#Yusaku is like 'Fine. This might as well happen.'

[shitpostingkats]

Vrains AU where everything is the same except the first thing Ai does upon meeting Roboppi is give them a knife.

#Yusaku is like 'Fine. This might as well happen.' #*comes to school the next day profusely bleeding from the ankle* #Shima: Woah! Yusaku! What happened to your leg? #Yusaku‚ who has severe nerve damage and didn't even notice when he got stabbed: What leg? I- Oh. I see. #cue school rumors that the quiet loner kid is secretly in the yakuza or smth #meanwhile Yusaku is just sitting in the corner wondering if he should ask Roboppi not to stab him‚ or just learn to dodge #the thought of taking away the knife never crosses his mind #yugioh #vrains #spk watches vrains #ygo vrains #yusaku fujiki #roboppi #roboppi vrains #is it Roboppi or Roboppy? #subtitles say Roboppi so I'm going with that #ai vrains

[shifuto]

some closing thoughts after a little over 1 month of revisiting Yugioh Vrains

Vrains is a trainwreck in the most endearing and wonderful way

I love this show so dearly and feel like this time I finally managed to appreciate it in the way it's supposed to - problems and all. I feel like I was finally able to understand a lot of the peculiarities and subtexts that, before, I didn't have enough emotional maturity for, and it helped knowing generally what was going on because watching this show for the first time was.. not great (for reasons I talked about already in other posts from this marathon)

going through that grueling filler-plagued beginning was hell, and one of the reasons I was dreading going through this show again - it even got me questioning why I put Vrains so high on my ranking of favorite YGOs (because my memory is bad and I didn't see any reason for Vrains to be that high), but once it starts going.. oh boy it doesn't stop, this is why I finished it so fast LOL

Vrains's story is very compelling and the minimal cast helps to keep everything close-knitted (I highly prefer fewer characters like this). Not all of these are interesting, but the ones who are do make up for it. I have found love in characters I didn't pay much mind before; loved the ones I already did even more; and went batshit insane over my favorites; Spectre

I don't think we'll ever have a plot like this in the franchise and it's such a shame. Vrains portrays trauma, pain and loss without romanticizing it. The main character has PTSD and he's not magically cured after everything - none of them are, except Jin (and this is another whole can of worms I'm not sure if I want to get into....) - Vrains is not a happy show or a happy story, and this is what makes it so wonderful in my eyes. Tragedy is what kickstarts this story, and tragedy is the one thing that is consistently happening throughout it

before, I guess I didn't really like the ending very much because the story was cut short and everything was rushed and too vague? But now (and understanding why it was cut short), I can find some silver linings, for example: that open ending feels good. It's nice to have stories such as this (and also in Zexal) with a lot of openings, and holes and things to be filled with theories and ideas: if the canon doesn't provide, the fanom might as well do it

I have so many favorites and so many ships for this show now 🤣 I think I had like 2 max the other time O: surprisingly, Yusaku and Ai went kind of in the background? I wonder why..

I knew I would get obsessed with Akira even though I paid no mind to him before 🤣 what can I say, he's just my type hahahahahaha. I was already obsessed with Kengo before and it got much, much worse so congratulations me for the renewed and augmented Blood Shpeherd brainrot 🥺💜 I have always loved Shoichi and he'll remain as one of my favorite characters ever as well so it was a delight to watch this and have so many episodes and scenes with him, my heart is so fulfilled 🥺🥺🥺 I love Jin and also Lightning for all the wrong reasons (don't ask about it 🤣), and so many other characters too but lets focus on who is really important (and was very surprising): Spectre

I honestly do not know what happened that I got this much into Spectre? He was also one of those I didn't really pay much attention before, and he became.. my favorite character in this I guess???? Well one of them, but you get what I mean 😆 the long story short is probably me omega projecting on him, and his relationships with Ryoken. Let me dream, alright?

I don't know if I have the energy to talk about my ships but just know that I have a copious amount of them. It's a lot

all in all, Vrains is amazing and it would probably be my favorite YGO if not for all the production issues, really. There's several things I'd change and try to fix, but overall, it's fine and enjoyable as it is, thankfully

I don't know, I'm sad it ended and I wanna watch again right away LOL

#vra2024 #shif writes

[merryfortune]

In Secrecy and In Health

Written for AiYusa Month 2023

Title: In Secrecy and In Health

Prompt: Secret

Ship: Aiballshipping | Ai/Yusaku

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains

Rating: T

Word Count: 1,024

Tags: Sickfic

   If there was one thing that Yusaku hated, it was being sick.

   That was no secret. He was fiercely independent, hated being vulnerable, and despite what his classmates at school might think, he was a workaholic. So, when he was coming down with a cold, he thought nothing of it. It wasn’t even meant to be a secret. He just didn’t think it was worth mentioning.

   After all, who needed to know that he had blown some grotty green snot into a tissue? No one. That’s who.

   So, Yusaku did his best to look out for himself and not let anyone, especially not, Ai know that he was blowing chunks into tissues, coughing up a lung ever now and then, and had a temperature which was a little higher than usual. It was no biggie. Yusaku had worked through worse - though that may just be the problem. His pain scale was more lopsided than the average person but he really needed to get on top of all these things. Housework and homework, regular work from part timing at Cafe Nagi’s, all that.

   He wanted to have a good life later on. Him, Ai, and Roboppy, too. A better flat, a good education, a secure job. It would be worth it in the end. It was just some occasional sniffling here and there which was the worst of it.

   Or so he thought.

   There was just one more day between himself and the weekend. All the deadlines were done and it was only a two hour shift this afternoon at Cafe Nagi’s and then. Yusaku could relax. The actual worst of it, when it came to physical circumstances, would be over and he would enjoy being so tired that he could watch whatever mind-numbing movie Ai wanted to watch. That sounded nice.

   But then the troubles started.

   His face was flushed, he looked miserable. Even if he did hide underneath a disposable medical mask. His classmates were avoiding him with an eight mile radius. The pews of the classroom around him were emptier than usual.

   But Yusaku persevered. He actually thought he might get more work done this way without Naoki trying to chat him up on the downlow about whatever hot gossip he’d heard from down the line. That wasn’t what happened.

   Yusaku could hardly hold a stylus to the tablet. Not only did his hands feel weak, his whole body felt weak. He trembled as he tried to write on the screen, the stylus dragged and then.

   He collapsed.

   He hadn’t even made it to midday, let alone the rest of the day but hey. Instant extension granted, not that Yusaku needed one but oh well. May as well drag out everything, including this godforsaken cold.

   In a reversal of how they had first initially bonded one to one in the real world, Aoi offered to take Yusaku to the infirmary and round up someone - Ai, not naming names though - to collect him. Yusaku appreciated it but he didn’t know how to say it, not to a friend like Aoi and definitely not to Ai, either.

   Ai was appalled when he arrived at the school. He politely said hello to Aoi and then made the effort to take Yusaku home. That was a struggle but worth it in the end because he got to tuck Yusaku into bed all by himself.

   “Ai…” Yusaku groggily complained. “What if someone noticed that your a SOLtiS android…?”

   “And what if you hit your head on the way down fainting?” Ai reprimanded him. “What were you thinking?”

   Yusaku groaned, his brows knitted together as he tried to hide under the cover of his sheets and doona. He felt all gross and sweaty but it was probably good to be sweating it out. He just hated to be doing it under the glowing ire of Ai’s sparklingly yellow eyes.

   “I was thinking I’d be fine…” he finally replied.

   Ai sighed, “You're not alone anymore. You have me. Please, lean on me.”

   “Yeah but…” Yusaku murmured.

   “But nothing. It is bed rest for the next three days, until I know you're feeling good and healthy. I’ll do the cooking and the cleaning, don’t even think about doing homework, either. It can wait. Your health can’t.” Ai lectured him. He folded his arms but despite his stern demeanour, his worry betrayed him in the glimmer of his eyes. “You don’t have to endure in secret anymore, I promise. I want to help you, you don’t have to do everything by yourself.”

   Still hiding under the covers, Yusaku smiled to himself. He had been looking forward to some free time. It had just come earlier and a greater cost than he had expected. He allowed his eyes to flutter close. Getting some sleep didn’t sound like such a bad idea.

   Ai, meanwhile, stroked the side of his face, able to take a true temperature of him just from that, “You get some sleep, my love.”

   “Thanks, Ai…” Yusaku yawned.

   Ai bent down and kissed the side of Yusaku’s face. He was clammy as anything, smelt rank, and was probably covered in all sorts of germs but, being an android and an Ignis, Ai didn’t mind. Yusaku hummed pleasurably to himself as he felt the brush of Ai’s lips on his temples.

   “G’night…” Yusaku mumbled.

   “You sleep until you get hungry, I’ll have some soup waiting for you. I’m even gonna make it myself.” Ai promised him.

   Yusaku snorted, “Just order takeout, I dunno how I feel about you making me food.”

   “It’ll taste good, scout’s honour.” Ai said with something of a chime of laughter to his voice as he rose up, and away from Yusaku’s prone body.

   Ai was quiet as he stepped away from the bedside and towards the bedroom door frame. His gaze fell soft and fond upon Yusaku as he finally relaxed, settled into bed, eyes closed, already fast asleep. He turned off the lights so Yusaku could recuperate in complete and total peace and darkness but not before wishing Yusaku well one last time for good luck.

