Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V or VRAINS.

CHAPTER 1

He could feel the pulse of this place, resonating through his very bones, his mind tracing invisible lines of code, endless zeroes and ones filling in for the natural materials of creation. He could spend days, weeks, even years tracing each and every line of code with his finger, admiring how far this imitation came to replacing reality.

Yusaku closed his eyes, and read the streets. Those beautiful, seemingly endless streets. More energy than material, transparent like crystal and pulsing with their own inner light, spreading in lines and curves and loops following the wind itself, heedless of gravity and human limitation.

Inside his mind, Yusaku mapped it out, the highways, and the way they looped in themselves over and over again.

A mobius strip, hiding its true nature with its complexity and grandness. A never ending circle, made to distract. What a glorious lie.

This place is a cocoon…

There was nothing left to admire here. Those streets would lead nowhere.

He turned around and started walking, navigating his way through the scaffolding of the building he awakened in.

"Steel" was what the data said, the colour, the numbers, and Yusaku kept on tracing, trying to match what the numbers were saying with what his eyes were seeing.

The skeleton of this skyscraper, connecting like molecules of an impossible scale, organic in its development, like a modern art statue. The floors were wide and the spaces open – were he to shout in here, his voice would echo back.

He took the stairs.

As he wandered through the shadowed rooms and into the dark corridors, relying more on his Link Sense than sight, Yusaku wondered what this skeleton of a building would be used for. Was it a parking lot? Or maybe an office building? Would it house a museum?

What was he doing here?

His loop memories were- odd. Like a block had been placed, stopping him from accessing them.

That was not normal. Not by any stretch. But then again, nothing in this world was normal.

Yusaku was dressed in his casual every-day clothes and yet he was here. In a virtual reality. He had received countless Pings, but in a bizarre way, they all seemed so close and distant. Even Ai.

But Ai was closer. He was somewhere here, in the network, lurking beneath its surface. All Yusaku had to do was reach out-

A pulse like static, and he was pushed out again. What in the world…?

After what felt like eternity, Yusaku was finally at street level. Down here, he felt like an ant.

The skyscrapers alone were mind-bending, reaching higher and higher like they wanted to challenge the clouds themselves. To Yusaku it was all a massive flow of energy, with pointed corners and sharp turns. Taking it all in was-

"Hey man, watch where you're going!"

The pain snapped him out of his trance. A man had collided with him. His face was rough and his expression rougher, and out of habit, Yusaku scanned the man's profile.

#UAAM1565312

A serial number…? Yusaku had never seen such a thing on a user avatar before. Usually he'd find a username and some profile data.

"HEY punk, I'm talking to you! You want to start something!?"

Oddly aggressive too… "No. Sorry for not paying attention. I was minding my own business. You should do that too."

"HUH!?"

Yusaku ignored him, and turned around to leave. He should really try to find Ai.

"Watch your mouth you damn punk!"

A pipe!?

Yusaku froze. The man froze with him. Literally.

Out of pure reflex, Yusaku had hacked into the man's avatar, freezing it in place. He had done it countless times in Link VRAINS. It was far easier to stop the Knights of Hanoi from wrecking havoc when their basic animation programs didn't work.

Even here, Yusaku's program was absolute. Not a reflexive twitch in his muscles. Not even his heart was beating. But he was not dead.

Yusaku straightened up, and approached the man. He touched his shoulder, letting his Link Sense take in the code.

It was fascinating. Link VRAINS was realistic, but here someone tried to recreate reality as closely as possible. They had even mimicked muscle fibers. He didn't try to read deeper than that though. He doubted his perception could go that deep, and even if it did, no programmer would go as far as to recreate everything on an atomic level.

Would they?

That was an interesting concept. He'd have to examine it when he had free time.

Still, all this coding had a familiar signature. A style he was well accustomed with, even if it was altered by the sheer attention to detail.

Obviously. It made sense. After all, Yusaku would not be able to unleash his animation freezing virus on a completely new system. They had to be compatible.

As gently as he could, he released the pipe from the man's hands, and threw it aside. He then unfroze the man's animation programs.

He collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily. Then he stared at Yusaku like he had seen a monster.

He scrambled away. Yusaku was not about to let him. He froze his animation again, catching the man mid run. He fell on the ground again.

"I only froze your legs, so you should be able to talk. I have a few things to ask you."

The fear was palpable in his voice. "W-wh-what are you!?"

