that confidence I once lost", explained Aoi, currently inside the lab Declan lended to Z-ONE. The cyborg allowed her a few minutes to talk with Emma before her mechanical arm operation.
"And tell me, do you have any interest in him~?", teased the older woman.
"Wha- No! He's just my friend!", explained Aoi flabbergasted, hearing Emma laugh at the other end of the line.
"You know I'm just teasing, no need to get so worked up", stated Emma, still recovering from the laugh.
"Yeah, I know", pouted the brunette before returning to a smile. She enjoyed being able to talk with someone like Emma for once; It was even nice to hear she was her usual self. A long time had passed ever since something relatively normal has happened to the brunette, so this was a nice change of pace.
Considering she just lost her arm and was about to get a new one. Emma didn't need to know this for now, though.
"Hey, Aoi, I do have a question", stated Emma, delving into a slightly more serious tone.
"What is it?"
"...After some time those giant portals swallowed us, I remember being in some sort of space with all these unknown people, and I even saw some sort of blue figure in the center", explained the woman, fully aware that she sounded weird. "And that blue figure kinda looked like your avatar."
"Really?", asked Aoi with slight surprise.
"And that guy with the red scarf and glasses - which I should add doesn't look bad - stated afterwards that we have combined with nearby dimensions", finished explaining the woman. "Tell me, do you know anything about this?"
Aoi didn't know that everyone now knew how her avatar looked like. That meant she had to use her Blue Maiden avatar as least as possible, unless she wanted to attract attention 24/7.
And about Emma, she wasn't too sure about lying to her. Did she even want to hide the fact that she caused all the dimensions to join? No wait, of course she did! This was the only chance she'd have left of enjoying a normal life, she wasn't going to let it go to waste by outing herself to everyone!
"...I prefer to talk to you about this later, Emma", finally decided the girl. "Preferably in your place, too."
"You sure?", asked Emma.
"Yeah."
The brunette could only hear white noise on the other side of the call until she suddenly heard, "Well, if you insist on doing this, then I guess I have no choice but to wait". The woman then smiled as she added, "Tell me when you're ready, then."
"Yeah, thanks Emma", smiled Aoi as she nodded; It was nice to see that Emma was understanding, too. She then heard the call end before a knock pounded on the lab's metal door.
The voice on the other side rang out with an artificial tone, "Are you reading for the operation, Ms. Zaizen?"
"Yeah", responded the girl, to which Z-ONE entered the room afterwards.
"This won't hurt at all", Z-ONE explained as he readied a number of machines. The cyborg did carry a calm air around him, yes, but it did little to mitigate the nervousness Aoi currently felt.
At least she was referred as Ms. Zaizen. She always liked hearing that, it made her feel more mature.
In any case, she had no choice but to steel herself for what was about to happen, like she always did.
Yeah, it was just a normal day. That's all she had to think about.
"Hang on tight until then...", was the last thing she could hear Z-ONE say before it all went black.
...
Darkness.
Jaden could swear he wasn't the only one feeling this, and yet he couldn't feel more alone as he looked around what appeared to be pure darkness. Through the door's other side was a dimension of darkness, operated by seemingly nothing but other Trueman copies, save by the occasional DARK monster, predominantly Fiend-type.
There was also an influx of dusty buildings and similar wooden doors floating around, even walls made up of nothing but doors.
"Welcome... to Dark Society", explained Trueman with outstretched arms. "A perfect utopia carried out by nothing but remarkable individuals and monsters alike, a world of peaceful consciousness. A perfect yet unattainable example other countries, governments, states, the world itself should even dream to follow!"
"What do you guys even do here?", asked Jaden.
"...I don't know, actually", Trueman admitted. "We just kinda exist here and that's it". He was then quick to add, "Darkness built this entire world by himself after failing to bring the human world to his own, maybe as a base of what he wanted his ideal world to look like. Nonetheless, it was soon converted into a refuge for banished Duel Monster spirits and a place for us Truemans to do our usual operations."
Jaden only kept studying everything surrounding him. He even saw a Trueman in front of his dusty house, feeding a happy-looking Ahrima with dog food. He was also quick to see several Truemans racing towards their work offices with Winged Minions, the sky above him filled with long, oozing clouds reminiscent of tentacles.
Come to think about it, Trueman was right; Jaden saw no trace of conflict in this place.
"It... it does look peaceful", Jaden noted.
"Hoh, is that a compliment I sense?", asked Trueman.