   “Sweet dreams, Yusaku.” Ai murmured to blissfully no acknowledgement.

#aiyusamonth2023 #aiyusa month 2023 #yugioh vrains #vrains #yugioh #aiballshipping #yusaku fujiki #fujiki yusaku #ai (vrains) #writing tag #in secrecy and in health

[lazella]

Infinity Stones AU: Face your Fears, Part 1

I apologize for nothing. Enjoy.

Yusaku took a sharp breath in, coughing as he tried to make his lungs work again. For a moment it felt like he was back in that white room, alone and only a voice for company. Looking around, he tried to piece together the events of the past few minutes. Yusaku did recall that they had joined the Avengers on a retrieval mission and had infiltrated the warehouse but then he was drawing a blank.

“Ai...can you tell me what just happened...Ai?”

Yusaku was puzzled when he didn’t hear Ai respond right away and looked down at his Duel Disk, and spotted the Ignis with tears running down his face.

“AI?!” Now Yusaku was worried, Ai had never cried before.

“Yusaku….” Ai’s voice was quiet, and he had also not used any of his nicknames for Yusaku, “I hope that was all fake....”

“Fake?”

“Nevermind…” Ai shook his head, “That stone of yours seemed to break whatever that lady did to you.”

Yusaku raised an eyebrow, “Lady?

Ai took the opportunity to explain, “Some lady came in and hit you with this red stuff then everyone started screaming. You just kind of froze but after that I’m not sure as I started seeing stuff as well…”

Yusaku quickly put his theory together. First, they had been ambushed by an unknown enemy. Second, it seemed like she had the ability to cause hallucinations most likely based on fears. Third, it seemed that the Mind Stone could reverse the effects which is why he felt fine now even with how brief his vision was.

“We need to locate everyone else…” Yusaku got up and surveyed the room, “They must still be under the effects of that attack.”

“Good luck with that…” Ai muttered, “They all ran off in different directions attacking anything in sight…”

“Then we’ll just have to be careful……” Yusaku stated as he ran off in his chosen direction. 

…………………………

The first person he found was Yugi. Thankfully he didn’t seem to be lashing out at anything and was just leaning against the wall but judging by the red haze over his eyes, he was still under the effects of the hallucination. 

“Yugi!” Yusaku grabbed the smaller boy’s shoulder and gave it a good shake, “Yugi snap out of it!”

Yugi just continued to stare blankly ahead.

“Might have to do this the hard way…” Ai pointed to the Mind Stone.

“Afraid so…let’s just hope Yugi makes it easy….” Yusaku said as he placed the Mind Stone against Yugi’s forehead letting its power do its thing. Reality around Yusaku and Ai but Yusaku knew he was just now entering Yugi’s mind, and hopefully to find out just what he was seeing.

What he did see did not make any sense. Everything around them was dark and foggy obscuring anything that could be approaching. Yugi was no longer on the ground but suspended in the air by an invisible force gripping onto his wrist and ankles. But the most shocking part was that Yugi’s knee and elbow were missing and other parts of his body were slowly dissolving away.

“Th-this is bad!!!!” Ai cried out, “What kind of madman thinks of doing messed up stuff like this!?!”

“A sick one fore sure….”

Yusaku spun around and he was quite sure if it was relief or worry when he spotted Yugi’s other self, Yami, slowly pulling himself along the ground. He wasn’t looking good judging by the blood dripping from his mouth.

“Yugi’s had nightmares about this duel….” Yami panted trying to catch his breath, “I’ve tried to snap him out of it but…” Yami seemed to cough up more blood, “I’m not doing too good either…”

“I’ll warn you, it’s going to be a shock to the system….” Yusaku clenched the Mind Stone tighter, “I don’t think we have the time to ease him out of it…” Yellow light blinded everyone as Yusaku just focused on making the vision end quickly. Within the blink of an eye, they were back in the warehouse. The red haze was gone from Yugi’s eyes and he was checking himself over as if to see if his body was whole again.

“Doing okay?” Yusaku found himself asking.

“I-I think so...,” Yugi said with shaky breath, “What was that?”

“My guess is that we were hit with something that makes us hallucinate our worst fears. The Mind Stone snapped me out of it rather quickly and you were the first one I found still under the effects.”

“What about the others?” Yugi asked.

“Not sure but we better stay on our guard…” Yusaku said, “Who knows if anyone can tell friend from foe right now….”

………………………………..

They found Yusei next who thankfully was also not lashing out. Yusaku found him in a vision of a destroyed city but it ended on its own the moment Yusei spotted Yusaku. The hacker wished he could be grateful for the quick conclusion but Yusei had spent at least five minutes hugging Yusaku and Yugi tightly as he could.

“Sorry about that…” Yusei explained as he composed himself, “I know that future will never happen but still...I just needed reassurance that you were alright.”

Yuya was the next one they found. He seemed to have snapped out of it on his own but the room he was in was completely trashed. Yuya was hugging his knees in the center of the room but his dull stare made it hard to figure out exactly who was in the driver seat. 

Yugi carefully knelt down next to Yuya and began trying to talk to him, “Yuya...can you tell us what happened here?”

“Yuto actually…” So it seemed that Yuya wasn’t the one in control right now. “Yuya is still processing his panic attack. Yuri buried himself somewhere in our subconsciousness and Yugo is giving all of us a headache by yelling at our bad memories.”

“Sheesh...what’s gotten all four of you worked up?” Ai asked.

“Our past….” That’s all Yuto was going to say on it as he just sat in silence until Yuya came back to the surface.

“I think I hurt Yuma earlier…” Yuya said when he finally came back out, “I’m not sure but I think I heard him crying in pain…”

“What ever happened was not your fault…” Yusei said as he squeezed Yuya’s hand, “It’s not any of our faults.”

“The real fault lies with that woman who attacked us…” Yusaku said with renewed determination, “Let’s find the others.”

……………………………………

Things started to get complicated when they finally found Yuma. The young boy had one of his swords in hand which was strange to the others as they thought he had to be fused with Astral to summon them. Yuma was swinging the weapon around in a panic while crying out…

“Give Astral back!!!! Just leave us alone!!”

Yusaku wasted no time in using the Mind Stone to bring the group into Yuma’s vision. They found Yuma surrounded by creatures made out of crystals and rock or some sort of black sludge. Laying on the ground was Astral unconscious with what appeared to be a large crack spreading across his chest.

Yusei sprang into action, charging in and punching the creatures away in an attempt to reach Yuma. Yugi and Yuya hung back behind Yusaku not out of fear, but at the shock of seeing Ai emerging from Yusaku’s duel disk and changing form into that of a mass of tentacles. Yusaku didn’t object to Ai’s actions, and let the Ignis do his thing protecting Yusei’s back and tearing the creatures to shreds. 

With Ai watching his back, Yusei reached Yuma in no time, the younger boy crying tears of relief at the sight of rescue. Yusei quickly scooped him up with one arm and grabbed Astral with the other. Ai used his large mass to create a protective dome over them while he worked on getting a secured grip on them.

“Hold on tight…” Ai warned as he launched himself back towards Yusaku.

Now that he was back in the safety of the group, the red haze faded away from Yuma’s eyes as everything returned to reality.

“Wh-what...happened?” Yuma asked as he blinked clarity into his eyes.

“You just got hit with some trippy stuff no worries…” Ai grinned...forgetting that he was rather frightening in his larger form.

Yuma obviously panicked, “AH!!! Monster!”

“Now that hurts...it’s just lovely old me Ai…” The Ignis pouted.

“Has he always been able to turn into the embodiment of nightmares?” Yuya asked Yusaku.

“Since I first met him but he’s still an idiot…” Yusaku sighed.

“At least this version of me is great for hugs!” Ai demonstrated this fact by giving Yusei, Yuma, and Astral who were still tangled up in his limbs, a tight squeeze. “Just ask Yusaku, he quite enjoys them.”

Yusaku turned his face away to hide the fact he was now blushing out of embarrassment.

“We still need to find Judai...and the Avengers team as well…” Yugi said, trying to refocus the group, “But where are they?”

His inquiry was answered when Thor was launched through the wall by some sort of strong force.

“Hey boys….” Thor grunted through the pain, “We could use some assistance....”

Before Thor could elaborate anymore, a shadowy tendril shot through the hole in the wall and dragged him back through. Once everyone got over their shock, they followed Thor through the hole.

On the other side was the very definition of a nightmare. Every Avenger member was pinned to the walls by shadows and in the very center, was a tall imposing figure dressed in black and gold armor, the helmet obscuring the figure’s identity. 

“Who’s this guy?” Yuya found himself asking.

Tony flipped his visor open and cried out, “It’s Judai! Judai is in that armor!”

This came as a shock to the newcomers, just what had happened to Judai?

Everyone had to scatter when another wave of shadows swept through the room. Yusei held onto Ai tightly as the Ignis refused to let go of anyone and had even grabbed Yusaku to keep him out of the line of fire. 

“Ai...do you think you can get close to Judai?” Yusei asked.

“Not without letting you guys go which I am not going to do.” Ai protested as he scooped up Yugi and Yua next. The Avengers were still pinned, unable to move.

“Throw me Ai….”

Everyone turned to Yusaku in shock. “What did you just say?” Ai asked.

“Throw me at Judai…” Yusaku’s gaze was firm and determined, “Throw me and I will break through to him with the Mind Stone.”