"Don't make things more difficult."

That shut him up. Taking this as "permission" to ask questions, Yusaku kneeled down to his level.

"First; what is this place called?"

The man was so surprised that he actually dropped his guard. "Huh!? Have you lost it?"

"Answer."

"Wow, chill… This is Den City. Seriously, how did you get here without knowing that?"

This was Den City? A feeling of dread started downing in Yusaku's stomach. "How did you get here?"

"That's none of your-"

"That's my second question. How did you get in this city?"

"How did I get here, by- By car? No, that's not it… But I was on a road… It wasn't that long ago, was it…? Wait, no…"

He can't remember… Yusaku cut off the man's train of thought before he got even more afraid.

"Never mind. Now for my third question."

The man was still confused, but now that Yusaku cut off his pondering he grew aggressive once more. "What? It'd better not be anything personal. I'll swear I'll-"

"If you try anything funny, I'll freeze you whole again and leave you there."

The threat worked as intended. "F-Fine, fine! I'll cooperate. I'll cooperate, just- don't do that again." Yusaku nodded.

"Third question." Yusaku paused, wondering how to put it best. "Who exactly runs this place?"

"What!? We're in a fused loop with VRAINS!?"

One of the advantages of being fused into Zarc a few times too many was that now the four co-anchors of the ARC-V branch could talk via telepathy. Yuya and Yuto were chatting with each other over their mind link as soon as the loops started, and had mastered it shortly afterwards. While Yugo and Yuri had greater difficulty than them, they could still come across clearly.

"Are you sure about this, Yugo?"

"Pretty damn sure, Yuto. There's this huge skyscraper smack dab near the Public Security HQ with the SOL Technologies logo on it! There's no way I'd mistake it!"

"Hm… What do your loop memories tell you about this?"

Yugo scowled at Yuri's question, mainly because he did not have a good answer. "Nothing much. Just that they're doing virtual reality stuff. Rin's weren't much help either. We checked our memories as soon as we Woke up and both saw the name, so we went out to see if it's for real."

"You went out? Did somebody spot you?"

Yugo thought about it for a moment. "Probably yeah. Cameras are everywhere. But there's no way they can follow us. We only stayed out in the open for like, a minute. And worse comes to worse, I can always teleport."

"Huh!?" Yugo could feel Yuya's surprise. "Yugo, you can travel dimensions with Clear Wing at will now?"

Yugo smiled proudly, despite knowing the others could not see it. "Still getting the hang of it, but I'm not half bad! Training with Yusei helped. I can even teleport between different places, not just dimensions! Tried that a couple of loops ago, you should see their faces!"

"…Wasn't that the loop where Ren was chasing you with a whale around the Duel Palace and you accidentally ended up in the middle of Yuya's duel school while you tried to avoid him?"

"YURI!"

"What?"

"Don't try playing innocent, you know what you're doing!"

"Yuri, I think you should drop it…"

"You guys are killjoys" said Yuri, but he dropped it anyway.

Yugo internally let a sigh of relief, and banished all thoughts of Ren from his mind. "Anyway, now we're meeting up with Crow, and we got to see if anyone else is Awake in this dimension. We'll try to dig up as much info as we can."

"We should tell the others too. See how many we can gather." General sounds of agreement came with Yuya's statement.

"What about us?"

"Aren't you both busy with the invasion? Besides, we know nothing yet! We can't go making plans out of nowhere!"

"Eh…! You make a surprisingly good point, Fusion!"

"It's YUGO!"

"Hey, do you think Yusaku and Ai are over there too?"

For a moment, they were all silent. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure two of the pings we got were from these guys. And wherever SOL Technologies is, those two will definitely follow."

"Good! Then we have a plan!"

"We still have Academia's invasion to worry about" said Yuto, cutting off the briefly positive mood. "The invasion in Heartland is the same as ever, but things will go differently once Synchro is involved. Yuri, can you do any research from your end?"

"I don't think so… Roget is a traitorous worm in this loop as well, so any info he has on SOL Technologies wouldn't have made it here."

Yugo and the others took him at his word. The few loops where Roget was still loyal to the Academia were always catastrophic, so Yuri made sure to check first thing.

"At any rate, keep us updated. I got to go now."

"Alright Yuto. Be careful."

"You too. Yuri, as we discussed, right?"

"Right."