"Don't take it as one", Jaden immediately responded.
"Very well, if you say so", finished the smirking man before turning around again. He then continued walking, Jaden following the man as they kept walking through the dark city's dark roads.
...
Emma was quick to hang up the call, the apartments' living room now accompanied with nothing but silence. She could only wonder what Aoi wanted to tell her, until she suddenly heard a knock on the door.
"It's me."
The woman opened the door to reveal her purple-haired brother on the other side, hands deep inside his jacket. The woman couldn't tell from his face if he had a bad day of if he was normally like that.
"Brother."
"Kenneth", the man explained, passing through Emma without any vocal permission. He then stopped midway, "I don't ever recall giving you my real name before, but it's Kenneth."
"Really now...", Emma trailed off amused. "Well it's a wonderful name."
"Thanks", the man said, before fully turning around. "Earlier in the network, we met up so that I could tell you that I wanted to meet up with you personally, since I had something else I wanted to tell you then. I figured it was urgent, and private, enough to tell you here than in the VRAINS system.
"...You still don't like the place much, do you?"
"Not really. I only go there for professional purposes."
Emma fully closed the door this time, accompanying her brother to her couch. Looking at him closely, the woman noticed her brother's serious complexity and demeanor in detail. She could only wonder what exactly made him to be this way.
"My mother...", Kenneth began, looking off into the distance through the giant windows, Emma looking up to see him. The widows revealed the many buildings and greenery Den City. "My mother suddenly disappeared. By what that scarf-man said earlier, she's probably one of those people that ended up in an alternate dimension. I'll be gone for a few days to search for her."
In honesty, telling someone you'll go look for your mother shouldn't be that urgent, but Emma gave her brother the benefit of the doubt; He must really value his mother if he meant what he said.
And Blood Sheppard wasn't exactly the type of person to joke around.
"Well in that case, I wish you good luck, brother", the woman smiled as she hugged her brother from the back. She really didn't know what to do, they barely talked much. Hell, this was the first time they have ever met in real life.
Still, she decided to do the most she could to help him.
Kenneth only stood there silently as Emma hugged him, until she awkwardly decided to stand up, "Well, if you want I can prepare you something before you go."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I wouldn't mind" the woman responded as she now entered her kitchen. She then added with a wink, "After all, no brother of mine is leaving on an empty stomach!"
She could swear she heard a faint chuckle coming from the living room. Perhaps talking more with her brother once in a while wasn't a bad idea.
...
"Here we are", stated Trueman as he outstretched his arm to a large door, one out of infinitely many on a wall. "Cross this door and you'll find Darkness himself. The rest is up to you; I'll be waiting outside when you're done."
Jaden nodded before entering this door, looking to see a large, cloaked individual staring out into a large circular window that could cover an entire wall. The red-jacket duelist could see beyond the window what appeared to be an upside-down solar system.
"...Judai", stated Darkness, not turning around to reveal himself. The ex-Duel Academy student now focused his attention to the dark apparition.
"What do you want, Darkness?", asked Jaden.
"Judai...", Darkness stated again, this time turning to look at Jaden. The ex-Duel Academy student could notice a slight change in the atmosphere. "What should I do now?"
"...What?"
"My previous purpose of existence was to bring all of humanity into my ideal world of darkness", explained the dark apparition as he manifested a miniature version of earth in his bony hand, showing it to the teen. The mini-earth was swallowed by dark fog as he continued, "Yes, my only purpose now this existence was to do such a thing. But..!", the mini-earth in his hand suddenly reverted to its original form, now instead being covered with a faint, artificial glow of blue. "Now that the girl saved the world and rebuilt it to her liking, it is now virtually impossible for me from altering it. I don't know if you knew this, but the worlds as they are right now are impossible to modify. The upper limit is creating portals to connect them together."
"What about your blue portals?", asked Jaden.
"I've lost the power to generate them", Darkness responded. "I've returned to my original power, now much weaker than before due to me not being able to do anything with them."
"I see...", noted the red-jacket duelist. "So you're having an existential crisis too."
"A what?"
"Aoi had something similar back then, she just didn't know what to do next with her life", explained the ex-Duel Academy student. "But there's always something for someone to do, it's just a matter of doing the right thing."
"The right thing...", trailed off the dark apparition, trying to come up with an answer.
Jaden suddenly thought of another idea, he could use this current situation in his advantage. "In fact, there's even something you could do right now."