“I am not going to…”

“DO IT!” Yusaku cut Ai off, clearly not in the mood for arguing. 

Rather reluctantly, Ai took careful aim and shot Yusaku forward, a tendril still wrapped around him as Ai clearly didn’t want to let him go. Yusaku gripped onto Judai’s cape and began trying to wrestle the helmet off. It took some doing but Yusaku managed to slide the visor up revealing that Judai’s eyes were completely blinded by the red haze.Yusaku didn’t even dare try to view Judai’s vision, instead he slapped the Mind Stone on Judai’s forehead and yelled,

“WAKE UP ALREADY!!!!!!”

Yellow light began cracking through Judai’s armor, then down the shadows that were blanketing the room. With a quick flash, everyone dropped to the ground exhausted, Judai included now freed from the dark armor.

Tony groaned as he got to his feet, “That’s it….extra therapy sessions for everyone.”

Steve rubbed his head in frustration, “I still have no idea what Wanda was up to…”

This caught Yugi’s attention, “You know the woman who did this?”

“Her name is Wanda Maximoff, she’s actually an ally to us…” Natasha explained, “But the fact that she attacked us today indicates that something outside her control is going on.”

“So an outside force?” Yusei asked.

“Mostly likely…” Clint said, “Which means we’ve got another conspiracy to break down.”

“Does this happen often?” Yusaku asked.

“More often than we like,” Tony said as he hefted Judai over his shoulder, “Come on...let’s head home. And get that nightmare fuel to shrink down already…” Tony said pointing to Ai, “We already have enough trauma to deal with.

Ai huffed as he finally shrunk back down to his smaller form. He really didn’t care about this Wanda character or any supposed conspiracy theory. The vision he got was still on his mind. After all...the sight of Yusaku’s bullet ridden body was forever burned into his memories.

#yugioh #avengers #infinity stones au #gx #5ds #arc v #vrains #zexal #yugi mouto #Judai Yuki #yusei fudo #Yuma Tsukumo #yuya sakaki #yusaku fujiki #trama #hallucinations #hints at vrains ending

[kuriboo]

Hugsaku 2021

Day 1 - Temperature | Locked in a room and you can’t leave until you hug

Here’s an actual day 1 entry using day 1 prompts... one is a 2021 prompt, and one is a 2019 prompt! This is all one story using prompts from each day for each part, but this isn’t the first part. The first part sort of sets the scene... Yusaku ends up in Heartland with no idea of how he got there or how to get home, and Yuma commits to helping Yusaku get home. 

I’m also posting these on ao3; I’ll post a link in the notes! I hope you enjoy!

--

Yuma wasn't exaggerating when he described this to be a sleepover. The second they reached his house, Yuma was already pulling Yusaku into his bedroom. Yuma already had a sleeping bag for guests stashed in his room, apparently, and he opened it up and laid it out with enough ease that Yusaku was pretty sure that Yuma had guests over overnight constantly. This suspicion would later be confirmed by how little Yuma’s family cared that Yuma had brought someone to stay overnight without asking.  

The entire time, Yuma rarely ever stopped talking.

“-and she doesn't really like dueling, either. She gets so mad when she knows I've been dueling. So I bet you two will get along great!" 

“Uh huh.” Yusaku wasn't so sure he’d get along well with Yuma’s older sister just because they had one thing in common, but he didn't really feel like arguing against it.

Yuma made sure Yusaku had something to eat for dinner and soon the two of them were getting ready for bed. Yusaku obviously had no pajamas with him, and apparently just sleeping in his clothes wasn't an option, so Yuma got his sister to lend Yusaku some pajamas. This was unideal in every way but Yuna was smaller than Yusaku so there was no other choice. 

"It'd be fun to stay up all night talking , but you should probably rest so we can figure out how to get you home. Plus, Grandma always makes sure I'm actually asleep during the night, and I really don't want to get in trouble again." 

That was fine by Yusaku. He wasn't used to actually resting much, but talking all night with anyone was really unappealing. Yusaku had an easier time falling asleep than he thought he would. He slept dreamlessly that night.

He woke up feeling worse than he felt before falling asleep. His whole body ached worse than sleeping on the floor would cause. His throat was sore and he had a horrible headache. And he was freezing.

Yusaku curled up as much as he could in the sleeping bag to try to warm up, but he felt like care was outside in the middle of a snowstorm.

"Are you okay?" Yuma peeked over at Yusaku from his bed. "You look really pale."

Yusaku shook his head. "I'm fine." He tried to get up from the sleeping bag, but just sitting up knocked the wind out of him. He was drenched in sweat. Catching his breath felt impossible. 

Yuma frowned. "I don't believe you." He jumped out of bed with an ease Yusaku envied. "I'll be right back.” While Yuma was gone, Yusaku took a slow, deep breath. That helped but he was still freezing. He'd at least be warmer in his school uniform, but he didn't see his clothes anywhere. Not in Yuma’s room, anyway. Yuma said he'd be right back, so Yusaku figured he might as well wait where he was.

He didn't have to wait long. "Grandma says your clothes will be clean soon,” Yuma said as he reentered the room. He was holding something in his hand Yusaku recognized as a thermometer. “She also says you better take your temperature.” 

Yusaku took the thermometer Yuma handed him and shoved it in his ear to take his temperature. Then he had to wait to hear a beep. When the thermometer beeped, he took it out and read the number it said out loud. He couldn't remember off the top of his head what the number was supposed to be, but this was probably close, right?

The look on Yuma’s face suggested that his internal body temperature was possibly supposed to be a different number. He took the thermometer back from Yusaku, and left his bedroom at top speed. He was gone longer this time. When Yuma returned, he brought more things with him: a couple of blankets, a mug full of soup. 

“So, you're under strict orders to rest until you feel better. At least until your fever goes down, anyway. You looked cold, so I grabbed blankets. That's my sleeping bag for warmer weather... my warmer sleeping bag's been packed away for months. I'm not sure where we put it... Also, my grandma made you soup. She wasn't some what you like or what you can or can't have so she made you noodle soup? If you need something else she can make it but she won't let you get away with not eating."

Bundled up under the blankets, Yusaku felt a litle warner, which made a world of difference, but he was still pretty cold. The soup was good, though. Easy on the stomach and refreshing. After he finished it, Yuma replaced the soup mug with a glass of water and sat on the floor next to Yusaku. 

“We’ll figure out how to get you home when you're better," Yuma told him. "I promise." 

Yusaku nodded. As much as he wanted to get out of here and back to his apartment, he was starting to accept the fact that he wouldn't make it far outside Yuma’s house. He could hear Kolter in his head telling him to take the day off and rest for once.

“Astral still wants to know how you resisted the Number," Yuma went on. “And I'm kinda curious, too, since no one’s ever given up a Number to us without dueling for it before? Astral's current theory is that you're from another world, or something. Astral's from another world, you know. You don't look weird, like Astral does, but I guess it's still possible.”

("Human beings are the ones that look odd to me, Yuma.")

Yusaku's headache got worse, like someone was pounding on his head with a hammer. Was that what happened? Was Yusaku somehow sent to another world? It didn't seem all that different from the world he knew, but appearances could be deceiving.

"I don't know," was all Yusaku could say. "You said that card was trying to possess me? I felt strange after I picked the card up. Heavy and angry over...” Anger was something Yusaku was familiar with, it had been lurking just under the surface for years, but it always had a purpose, a reason. The Number in his hand, Yuma warning him not to pick it up, Yusaku wasn't sure why he had felt so angry then. He’d felt a strong desire to keep the card. “It felt like the card wanted me to keep it." But Yusaku only dueled for good reason. "But I don't like dueling. If I needed to duel people to keep it, I didn't want it. Now I want it even less." Getting possessed by a card was far from ideal.

"Well, Astral say for now we won't throw out that theory,” Yuma said, "For all we know , maybe it's just because you don't wanna duel. But we shouldn't worry about it right now. We gotta get you healthy first."

As adamant as Yuma was that Yusalav needed to rest, he sure had no intention of letting Yusaku actually rest. He kept flitting from one topic to the next. He tried to ask Yusaku about why he didn't like to duel. But Yusaku refused to answer, and apparently Astral ended up telling Yuma to drop it. Yuma asked Yusaku about his school and home, complained about a test he'd had to take the other day, and rambled about his friends. In the middle of talking about his friends, Yuma stopped talking for the first time in a while. Yusaku had begun to wonder if Yuma actually needed to breathe while talking or not. In some ways, Yuma reminded Yusaku of what a younger Shima might be like. 

Yuma reached up to hold his perdent in his hands " My dad gave me this key. It's what connects Astral and me now, but before we met it always helped me when I

wasn't feeling so hot.” Yuma took the pendant, the key, off from around his neck and placed it on the blanket next to Yusaku. " Maybe it can help you, too.”

Yusaku spent a long time laying there , listening to Yuma talk. Once in a while the pain in his head would throb. He never complained, but Yuma seemed to notice each time and would push Yusaku’s cup of water closer to him with a frown.

(“Yuma, something strange is going on. Have you noticed it?")

--

Yusaku didn't even remember falling asleep. But the next thing he knew, he was waking up. Yuma’s face was the only thing in his field of vision between him and the ceiling. 