The Xyz and Fusion anchors withdrew, probably to exchange more information about the invasion. It had started in Heartland around a month earlier, if his math were right, and as usual Yuto and Yuri were taking advantage of the difficult communications among dimensions to always stay one step ahead from Academia.

"I'll go talk to Reiji as soon as I can. Let's see if we can come to this dimension a bit earlier."

"Dunno if that's a good idea, Yuya. Surveillance here is nuts. Like, worse than usual."

"You think SOL Technologies has something to do with it?"

"Well, I'll find out! Say hi to the others for me, alright?"

"Yep! See you later, Yugo!"

"Bye!"

With that, the last connection in Yugo's head was cut off. He could hear Clear Wing growling with annoyance. "Easy, girl…"

"Are you done, Yugo?" asked a gentle voice behind him.

Rin was not usually the most gentle person in the world, but she knew better than to startle him at moments like this. Yugo was still driving, with Rin riding shotgun, through the streets of the Commons area, attracting a lot of looks as they went. They both got used to that all the way back in baseline. There weren't many people with the means to make a custom D-Wheel, and even fewer their age.

"Yeah. We should get more info about SOL, and Yuya will try talking to Akaba Reiji. Yuto and Yuri can't help, they're busy."

"Figures…" Rin did not try to hide her disappointment, but she recovered quickly. "We should call Crow. See if he can meet up tomorrow. The last thing we need is his pals getting suspicious."

Oh right. Shinji Weber. After Academia, it was Shinji who was the biggest pain in the ass during their loops. Shinji was suspicious of everyone and everything, and would always get the Commons to revolt, even if he was somehow killed earlier in the loop. Even in the weird variant where he did not start a revolution, it was because he had already carried it through.

Long story short, that guy made everyone's lives harder because he refused to listen to reason, and thought that bombing everything was the best way to get his point across. Making him grow suspicious of Crow this early on would not help in the slightest.

"Let's send a message to both Jack and Crow. They'll read it and answer when they can that way."

Rin nodded in agreement. "Let's head back to the orphanage. It's pretty late, and Ms. Akane must be worried."

"She knows we can take care of ourselves" argued Yugo.

"Yugo."

"Yeah?"

"You just want to ride around more, don't you."

"Heheh…"

She sighed in exasperation, and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "There's surveillance you know! Roget is looking for us both!"

"Fine, let's head back."

The fancier the apartment was, the colder it felt. Especially if you were alone in it. Zaizen Akira had found out the hard way.

And right now, the luxury apartment at the Tops residential area felt very cold indeed.

Akira only bothered with opening the light of the entrance, letting the city lights come through the glass panels and illuminate the rest of the space. From his window he had clear view of the City Windmills – the glowing rows of white floating parallelepipeds that went on and on. Another way to produce energy for the City, they said. Even in the Commons area, as long as one had access to some half-decent wiring, they would always have electricity. Blackouts were a foreign concept in this world, had been for many years now.

Akira was grateful for that power.

He checked his phone for messages. Around ten or so were from Kitamura, going on and on about the shortcomings of the surveillance system in server 1 again. Akira hated reading them as closely as he did, but the man was after his position in the company like a starved snake. He could be extremely unpredictable.

The rest were more impersonal. A few formalities about the job again, and an invitation to a company gala next weekend. He'd have to check his schedule to see if it could fit. He did not like going into those either, but it was always good to know the competition.

He checked the last message. The same as always.

He should really expect it by now. He never did.

He left his phone on the table and carelessly threw his suit jacket at a corner. Later, he would regret messing with its folding like this, but right now he was too exhausted to care. He was always exhausted. A thing that went deep into his bones.

He grabbed the cold leftover lasagna from the fridge and ate half-heartedly. He left the plate on the table for his maid-bot to pick later.

For a while, he stood in front of the bedroom door. But it was pointless.

So he just watched the Windmills.

"Any sign of them?"

"No, sir!"

"Sector T320 is clear! No sign of them!"

"This is Beta squad! No sign of them!"

"Keep looking! They can't just vanish!"

The Security goons had been scanning the streets for hours now, looking for who knows what, sticking to the streets and looking for marks on the asphalt.

Normally, Shinji Weber would not be in the dark about this. If any of his fellow Commons did anything to attract the Security's attention in one way or another. Shinji was always the first one to know. He had made it his business.

Which is why not knowing troubled him.

He and his friends were hiding deep in the shadows for at least three minutes now. That was practically eternity. They barely even breathed. As much as Shinji would like to take them on, he knew that right now it was hopeless.