"Really?"
"Yeah, earlier I managed to discover some sort of AI who wanted to overthrow humanity, and he revealed that there's more like him out there!", explained Jaden as he outstretched his hand. "So how about you help me defeat them?"
"...But that doesn't concern me", Darkness stated, not taking Jaden's hand. "I have no reason to get in the way of human matters."
"Oh really? It turns out those AIs are pretty smart too", added the red-jacket duelist. "Think about it, if some man wearing a space suit and a mermaid-looking girl stopped your plans before; Wouldn't it make sense that those AIs would find a way to defeat you too, or even worse, make it so that you never recover and come back? I'm sure they'll find a way to do so if we give them the chance by doing nothing."
Darkness could only turn away silently, and come to a final decision.
And since when did you become a good speaker?, asked Yubel with an intrigued smirk.
The giant machine-man taught me a few tricks back in the afterlife, explained Jaden mentally. Turns out he's a persuasive person.
After a few moments, Darkness turned around and declared, "Very well, I'll join you in this little adventure of yours for now. But! If I don't find a purpose in life by the time we're finished, I am going to return to my original purpose, and drag all of humanity into the darkness!"
Jaden only agreed as he took Darkness' hand on his own, he only had to think of something the dark apparition could busy himself with to prevent him from going full-villain mode again.
He was also quick to notice the apparition's hands were cold and bony.
After a few moments, Jaden retracted his hand, Darkness doing the same afterwards. It was getting a little awkward, so Jaden spoke up, "Is there anything else you wanted to say?"
"...No, we're done for now."
"Sweet! Then I'll see you later!", waved Jaden as he turned for the door, the dark apparition turning back to see the giant window. The red-jacket duelist opened the door and saw Trueman lying on the wall while waiting for him.
"I'm assuming you finished your discussion with the man himself?", asked Trueman, Jaden nodding in response. "Well in that case, I have no choice but to return your little friend here". He then summoned Ahrima and ordered it to spit out the AI, to which it did. Echo was now a miniature cube, next to an unconscious Windy, both stuck inside a portable steel cage.
"Alright, is there a way out?", asked Jaden, to which Trueman nodded. The tanned man easily made a wooden door behind him with a snap of his fingers.
"Just make a wish of where you want to be and the door will lead you there", stated Trueman.
"Wait you could have led us directly to Darkness this entire time!", realized Jaden.
"Yes but I figured flexing my society first was a good plan", added the dark man. "To which it did, even you admit it as a peaceful place."
Jaden couldn't help but agree as he gave the town one last look.
"In any case, I must get going", spoke up the ex-Duel Academy student, looking back at Trueman.
"Very well", Trueman opened the door, revealing a cloudy blue sky on the other side. "Remember to think of a place where you want to be."
"Well, I need to be somewhere where I can turn this thing in", Jaden described as he held up the steel cage with Windy inside.
Trueman nodded before stating, "Alright, now just go through the other side and you'll be there."
"I didn't even describe a specific place."
"The door will lead you to the correct location."
Jaden had no choice but to put his trust on the door, stepping inside as the blue sky suddenly began changing, transforming into what appeared to be...
"Hopefully we see each other again soon...", trailed off Trueman before he and the door disappeared from sight...
...
Jaden opened his eyes to see that he was in a futuristic hallway of some sort, immediately noticing this be an office building. The ex-Duel Academy student then looked back to see that the dark door was also gone.
"So this is the correct place?", asked Jaden. He then raised the steel cage to his eye level. "I wonder how."
Suddenly, the door to his side opened wide to reveal a blue-haired man in a suit. He seemed to be in a hurry.
Jaden was close to being hit by the door, luckily his reflexes saved him once again as he dodged to the side.
"Sorry, my sister just finished with an operation-", Akira tried explaining before seeing the teen. "...Wait, who are you?"
The CEO then saw what the teen was carrying.
"Is that...", Akira trailed off in surprise, immediately noticing who the AI was inside. "Is that...!"
"I'm assuming you know who this is?", asked Jaden at the man, holding the cage in front of the CEO. Windy was still unconscious. "Because I have a feeling you do."
...
The operation was a success, fortunately. Z-ONE was confident it was going to be a success anyway, but anything could happen during an operation.
He took of his latex gloves after finishing, changing the brightness on some of the machines. The brown-haired girl lying beside him was breathing a stable rate, meaning she was about to wake up soon.
And in her right there was now a mechanical arm.