"Hey,Yusaku, guess what?” Yuma was grinning. He held a thermometer in front of Yusaku’s face so he could see the reading; it was a different thermometer than before, it looked like it worked on the forehead. "Your fever's gone!" 

Yusaku blinked, trying to stay awake. He did feel better than before. That headache was still there, but the rest of his aches and pains were gone, and he no longer felt like he was freezing to death. 

“Good, Now I can figure out how to get home."

“Before we start that, though, there's one little test we gotta do to make sure you're really better," Yuma said.

"And what's that?" Yusaku asked.

“The hug test!" Yuma spread his arms wide. “If you're feeling better, then you're feeling up for a hug!"

"And if I refuse?"

“Then you have to stay here all day.” Yuma stuck his tongue out. "I won't let you leave.” 

Sometimes Yuma reminded Yusaku of Shima, but at other times like this, he reminded Yusaku more of Ai. "...Fine."

As Yusaku stood up, Yuma held his arms wide open to pull Yusaku into a big hug. Yusaku awkwardly rested his arms loosely around Yuma’s shoulders.

#hugsaku #hugsaku2021 #yugioh zexal #yugioh vrains #tater writes

[sherry-l]

Why YGO Vrains is such an immeasurable disappointment: a list

First of all, I need to make it abundantly clear that Im a big fan of Vrains – I love Yusaku, Ryoken, Ai, Kusanagi... you see them very often on my dash. I fantasize about the ideal version of Vrains that’s written well, the Vrains that’s fully exploited its potentials, every night in my sleep. I wrote this list PRECISELY because I love Vrains. That’s why I got so frustrated with its cardinal writing issues (and production issues). It physically pains me to hear people calling Vrains the worst and most boring series of YGO – but the fact that I couldn’t argue against that because it’s true pains me more.

And now, an incomprehensive list of the faults of Yugioh Vrains.  

1.      What the fuck is wrong with the character designs (beside that of Yusaku and Ryoken???) Everyone looks aesthetically displeasing – characters in real life look incredibly boring they could easily drown in a crowd of background characters, but their avatars are OSTENTATIOUS. Seems like the character designer had no clue what “less is more” means – blue angel, soulburner, and Bohemann for example, look like they were immersed in a bucket of glue and then dumped into another bucket filled with random accessories.

(from a fan artist’s perspective…Im especially salty about takeru, akira, Kusanagi, and the Knights of Hanois’ designs…like, their designs don’t inspire me to draw. Their personalities might be interesting, but their looks lack the vibrant, enthusiastic energy that the 5Ds, Zexal, and Arc-V characters possess)

(imagine how many fanfics and fanarts of Kusanagi x Yusaku there would be had Kusanagi looked HALF as hot as Ryoken)

And don’t even get me started on the colour palette – whoever decided on the colours just cant make up their goddamn mind! Colour saturation is way off the charts, the range of colour is too wide the audience simply dont know where to focus.

2.      Forgotten plotlines. Yusaku’s link sense? Hanoi’s spy in SOL? The Queen and the rest of the chess pieces? Yusaku’s forgotten memories? The rest of the victims of the Lost Incident? Just to name a few. 

3.      Character relationships are weak to minimal to none. Bonds and friendships – the vital element in all previous YGO series – is practically non-existent in Vrains. Where’s the camaraderie between our main casts (Yusaku, Aoi, Soulburner, Ema, Onizuka, etc…)? They don’t feel like a team fighting the evil together. They’re completely separate individuals who don’t give a single fuck if one of their…acquaintance…dies in a battle. We don’t have heartwarming moments of friendship blossoming and consolidating. It’s honestly such a let down.

4.      Interesting and debatable topics thrown away. The conflict between artificial intelligence and humans could spark so many in-depth discussions, but then the writer just decided its all Lightening’s fault. No morally gray situations, no ambiguity between the line of good and evil. It’s just all Lightening and his petty jealousy… yeah.

Oh and if Ai lives on the world will blow up. Why? Do we have a concrete reason to back that statement? eh...

5.      Overall quality of the animation. I don’t know if its because the animation staff was short on time or low on budget, but for a megacorporation (konami cough cough) that makes billions every year, they certainly are capable of investing more in this anime series. I can count the number of episodes in which the characters don’t look wacky with a single hand.

6.      Character development, wasted potentials. Ryoken is the only character who received decent treatment. The rest of the Vrains cast are all disappointments. Original concepts are cool and promising – Yusaku, a victim of child abuse with PTSD, embarking on a journey to overcome his reclusiveness and learn to open up to people around him? HELL YEAH. Aoi, a teenage idol with depression developing into a more mature and responsible heroine who saves Link Vrains? IM ALL FOR IT.  Soulburner’s character arc is fine overall but personally I don’t feel like it’s expanded enough. Also, there’s the mistreatment of side characters like Onizuka, Ema, Akira, the list goes on. I got so furious just looking at these characters and remembering that they’re all wasted and sidelined.

7.      Incoherent/ random plotlines. IDK all episodes in season 1 (Hanoi’s arc) felt pretty consistent, focusing on a linear theme – Yusaku’s revenge on the Knights of Hanoi. But after that it felt like the writers gave up writing outlines and just wrote whatever he pleased/ considered more convenient for the sake of…a plot…that he had no idea which direction it was headed for. This is reflected in the amount of forgotten plotlines we listed previously.

8.      Weak villains. Kinda related to point 4. Bohemann, Lightening, Windy, and Haru are all one-dimensional, flat, predictable villains with the cliché goal of “destroying humanity cuz humans are dumb and Ais are superior”. Not likeable, not fun to watch, not morally gray (something I expect from well-written antagonists), they are just there to serve as symbol of evil for the protags to defeat.

Honourable mentions - what I personally want to see in Vrains, really. Very biased.

-        The familial interaction between Yusaku and Kusanagi? Brotherhood, perhaps? Without any mention of Yusaku’s parents, Kusanagi is the closest Yusaku has to a brother figure. I crave for some wholesome brotherly moments between these two.

-        More slice of life episodes please.

-        The friendship between Yusaku and Takeru. Please. Please. PLEASE. From the second opening we can see the animation staff CLEARLY intended for there to be a strong bond between Yusaku and Takeru – Takeru probably was written to serve as a Jounouchi/ Johan/ Crow sort of character. Yusaku and Takeru could bond over their trauma and overcome their PTSD together. AND IT WAS SO HEAVILY HINTED AT IN THE 2ND OP!!! fam what the fuck happened to that friendship, Im so robbed.

-        Yusaku and Ryoken’s duel or tag duel. These two haven’t duelled AT ALL since the first season ended. Isn’t Ryoken Yusaku’s official rival? Isn’t it Yugioh tradition for the protag and the rival to duel like, a trillion times? AND ISNT IT ALSO A YUGIOH TRADITION FOR THE PROTAG AND THE RIVAL TO TAG DUEL?????? The fact that Yusaku and Ryoken never had a tag duel haunts me every night in my worst nightmares afjw4ot9wgrk

-        Topologina Nabee

Thanks for coming to my ted talk, this marks the end of my rant on YGO VRAINS DISAPPOINTMENTS. Again, I harboured no malicious intent when I compiled the list – its more like a vent of frustration than actual criticism. I would pay billions to see a Vrains reboot or, if there exists an alternate universe where none of the writing/production issues above are present in Vrains, I would do a Kaiba and build a dimension travelling machine and immigrate there.

TLDR: wasted potentials. wAsTED PoTEntialS. WASTED POTENTIALS!!!!!!

#yugioh #yugioh vrains #rant

[gisachi]

Surprise Me, Surprise You (Happy Shinichi Day! 05.04.20) (ShinRan. Drabble. College. Roommates.)

.

.

(Many months after the Blackout incident…)

.

He is out late again.

Going back to their apartment a little past midnight has slowly turned into a routine. School work, on top of detective work, is such a pain. The only thing he’s grateful for is the fact that he likes his major, Criminology, so damn much. Had it been otherwise, the reason for going home late for the past few days will be because of a real case of homicide, not because of a simulated midterm project geared to identify fingerprints, blood splatters, and wounds for his Forensics class.

Not that he wants more homicides to happen. Well. Real, unsolved cases make him feel alive. Not school requirements.

He shuffles for his keys and opens the front door quietly, careful not to make any unnecessary sound that might disrupt the sleep of his roommate.

Roommate slash childhood friend slash most favorite person in the world —

— Platonically. Or so he forces himself to believe.

The light in the living room is still open, much to his confusion. He walks to the light switch, only to stop short upon seeing a figure sleeping soundly by the dining table.

Ah. There she goes again.

He shrugs and approaches the woman. She looks so peaceful sleeping like a log that for a moment he debates on whether or not to wake her up or just drape her with a blanket. But whatever decision he thinks of becomes moot upon hearing a tired sigh, followed by a long, disconcerted yawn.

He almost snorts at how ridiculous she looks as she stretches her limbs while wearing that striped party hat on her head.

“Nn...Shinichi?”

“Mhm,” he pulls up a seat, eyes half lidded, his elbows on the table as one palm couches his cheek. “You fell asleep here. Again. How tired are you on a daily basis?”

She rubs her eyes, attempting to ride them off of sleepiness.

“What time is it?”

“12:25 AM.”

“Twel... EH?!”

Like a panic-stricken child, Ran stands upright, droopiness gone in an instant. She glances at her phone and her face whitens. After hurriedly sending a mail, she pulls out a match from her back pocket and lights a small candle sticking out from the center of a finely baked pie, which has surprisingly gone unnoticed in front of him.