Finally, at long last, the security cleared, finding some other path to haunt. Or they received an order. Either way worked.

Now, they were allowed to breathe.

"Who do you think they were after?"

"A D-Wheel, probably? They were looking for tire marks."

"But if they were chasing a D-Wheel, wouldn't they show it on TV?"

"Maybe there was no chase."

"That's impossible man! Nobody escapes Security like that!"

Shinji interrupted them both. "Pondering this stuff won't help right now! We have to get back to Crow."

The other two nodded in agreement, and they all headed to Crow's house.

Look up everything we can find on SOL Technologies, huh? That does sound like our only lead to finding Yusaku and Ai…

Crow was less than happy about the sudden fused loop. He had always figured that if they ever had a fused loop with VRAINS, Yusaku and Ai would loop in Standard, or there'd be a Link Dimension or they'd all end up dueling in VR or something.

Nope. The only lead they had was SOL Technologies getting in the way of the horizon like literally every other skyscraper in this damned City.

Crow had a bit of a love-hate relationship with the City. For instance, the three guys who had just walked in.

"Shinji! Simon! Tony! What are you here doing at this hour? The kids are asleep, you know."

"Sorry Crow" said Damon. "I hope we're not bothering you."

"Don't worry, I was just tidying up a bit." And reading text messages sent by my fellow loopers on a phone I'm not supposed to have. "Did something happen?"

"Yeah…"

"Security is scanning the streets for a D-Wheel all of a sudden" said Shinji. "It's not like them not to televise that stuff."

Crow was willing to bet his dragon that the D-Wheel belonged to Yugo and Rin. "Maybe they spotted them on a security camera or something?"

"Could be…"

"Still, we need to find them and help them!"

Hoo boy. Not this argument again. "Shinji, do you know when the Security started looking for that D-Wheel?"

"Two or three hours ago, I think. That's when we first saw those crooks."

"If whoever has that D-Wheel managed to dodge Security for three hours, don't you think they might not need help?"

Shinji scowled. "Even if that's the case, we still need to find them!"

A sudden knock came from the bedroom, and the four duelists collectively froze. Shit, they probably woke up the kids.

Crow lowered his voice to a stage whisper. "Listen Shinji, and the rest of you guys. Right now it's late, we have no idea who security is chasing and why, and they have a ton of people out there. We go out there right now, we'll only end up in jail. Save it for tomorrow, okay? I don't want to leave the kids alone in the middle of the night."

Shinji looked conflicted, but eventually amended. "We'll come by tomorrow."

Crow successfully hid his sigh of relief. "Be careful out there, guys."

"You got it, Crow!"

And just as fast as they came, the three duelists left.

This City. This goddamned City. How Yugo and Rin managed to live with this as their baseline and come out as decent and mostly normal people was anyone's guess.

Shinji is going to keep pestering me about those two… I'd better send them a message.

Crow knew that his baseline self was good friends with the man, and indeed, his heart was in the right place. But the looping version of Crow, who had seen different versions of his home go down to hell over and over again, who had seen different worlds unlike anything, could not bring himself to like the guy who inevitably brought chaos.

Crow pulled his phone out of his Pocket again and sent Yugo and Rin a text message. "Shinji is looking for you guys. To rescue you or recruit you not sure."

A few minutes later came an answer. "Huh? How does he know about us?" Rin must have forced Yugo to use autocorrect.

"That's not it, he saw the Security looking for a D-Wheel. Pretty sure that's you."

"Not surprised."

"Jack should send his stuff tomorrow. I'll try to calm Shinji down by then."

"Good luck!" Crow made a face.

"Yeah. You guys be careful."

"Gotcha."

Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

Five hours after the initial sighting, Roger was forced to call off the security. They would not find anyone at this rate. However, the… side results were quite satisfying. At the sight of security, all the little worms had gone into hiding, leaving those sorry streets blissfully empty for once. Maybe the occasional show of power would be beneficial in the long run.

He would need more pawns though. That little street scan had the unfortunate side effect of leaving the Tops area unguarded. An increase in personnel would be necessary to maintain an even level of surveillance.

Of course, the contract he had made with SOL Technologies worked out wonderfully.

SOL Technologies was the leading expert in both software and hardware. While their focus on computing systems was rather unusual, given the City's more mechanical approach to technology, it gave him the bleeding edge in terms of surveillance and coverage.