Shinichi watches in quiet amazement as Ran lifts the pastry and brings it near his face.

“Ha-... Happy birthday, Shinichi!”

Shinichi blinks owlishly.

It’s my birthday?

“It’s your birthday, you moron!” Ran answers, like she has just read his mind.

“Oh.” He looks at the pie in front of him, then at her. “It is...Oh. Okay.”

She rolls her eyes and releases a groan. “Geez. I knew it, you forgot your birthday again!” She slides back to her chair in defeat. “You never really care for occasions like this, do you?”

He smiles apologetically.

“Well, worry not,” she places the pie on the table, “because that’s what I’m here for. To remind you!”

For a detective geek’s best friend, this girl’s pretty painstakingly persistent. He has known this since they were young, remembering the many times she’d coax him into eating, drinking, and sleeping, everytime his detective brain got the best of him. Some people would give up easily, but not her. Although her ramblings were never guaranteed to work on him all the time, she remained relentless in reminding him to do human things because he’s, you know, human, and if she won’t, no one else will.

Somehow, this trait of hers has grown on him and admittedly, he finds it kinda nice. She’s like his own personal alarm clock. When he finds himself too engrossed in unworldly interests, or lost in track for whatever reason, her smiling face will randomly pop up in his head to tell him to breathe. Rest. Take it easy. Then he’ll do it and be okay again.

That’s one of the many reasons why he considers her his most favorite person in the world.

In a platonic sense.

(Read: Not.)

“Sometimes, it’s nice to take a break and celebrate moments like this, you know?” She remarks, bringing her face to her palm. “Especially with people you love.”

She smiles at him appreciatively, and his heart flutters at that.

With people you love. Yeah.

“Now, make a wish and blow the candle!” And so he does. Ran claps her hand once the fire is extinguished, and readies to slice the pie with a knife she prepared beforehand.

Ran gives him a hefty piece and awaits his reaction on the first bite.

“So? How is it?” Her eyes glimmer in anticipation for his answer, and she gets it when he widens his eyes and licks the crumbs around his lips in interest.

“Lemon pie...” He blushes at how delicious it tastes. “My favo-”

“Your favorite! Yay, I’m really glad the taste turned out well!” She cups her cheeks in glee, marveling at her achievement. “I’ve only tried baking it once, so I’m not really confident about it.”

He forks more crumbs and eats in silence.

You should be. It’s the most delicious lemon pie I’ve ever tasted!

“I learned from Asami-senpai that you like lemon pie. You know, our former student council president? The really pretty senpai who was liked by everybody from our high school?”

I know her. No one compares to you, though.

“You might’ve forgotten about that already, Shinichi, but she baked the whole soccer club a lemon pie and you-” she snorts, “-you said it was bad! Oh my god! How dare you?”

It really was! I couldn’t lie...

“Anyway, she also told me that she confessed her feelings to you but you rejected her. Said you’ve been in love with somebody else for years…” she drifts away, shoving another bite into her mouth, chuckling passively.

“I wonder who the lucky girl is?”

...Can’t lie.

“It’s you.”

Her giggle dies down, mouth stops munching, smile instantly disappearing from her lips. Eyes widen like saucers, her face contorting to an unfathomable expression he can best associate to pure bewilderment.

“Wh...what?”

“I said it’s you,” he looks away.

He doesn’t mean to say that out loud —

“...always been you.”

— and repeat it thrice.

But oh boy, there he goes.

How does she look right now? Surprised? Confused? Betrayed? He cannot confirm. He’s afraid to look again. He doesn’t think he can.

(I love you.)

But alas, his senses betray him as his eyes instinctively flit back up, locking with hers, searching in desperation for whatever answer her beautiful eyes store.

Though words fail him (and her) at the moment, he wants to know.

He hopes ‘I love you back’ is a set of crystal eyes edging with tears that if she blinks, they’ll fall. He hopes ‘I love you back’ is a sharp, quivering inhale, unable to release an exhale, because she needs to fill her lungs with air or else she’ll pass out. He hopes ‘I love you back’ is that nervous bite on her lower lip, stopping the waterfall of words about to gush out.

(Do you love me too?)

He moves his face closer, closer to her... maybe he’ll get a clearer answer if he sees her eye to eye, nose to nose, breath to breath—

Knock! Knock! Knock!

As quick as lightning, Ran stands up from her seat, face as red as her ridiculous striped party hat.

“G-gee, I wonder wh-who’s at the door?! Haha! C-Can you open it, Shinichi?”

She stutters and he cannot help but laugh at her awkwardness. He coughs and walks his way to the door. Weirdo as always.

...

You just confessed to her on your birthday. Now who’s the more awkward one?

“SURPRISE!!”

He jolts at the sudden outburst of energy radiating from the other side. Startled to the bones, his eyes jump from one person to the other.

Kazuha-san. Hattori. Tou-san. Kaa-san. Sonoko. Kyougoku-san.

A mix of voices all echoing the same birthday greeting fills his ears, as he stands there confused as to who he shall prioritize first -- Yukiko hugging him, Heiji patting his head like he’s some disciple, Sonoko taking a picture of the sweet parent-child moment, Makoto holding a Shinichi banner with Shinichi’s big sleeping face plastered on it, Kazuha laughing at the background, or Ran admiring everything from inside their apartment.

“We hope we didn’t disturb a sacred moment,” Yusaku butts in, eyes shifting between Ran and Shinichi.

“We mailed Ran-chan and told her we’ll drop by and surprise you, Shin-chaaan!” Yukiko hugs him more tightly, earning her a wince from the birthday boy.

Entering the apartment freely, the four younger adults hang the banner a little above the pie Ran baked. Heiji and Kazuha unbox a chocolate cake they probably bought on their way to them, while Sonoko assists Makoto uncork a bottle of champagne and prepare eight glasses of wine on the table.

“To Kudo!” Hattori exclaims, as he lights the other cake on the table.

“To Kudo!” everyone shouts in unison.

He looks at the people, admiring everyone who went out of their way to pull this stupid surprise.

“This is what I actually meant when I said celebrating your birthday with people you love,” she whispers beside him, shyly.

He grins stupidly at himself, then looks at her. “And I am now, right?”

In more ways than one.

Cheeks turning crimson, she averts his gaze and looks at the wave of people now crowding over her lemon pie.

“Yes, yes you are.”

The pair looks at Yusaku and Yukiko setting their presents beside the pie; Makoto taking Sonoko’s photos as she pauses in front of their birthday surprise set up. Heiji and Kazuha bicker as to who gets the bigger slice of the pastry.

Amidst the noise, Ran finds herself staring at a full body mirror across the unit, reflecting her and him, side by side, the others blurred in the background.

“And these people you love... they love you back,” she refocuses her gaze on him. “Surely.”

She smiles so wide that it hides her eyes.

“Happy birthday, Shinichi.”

(I love you.)

“Yeah,” he smiles back. “Happy birthday to me.”

...

(I love you, too.)

.

.

#happy shinichi day #05.04.20 #fanfic #drabble #this is my gift for u most precious boi to ever exist #a shinran drabble #rushed at the end bc its also my moms bday and we haveta celebrate lol #and wanting to reach the 12:25 deadline but i missed it already huhuau sooo #sorry for grammar inconsistencies ajhsdahhh #I JUST LOVE MY BOI SO MUCH HAVE A GOOD DAY AND GOOD LIFE OK LOVEYOU

[hydradrive]

Go Hellnalysis (aka : hydradrive gets mad at the fanbase for ignoring go’s ongoing 2 season long breakdown for like, 5+ paragraphs)

We are talking S1 foreshadowing as it relates to the facts of S2. As already mentioned, I think it sucks of the writers to do it to him like how it sucks how they treated Emma and Aoi throughout the entire series and reeks of colorism like. having your two darkest skinned characters be actively antagonistic as s2 goes on is a bad fucking look. 

But it’s there, and I am not happy that people defend Lightning weirdly when he treats people he knew for years badly, and then turn around and say wildly fucked up shit about Go.

I guess today is the day i Get Into It Again. I’ll be rehashing some of my points from my old thread on nac, so strap in i guess.

This is said to Playmaker in season two. 

‘After i lost to you’. 

So, by episode 4. And the text backs this up. The text in season one aligns.

In Go Onizuka VS Genome :

[ transcript for subbed text: 

Dr. Genome : Did your defeat at Playmaker’s hands force you to evolver? 

Go Onizuka : As much as I hate to admit it, yes. That was when everything changed. 

/end text screenshot id ]

That was when everything changed.

Let’s look at the rest of it, then. How it affected him, in the long-term. The Go Analysis... Is here.

MASSIVE CWs for discussion of canonical weight loss, brief discussion of disordered eating in the context of that, and a whole bunch of other stuff re: the brain hack that I don’t even know how to tag, really. medical? Basically, if you have any triggers relating to that, please exercise due diligence because I will not pull any punches about the implications.

tldr version :

This is real dialogue from Go Onizuka’s first (and only) duel against Revolver. 

No matter what he says trying to spin it a different way after this segment of text, that it’s about fighting for yourself, these statements exist, and they exist with the context given by his own words; that he was struggling, mental health-wise, when he said these words.

[ transcript for subbed text: 

Go Onizuka : Until now, I’ve battled in front of huge crowds. (There is a single beat frame, to indicate silence.) But I realized I’m all alone. There are no fans rooting for me here. I realized... We always duel alone. We fight for ourselves, not for anyone else. 

/end text screenshot id ]

But perhaps this isn’t compelling enough for people. Fine. Let’s go even further back.

[ transcript for subbed text for screen readers : Go Onizuka : It’s my fault that Makoto is in this condition. /end text screenshot id ]

Go has an easily seen habit of assuming the worst, and with regards to stuff like Makoto, blaming himself, to the point that if his manager hadn't said more on Makoto, he would've been going into VS Genome blaming himself for Makoto getting into duel monsters in the first place.

In episode 5 it was shown that with one loss he was entirely certain that nobody would care about him in any capacity:

But why?

... It’s brought up in one of the first episodes of the entire series.

[ transcript for subbed text for screen readers : 

Go Onizuka’s Manager : That’s exactly it. It’s a winner-take-all world, after all. 

/end text id. ]

And given an even more... depressing? Spin later, when Go thinks about it throughout S1 and S2 during his duel with Takeru:

[ transcript for screen readers : 

Before I was placed in the orphanage, I only relied on myself. The world I lived in was all about survival of the fittest. “You must protect yourself” was my credo. 

/ end text screenshot id ]

It’s genuinely that simple. He slipped back into his old way of surviving because the way he did in season one didn't. save him. it didn't save him from a duel he needed to win, not just for himself necessarily. he would have died if playmaker had lost. a lot of people would have. He was already starting to have these doubts about his entire reason d’etre for dueling, and his loss only further spurred it on.

It’s repeated, again and again:

[ transcript for screen readers :

Go Onizuka : For everyone to appreciate me, I must win! 

/end text screenshot id ]

That sentiment. “People won’t like me if I lose.” “People will abandon me, if I lose.” In his own words, his losses, losses in duels that were important, rotted him. And it /is/ true. His manager said he’d leave if he went to try and stop the Tower Of Hanoi and lost. And he followed through with it, by all implications. He didn’t come back until season 3. Keeping in mind that Go’s self-hatred spiral regarding guilt over in his mind dragging Makoto into the mess that was season one-era Hanoi shenanigans was only cut off because his manager and other people talked him out of it... Yeah.

This is before we bring in the other complicating factor : a certain little company, who never did anything good for anyone. A man, who despite supposedly being well-intentioned, did very little to help, until it reached the darkest point.

[ transcript for subbed text for screen readers, since that’s the primary important stuff : 

Akira Zaizen : But we don’t intend to acknowledge that the network was on the brink of destruction. So I ask you don’t cause the press to delve into this. 

/end text screencap id]

People focus so much on him yelling at the press because they keep asking about Playmaker but with this context?

[ transcript text for screen readers: 

Akira Zaizen: You’ll continue to be the focus of the press. /end text screenshot id ]

He’s not allowed to talk about how you nearly died.

He’s not allowed to talk about what really was at stake.

In fact, he’s not allowed to even act in a way that makes people even a little suspicious about what happened.

And yet.

‘But he could just ignore this advice’ . Not really. Go Onizuka’s platform was built in Link Vrains. Being the whistleblower about the actual danger of Link Vrains would not endear him to Sol, and potential backlash from Sol, from everything we know about the company? Hmm, gosh, wonder why that might be bad. Almost as if Go is basically a livestreamer who is at risk of having the video platform he exists on die.

It would be incredibly difficult to continue working under the public eye like that. The stress from that alone would start tearing someone to pieces.

Ergo, his decision to work for Sol Technologies as a bounty hunter. Both jobs now hinge on him currying favor with a horrible megacorporation, one just has less baggage from his past way of surviving and gives him the ability to talk a tiny bit more freely about things.

This is all the leadup, of course, to the ultimate lowest point. The duel chip. Brain hack.

[ transcript text for screen readers: ‘By implanting this duel chip, the brain’s thought capabilities expand.’ /end text screenshot id ]

[ transcript text for screen readers: 

Akira Zaizen: You can always refuse.

Go Onizuka : Your methods are dirty. You guide me to the gates of hell, but you don’t care what happens afterwards.  /end text screenshot id ] 

Let’s talk about the physical side-effects of the brain chip on Go Onizuka.

Me, personally? I genuinely wonder what came first; the most severe physical side-effects or a worsening of Go’s mental health that made him stop eating. 

It’s never stated what came first. We only see the mental health side effects of the chip in flashbacks initially.

I looked at one of the instances where Akira pulled go out of the sim wrt: the listed sys/dia ratios on-screen. They have those in certain shots, btw! They’re consistently really fucked up!

Here’s what those were, in one very notable instance:

... So, right off the bat, a heartrate of 195, huh.

And a sys/dia of 187/112 with a mean of 136. Wow! I wonder what that means for him!

I can tell you. 

He statistically would be in the range of having a hypertensive emergency. Having rates like this can damage your heart muscle when you don’t literally have a heart attack, hypertensive encephalopathy, ( which can cause dizziness and altered levels of consciousness, if we are getting into it.), kidney failure, coughing up blood...

I don’t want to speculate too much about why the Duel Chip caused this, but I will note that blood pressures like this sometimes come about as result of issues with the neuroendocrine system. This would tie in with a loss of appetite and some of the other things Go seems to canonically have had from the getgo of having the chip installed, and probably added on to his already pre-existing mental health stuff which I personally parsed as depression.

... I think this mostly covers the main points of what gets missed. Aka, literally all of his arc. Just, literally every piece of his arc. People miss all of it.

Also, to reiterate : it is NOT GOOD the way this is framed by the writers. it is loaded to, in a series heavily informed by the main character’s trauma, have a teenaged darker skin character ( Go is 19!! ) be portrayed as more erratic, etc etc. I do Not care about Lightning. He is a little robot, and while there is probably some ableism in the way trauma is represented therein as a corrupting force, it is far more worrying how Go is treated in terms of representation, and I am not going to bat for the guy who treated Haru like dogshit lmao. 

The fact that one of the two darker skinned MOC is given more obvious mental/physical illness signifiers in terms of symptoms to mark them as antagonists (when, again, Yusaku literally CANONICALLY HAS PTSD) fucking blows, and I’m going to personally fight the writers. 

But. I am also laying the blame at the fanbase’s feet for this shit, too. They literally ignored this to coo over Lightning. I’m going to bite them.

[darkzorua100]

So in the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise, there is typically a final villain who announces that they are the reason for everything that has gone horrible wrong within the series. They are usually stupidly over-powered and don’t get redeemed since they are the root of all evil in their respective worlds. Vrains doesn’t really have one of those unless you want to count Lightning with the whole “Blame Lightning for Everything” meme that never seems to die as episode 119 continues to prove that Lightning is a little sh*t. Apparently even in death he still continues to be a massive thorn in everyone’s side and that is pulling it nicely.

However, 119 actually did give us the TRUE root of all evil in the Vrains series. And no, it actually isn’t Lightning. IT IS THESE GOD DAMN SIMULATIONS!

Seriously, everything that’s gone wrong is because some idiot got curious about their fate and decided to look into the future and the future give them the middle finger. Said idiot didn’t like said middle finger and gave the future one back by becoming their own self fulfilling prophecies.

Season 1 with Dr. Kogami: So I spent six months torturing a group of children for nothing because this simulation told me that the Ignis are going to try and destroy humanity because humanity threaten to destroy them first. Hmmm, with that in mind, I should totally send my 13-year-old son (cause keep in mind Ryoken was freaking 13 when Kogami started this Ignis hunt of his) out to kill them in return before they attack us for attacking them. Obviously nothing bad is going to come from this.

Season 2 with Lightning: So this simulation is telling me that I am the root of all evil and I have no chance of co-existing with humanity. Instead of, you know, testing this out myself in person by meeting up with my Origin and trying to be friends with him, I’m just going to destroy humanity of my own volition because no simulation is going to tell me how to live my life! Wait, it is also telling me I’m flawed. In that case, instead of again testing this out for myself, I’m just going to create a vessel to fuse me and the rest of my kin together. I’m sure the other Ignis wouldn’t have a problem with this at all.

Season 3 with Ai: So yeah, now that the rest of my kind are dead, I’m now apparently going to become a dick and destroy humanity, even though I have had absolutely reason to before any of this transpired because the simulation told me so since we all know the simulation hasn’t lied to anyone before. I, of course, don’t want this to happen so I’m going to create millions of copies of myself, giving them said free-will that is predicted to destroy humanity, and unleash them onto said humanity while killing myself in the process because why not?!

My god, it is freaking Leo Akaba all over again. How can these people be so smart but so stupid at the same time? I’m just laughing at this point because seriously, these simulations are literally the cause of everything and yet no one is smart enough to realize it and to stop using them.

On another note...

Ryoken gave Yusaku freaking Borreload Furious Dragon. Of all the cards that Ryoken could have given him, I did not think it was going to be Furious. I didn’t even think we were going to be seeing Furious in the anime since Revolver vs Soulburner was Ryoken’s last duel of the series but nope, this asshole pulled a freaking fast one on us. That was the freaking highlight of my week right there.