The only disadvantage, if one could call it that, was their tendency to buy off criminal records. Why they would bother to load themselves with scum like that was a mystery, but not one he was in any hurry to solve. Eventually, SOL Technologies would also become a stepping stone for his grand plan.

He just had to find the girl.

It had been hours since Yusaku told the man to scram and keep his mouth shut. He hoped he'd oblige. That was not Yusaku's most well thought out plan.

First; this virtual reality is a variant imitation of Den City from my baseline.

Second; the residents are incapable of recalling how they arrived at this place.

Third; the company who runs it is SOL Technologies.

Conclusions:

First; there is no guarantee that Den City exists in the real world.

Second; all the residents or a majority of those are unaware that this space is virtual.

Third; even in this variant, SOL Technologies specializes in virtual reality software.

He did not like where his observations were leading him. Someone out there had to be gathering people and placing them here against their will. Which suggested far more sinister intentions that the company ever had in baseline.

His own serial number read #OATM5328333. They had to stand for something. There were common points between his code and the one from the man earlier.

He had to reunite with Ai.

He tried to reach out with his Link Sense again. This time he received a push back. Yusaku nearly felt his heart flood with relief. But there was still a barrier between them.

Yusaku was not wandering around lost now. He had a destination. For all its differences, the basic layout of Den City was still the same.

He arrived at the Charisma Square without issues. The gigantic monitors – Solid Vision projections here instead of being regular LED screens – were showing ads of various products that Yusaku had a passing familiarity with.

As expected, the square was packed. Everyone was jittery and excited. But there was something… off with the crowd.

Most children and teens were alone… The adults were almost pack-like, gathering in small groups close to each other.

Ai was so close he could feel him in his heart. But there was still a barrier. One Yusaku recognized all too well, even if his side of the equation was different than usual.

"Hello. Are you new here?"

The voice was vaguely familiar. Yusaku turned around and nearly had a heart attack. It was Café Nagi.

Kusanagi-san's old hot dog truck. Standing there like a mockery of this entire place, identical to the one he spent all his days in his baseline, complete with the cheap plastic tables and chairs. But the person standing there was not Kusanagi Shoichi.

It was Jin.

It was a punch in the gut.

Jin? He's here? How is he here? Where is Kusanagi-san? Is he okay? Is JIN okay why is he here did nothing happen to him or no he's trapped where's Kusanagi-san did something happen to him too again no-

"Hello! Earth to Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome!"

"H-Huh?"

Jin was still there. Kusanagi-san was not.

"You seemed really out of it. I called you out a few times. Are you okay?"

Jin was asking Yusaku if he's okay. This had to be some sick joke.

"I-I'm fine. Sorry." What should he do? Ai…

"You're new in this city, aren't you?"

Yusaku looked at Jin in surprise again, but a different kind. "Sort of. How can you tell?"

Jin smiled. It was a small, sincere thing. "You have that look in your face, like you're uncomfortable with everything."

"I guess…" He was disoriented. The fact that he could feel the construct of literally everything around him was not helping.

"But you also look like you're here on business. Are you looking for someone?"

Maybe… "Yeah, a friend. I'm not sure if he's in this crowd though."

Jin was thoughtful. "Well, if he's not in the crowd, maybe he's logged into Link VRAINS? There'll be a double Charisma duel in half an hour or so, so he's probably logged in to grab a good seat. At least that's what I would have done."

Yusaku's suspicions were confirmed. Link VRAINS. Here. Somebody made a virtual reality inside the virtual reality. Just what was their goal?

"Thanks." This was so surreal…

Yusaku checked Jin's serial number. #OATM6541354

The same initials as his own.

"I'll find a place to log in. Have a good night."

"Yeah, you too! Oh, wait!"

"Something wrong?" What could he want?

Jin was throwing him a weird look again. "You… don't have a duel disk."

Yusaku smiled. "I don't need one."

Jin blinked exactly once. "Huh?"

"I have my ways."

The purple-haired boy laughed. In all the loops, Yusaku had barely heard him make a sound, so this… This was novel. "Oooh, the mysterious type! Well, I'll take your word for it! There's a quiet corner right behind the trash bins, nobody bothers to look there."

So no specialized linking chamber here. He could work with that.