The best part about this whole thing is that Playmaker has yet to use Furious’s graveyard effect which will allow him to bring back one of his Dark Link Monsters from the graveyard. It probably will be Darkfluid but heck he might just bring back Decode Talker for some reason just to end this duel off with some more feels. Still, I just love the fact that Ryoken is giving Ai one last middle finger before the show ends. 

However, with that being said, I think Ai just gave Ryoken his own middle finger back with this because what the actual hell, Ai?! At least buy the guy some dinner before you ask him to fuse with you! What’s next?! You are going to pull a super poly out of your ass and freaking go full out with the Soulshipping? There is just no subtlety in this and I love it because you know Ai did this just to spite Ryoken after seeing Playmaker use his Fusion. Yeah you definitely can’t say Ai isn’t Yusaku’s Ignis now because he just took Yusaku’s proposal to Ryoken at the end of season 1 and bumped it up to an 11. 

The most crazy part about this whole thing is that Yusaku might legitimately do it because what else can he do to keep Ai from killing himself? Plus if they become the same person, he could possible out write Ai’s code and free the others as well. I would actually be fine if this would be how Vrains ends. For things to almost come full circle in a way by having the part of Yusaku that was lost from the Hanoi Project that became the Dark Ignis, aka Ai, to return to him. Sounds kinda hypocritical coming from me who hates the ARC-V ending since the Yuu Boys and the Bracelet Girls didn’t separate at the end but that was because none of that was consensual. They all had the damn right to became their own people again and it wasn’t fair that it was taken from them. This would be consensual and honestly I’m curious to see what kind of being a fusion between Yusaku and Ai would create. Would it be something like the Zexal forms between Yuma and Astral or would Yusaku get some badass powers similar to the Judai and Yubel fusion? I want to see some prediction fanart of this of what a potential fusion between these two would look like.

Either way, we are getting the final episode of Vrains next week and it is going to be shippy as all hell I can tell you all that much. I’ll talk about my overview thoughts about Vrains then but for now, we just have to wait to see if this will end with a bang or in disaster. 

#vrains #vrains spoilers #Thoughts #theories

[tastes-like-ciel]

How do you think everyone (specifically Revolver, Takeru, and Shoichi) would react if they saw the reason why Ai became a villain? Like Ai left the simulation open and Revolver somehow hacked it.

Well, it goes into that whole moral dilemma of “how far would you go to protect someone you love?”, which in Ai’s case involved building himself up to be hated enough to where everyone would take him out. But in the case that didn’t happen, his backup plan involved killing Yusaku himself so he wouldn’t suffer later on and dismantling his own life by splitting up his coding among all the SOLtis copies he made. 

No one really says what they do with the simulations after they view them, but I guess they just delete them? For a scenario like this, tho, I think it’d be more interesting if they saw these simulations long before the final duel. I feel like Revolver would keep the simulations to himself, tho, at least for a bit because he’s like that. He carries the weight of the world on his shoulders when he doesn't have to. But skipping past all that and him sharing the simulations, I don’t think he’d show everyone, just those closest to Yusaku who stood a better chance at understanding his and Ai’s relationship. And really that’d only be Takeru, Kusanagi, and to some extent Aoi. And even then, he might only talk to Kusanagi IRL about it because, well, Takeru still doesn’t like him at this point and Aoi barely knows him outside of his Revolver persona (so she may not trust him much to begin with).

But for my purposes, Takeru and Aoi are just gonna be there no questions asked, so ha. //brick’d

“Just play it.” Ryoken orders, face startlingly blank. “It’s data traces the Dark Ignis left behind and...it’s something I think you should see.”

“Why should we trust you again?” Takeru growls out, expression pinched into something cold and angry. “Just because Yusaku does--”

“You don’t need to trust me.” Ryoken interrupts, eyes never straying from the file loaded up onto Kusanagi’s screen. That dismissal somehow makes Takeru angrier. “You just need to watch.”

Kusanagi hesitates and the truck falls silent, but eventually, Aoi takes a step forward, putting herself between Takeru and Ryoken, and she speaks with a clear determination.

“Play it.” Takeru makes a displeased noise, but she ignores him. “I want to know what this is.”

Kusanagi takes a breath, nods, and hits a button on his keyboard to make the video play and what they see has all their faces paling in an instant. The ruined city, the crack of a rifle firing, bullets shredding through flesh and bone, Yusaku’s lifeless body dropping to the ground, Ai’s shriek of his name and the resulting murderous rampage that follows as the military force present are mercilessly slaughtered...

Ryoken has seen it enough to where he’s mostly unphased by the bloodshed now, but watching Yusaku be murdered again and again for doing what he always does and protecting those around him still makes a pit form in his stomach. And this is only one simulation he’s seen. There are countless bits of others he scrapped together all depicting the same thing: Yusaku’s demise and the end of humanity because of it. Simulations aren’t foolproof glimpses into the future. They’re possibilities based on conditional branches, futures that will exist if a certain path is taken. Unfortunately, the only condition he was able to piece together for these simulations is one where the Dark Ignis, Ai, remained by Yusaku’s side. Sometimes they differed and Yusaku died differently or Ai’s existence ended not long after Yusaku’s and humanity remained, but in all of them, Yusaku died and if Ai cares about Yusaku as much as he claims to, something like that wouldn’t be acceptable.

“W...what is this?” Takeru asks, hands shaking and eyes wide as he turns them back to stare at Ryoken. All the anger and blood has drained from his face. “Where did you get--what is this?!”

“I told you.” Ryoken says quietly, eyes closing. “They’re data fragments I found while hunting for the Dark Ignis. It seems he’s been running simulations...”

“Of Yusaku dying??”

“No.” Aoi says distantly, head shaking before Ryoken can say any more. She stares down at the ground, mind a million miles away as a hand covers her mouth. “It’s for living with humans, isn’t it? For living with Fujiki-kun...”

“There’s...more of these, aren’t there...” Kusanagi says rather than asks, eyes still glued to the screen. He leans his elbows on his keyboard, mind much like Aoi’s is. “Ai did these to see what would happen and--he...he’s mentioned before that having a human body would be fun, but I never--...Yusaku dies...”

Ryoken just nods. He has no intention of rushing them through the mental grief this knowledge has burdened them with. He himself took a few days to come to terms with the footage before ever bringing it to their attention. Originally he’d intended to show just Yusaku and Kusanagi, but...well, this is fine, too.

He’s glad Yuskau isn’t here to see this after all because he doesn’t know how he’d take it.

#ask #VRAINS #Sery writes a thing #i gotta go do a thing so gonna leave it at that #but YUSAKU WOULD GET A GIANT GROUP HUG OUT OF THIS AND HAVE PEOPLE WEEPING ON HIM #it'd be a thing he'd hate it but HUGS FOR THE BOI YES #anyway #i could talk more about this later but moe cat gremlin gotta leave their house friends #Anonymous

[linkedvrains]

Question number 20 for all of your active muses!

Character Development Questions [ accepting ]

20. What does your muse think of secrets? Do they keep many or a few and what is their motivation to keep something secret? Have they ever been hurt by a secret someone else kept from them?

Takeru >> see reply here 

Miyu’s rather open with stuff. She doesn’t like to keep things - and with things it’s literary everything except her feelings - from others, even though she doesn’t shares information with much people either. It’s not like she willingly keeps things to herself, she most of the time just lacks people to talk about it. The only thing Miyu really tries to keep hidden from the world is her involvement in the Lost Incident and the horror she had went through for six months in her life. Besides that… get her to talk and she probably tells you everything. 

Big exception is as already mentioned above her feelings. Her true feelings that is while she likes to pretend to be fine a lot she really is not. It’s something she doesn’t think others need to know, either because she thinks they don’t care anyways or because she doesn’t want to bother them. 

If things are kept from her she usually reacts rather calm and simply accepting it. In her eyes she doesn’t deserves to know anyways. 

The opposite to that probably is Jin who keeps almost everything to himself and barely talks about his feelings or thoughts at all. It’s okay for him to keep things and he’s aware of the fact that if he keeps stuff from others, others keep stuff from him as well. It doesn’t mean that he’s happy about it or will like it. It’s more like he hates the fact of things being kept from him, but that’s more because he hates the thought of things being kept from him because others thinks he’s too weak to handle the information. 

He doesn’t mind you having a secret as long as he doesn’t knows that there’s something kept form him. As soon as he suspects something he can be rather moody around you though. 

For Haruto secrets are somewhat inevitable. In his eyes there just are things that some should know about and others shouldn’t and he’s not making a big fuss about it. If things kept from him that’s okay. If he learns about information being kept from him that’s okay as well. He’s actually rather rational about it, questioning why things were kept from him and whether or not it actually harmed him in any way or not. 

Haruto currently keeps most of his life a secret from his father, pretending to have a completely different life for him. That’s okay in his eyes, because he things his father doesn’t deserve better anyways. But just like he decided that he’s aware of the fact that others might think the same by keeping things of him. 

For Yusaku the whole concept of secrets is something he isn’t really aware of. He keeps a lot of things to himself most of the time, but he doesn’t do it with any ill intend or thought behind it. It’s mostly because he doesn’t think about talking about things might be a good thing or it just slips his mind that others might not know everything he’s aware of. So when others keep secrets from him it’s mostly irritating him because he doesn’t get the reason behind keeping things like that, but eventually doesn’t really question it either, because why do it with others if he’s not even questioning himself in that regard? 