Yusaku thanked Jin and ran to the shadowed corner where he had pointed, making sure that it really was as empty as he claimed. Honestly, it was a pretty good hiding spot, especially for a place so public. In the distance, he could see him prepping hot dogs. Yusaku briefly wondered if food was really necessary here.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. The process was familiar and comforting.

"Into the VRAINS." He no longer needed a duel disk to do it. His Link Sense alone was enough.

When he opened his eyes, the scenery had transformed.

The futuristic skyscrapers had been replaced by a stone-paved plaza littered with small stores left and right. Trees – and element completely absent in the world of the other simulation – lined the streets, providing their shade to the happy bystanders who gathered all around.

Yusaku looked at his hands and confirmed that he was in his Playmaker guise. The people here were much the same, dressed in all colours and costumes; knights, robots, fairies, animals and all sorts of intricate clothes. There were more people here than there were at the Charisma Plaza.

And more importantly, the crowds here seemed… normal. No weird gatherings. No children too young to be left alone wandering around.

The difference was so jarring that it made his head spin. Despite the world outside, Link VRAINS here looked exactly the way it did after SOL Technologies fixed it post the Hanoi Incident. Just what was happening?

Playmaker was about to send another signal to Ai, but he was cut off by another voice calling at him.

"Young man?"

Young man? "Yes?"

The avatar that greeted him was unlike anything he expected. It was a normal old man in his pajamas. Definitely not what one would find in Link VRAINS. Yusaku went to scan him, fully expecting a serial number, but instead he got normal profile data. A normal name – Mamoru-ojisan – joined Link VRAINS four years earlier, no duels recorded. The serial number was probably hidden beneath that.

"You are new here in Link VRAINS, aren't you young man?"

"Uh, yes." Playmaker was at a loss. He had no idea how to deal with this.

"I see, I see… Everybody here is new, you know. All those kids and youngsters… This place was very quiet once! And nowhere as big!"

"I see… Have you been here for long?" Playmaker settled for politeness.

"Yes, yes… Four years. Funny thing, I don't really remember how I got here."

He doesn't remember? Is that his age… or that other thing? "You mean, in Den City?"

The old man smiled mischievously. "You catch on quickly! How did you get here?"

Playmaker thought about it for a few moments. "I don't know how I arrived at this city either" he answered honestly. "But I'm trying to find a friend of mine."

For the first time, the old man looked astonished. "A friend? You have a friend here?"

"Yes. I need to find him."

"Are you sure he's here?"

What does he want? Playmaker scanned him again, diving deeper. Normally, finding the connection between the avatar and its user would harder than that. But here, everything was digital. #OAEM1607100

Playmaker filed it away for later.

"I'm sure. He sent me a message earlier." Well, a Ping and a Link Sense signal.

"Oh. Well then, good luck finding your friend! And in everything else, I hope."

Everything else? "…May I ask you something?"

The old man stared at him for a moment. "What is it, young man?"

"Why did you want to talk to me? Like you said, I just arrived here."

"You know, young man… My memory may not be the best – blame my old age for it – but from the day I arrived at Den City onwards, I remember everything like yesterday. And you're the first newcomer here who doesn't look lost."

This… This was great information. This could prove to be very useful information.

"Thank you" said Yusaku, more sincerely than he had in a while.

"Come by here now and then, alright? I don't have anyone to talk to."

Playmaker was far from a social butterfly. But not to have anyone… "I'll try."

The old man smiled sadly. "That's all I'm asking. What's your name?"

"…Playmaker."

He snorted. "Fancy. Well, I'm Mamoru. You can call me ojisan if you like. Well then, good luck!"

Playmaker nodded, and left the bench. He found another mostly empty corner, and sent another signal.

Ai? I'm here.

About time.

His eyes snapped open. He looked at the wall.

There he was. The eyeball.

In a flash, it was a man. One that Playmaker – that Yusaku – knew all too well.

"Ai."

He looked up and saw his co-anchor, his partner, smile down at him. "Playmaker."

The gentle hug was not completely unexpected. In human form, Ai towered over Yusaku by a full head. Yusaku leaned into it, taking in the intricate lines of data that were exclusively Ai.

"This is bad, Ai. Did you see this world? Even the people here are wrong."

"Yeah, I saw it. We'll get out of here. I promise."

That was good enough.

Author note: Well, that's the first chapter! No idea when the next update will be, but the plot thickens! For any questions or clarifications, don't be afraid to PM me or leave a review. I'll answer everything.

Btw, that Ren guy is not an OC.