Ryoken basically is a walking secret in some sense as he keeps almost everything to himself. His thoughts, his feelings, his fears and actions. There’s only a tiny bit of information he’s wiling to share. And the rest is not anyone else business so they don’t have to bother him with it. When he’s in a good mood - or in a  vulnerable state of mind thanks to being at a point where he can’t deal with his own feelings anymore - he might share a bit or too, but that’s really rare to happen. As he keeps a lot stuff for himself he expect others to do so as well. Others around him being open with almost all information is confusing him from time to time, not that he would care to admit or show that anyways. It’s something Spectre started to irritate him with from early on as Spectre tends to say what’s in his head all the time. Just not always in the obvious, direct matter and so Spectre stays a mystery for him as well. 

And then there’s Ai, who rather lets himself get killed than sharing what’s inside his head. I guess he’s not allowed to complain about secrets and things being kept from him anymore. Ai only tells others as much as he wants them to know and the rest is just not existing. Or at least he likes to pretend that there’s only as much as he’s willing to share. At the same time he likes to pester others once he suspect things being kept from him because he doesn’t really like it if there’s a variable he’s not aware of . 

#Anonymous #long post #» oc: headcanon « #» oc || jin & silent « #» oc || miyu & rain « #» oc || haruto & stormstriker « #» oc || yusaku & playmaker « #» oc || ryoken & revolver « #» oc || IGN 006 / Ai « #[ thanks for sending <3 #and thanks for saying only active muses because I feel like this exploded a bit? #again I'm not sure if this makes sense #like I know what I meant to say but I'm not sure if I found the right words for it xx]

[3w-writer-with-wings]

Maybe Judai for the ask thing? (ㆁᴗㆁ✿) if that hasn't been done of course ^^

Why I like them/why I don’t

To be honest I didn’t like Judai that much at first. He was cute but other than that he was just an average overpowered character to me and his outgoing persona didn’t really help. The first time I watched GX it was in my native language dub and Judai happened to have the same voice as a character from another show that was extremely annoying, so I wasn’t that fond of him at all. Around the end of the first season, the airing stopped and I continued with English dub and while he was slightly likeable with a different voice I still didn’t like his character at all. But then season 3 happened… and it changed my mind. He felt like an entirely different person and the plot finally started getting interesting. It was like the new season made him start taking things seriously and with each new episode, it felt like he slowly started revealing his true self. And at that point, it finally started making sense why he was so happy and outgoing the first two seasons - he was lonely as a child and card games was the only thing that made him happy, so it makes sense that once he got accepted to school all about card games where he met new friends made him all excited. This was already hinted once in season 2, after his loss to Edo where he could no longer see cards and was convinced he has nothing else to do in Duel Academy so he just left. From all protagonists, Judai has by far the most unique development and from where VRAINS is now, Yusaku is likely to follow Judai’s journey of self-discovery. In a way, both of them are complex characters that are dealing with their breaking points in their own way. 

One other thing that I really love about Judai is his ability to talk with Duel Spirits. There have been several characters in other series with the same ability, but no one had as much focus as Judai had. I absolutely loved his connection to Yubel, about how obsessed she became with him to the point of hurting other people and how much she wanted to protect him at the same time. The fact that Judai uses Super Fusion in order to merge them together was a really nice conclusion and in a way, it symbolized the fact that Judai matured.

What I like about their appearance

The fact how normal he looks compared to other protagonists XD. Like seriously all protagonists are either embodiment of rainbows (Yuya and Yuma) or edginess (Yugi, Yusei, Yusaku) and Judai is just an ordinary teenager in a simple school uniform and a puffy hairdo that looks like a Kuriboh.

Do I prefer their dub names or original names?

Judai and Jaden sound very similar so I tend to switch them depending on the situation because some of my friends are not familiar with his original name. In my fanfics I use his original name most of the time, but honestly, both versions sound okay and are not that different compared to some other dub names.

OTP

Spiritshipping all the way! Judai X Johan is not only my favourite GX OTP but my second favourite OTP of all Yugioh series! (they are just a little behind Keyshipping and Puzzleshipping). From the first episode where Johan showed up when Ruby and Winged Kuriboh played together and when Judai welcomed Johan to the Duel Academy, I knew there was something special about to happen. And boy was I not ready for this! The way those two dorks interacted with each other, how others described Johan as “Judai with a southern accent” and just every scene where they showed up together - it was a blessing! And when Judai went to look for him and how he sank deeper and deeper in depression while trying to find him was absolutely heartbreaking. And when Johan came back and Judai was instantly better was just so wholesome to watch. In my headcanon they really are more than friends, they just don’t show it that obviously and I’m completely fine with it. Their personal lives shouldn’t interfere with the plot and deep down I believe that they settled down once Judai returned from his travels. In my perfect reality, they founded a school for people who can also talk with the Duel Spirits and the two of them help others control their abilities.

NOTP

I’m not really sure about Fusionshipping… It just doesn’t feel like a ship at all. I already hate Ryou’s overall character since really, he duels just for power. To him, Judai is not even a rival, just a mere opponent that might pique his interest if he is strong enough. Even in the show, he appeared only when the plot demanded him to do so and had little to none motivations other than power. I completely lost respect for him when he said he wanted to duel Supreme King aka. Judai’s alter ego ALL WHILE JUDAI WAS UNCONSCIOUS AND SUFFERING FROM TRAUMA INDUCED FEVER JUST A FEW METERS AWAY FROM HIM. Like dude chill out, not everything is about power. I was so glad Edo called him out on it cuz seriously this dude would be the worst possible boyfriend. It was even worse when he tried to “help” Judai overcome his trauma cuz really he had zero empathy to help someone as traumatized as Judai. If those two were to date, it would either be over fast or would result in a really unhealthy relationship. 

OT3

Competitorshipping or Jun X Judai X Johan is actually something I didn’t know I liked. I do ship Judai with both Jun and Johan, but I’ve never really seen all three of them together. This all changed when I got a request as a secret santa to make a story with three of them as a functioning relationship. I wanted to change a request at first since I’m not keen on writing threesomes, but the more I thought about it more I thought it could work. So in my story, I made Jun and Judai into childhood friends that befriend a transfer student Johan and together they become roommates during their college years. After graduation, they separate for a few years, Judai travelling overseas to pursue his career in acting and coming book illustrating, Jun marrying and getting a son and Johan opening his own clinic. Eventually, they all live together again since Judai gets a new job nearby and Jun divorces and gets custody of his son. Johan and Judai help him raise his son and the story continues with Johan and Judai adopting a child (my OC). If you’re interested you can read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16790146/chapters/39405268 I still have three more chapters to go. While I was writing it, I realized just how much the three of them interact in the anime, especially with all bonding over the fact that they can talk to Duel Spirits. It’s a relationship that could as well work and I’m sure they feel the same way about it.

The favourite card they use

It might be useless, but Winged Kuriboh is by far my favourite monster in the whole GX. It’s simple but gives away just enough nostalgia to make it work. I love how much Judai interacts with it and in a way Winged Kuriboh is his constant companion, providing him comfort whenever it can. I also love how it used to belong to Yugi and was given to Judai because “something was telling him it belongs with him” like Yugi could hear its voice. In my headcanon, Yugi knew Judai was a reincarnation of the Supreme King and gave him Winged Kuriboh so the spirit could help him control his power. Winged Kuriboh is not just a spirit, it is Judai’s partner.

The favourite moment they were in

When Judai merged with Yubel it was like Judai made a huge step in his life. For the first two seasons, he approached his problems with confidence and a grin on his face. He was having fun, not really thinking about his actions. This was all a mask to run away from his past of loneliness and fear. With season 3 the past finally caught up with him and he was forced to face it. Yubel wanted him back after she was discarded and Judai knew it, afraid she would find him again. After seeing his friends fading away, succumbing to Supreme’s King power and being scared of using Fusion, Judai is literally lost of what is he supposed to do. In the end, he finally faces Yubel, claiming all responsibility on himself. It may seem like Judai succumbed to his yandere stalker when he played Super Fusion, but from what I’ve seen it, he did it as a way to apologize. It’s true that it was his parents who sent Yubel to space and he couldn’t do anything about it, but for someone who has a superhero deck, this was Judai’s heroic sacrifice. He was scared and unsure of what could happen, but in that single moment, he made a very mature decision. He knew Yubel would only stop once the two of them are together again and he did it so his friends would be saved. This was when he truly acted as a hero, giving everything up to save someone who has been putting him in so many dangerous situations, because when he forgave Yubel he was ready for the true battle.

Least favourite moment

A basically entire first and second season when he acted like the way overpowered character. I know this was necessary for his later character development, but some episodic plotlines and duels were just plain stupid and completely unnecessary considering how many of them were there already. 

Would I fuck, marry or kill them

How about if he adopts my child OC? XD Yeah I would definitely marry this dork. He is sweet, childish and full of energy and at the same time he is mature and knows how to handle the situation. In my slice-of-life headcanon he is an actor and comic book artist, living with his partner Johan and together they raise their shy adoptive son. I think he would make a great dad and would be great with kids in general, like organizing birthday parties, babysitting and having art workshops with children. 

(Here’s Judai with my OC from my fanfic Safe in Your Arms ;) I used several references for this drawing )

#Judai Yuki #yugioh gx #yugioh series #Spiritshipping #johan andersen #chazz princeton #jaden yuki #the child on the drawing is my OC that shows up in multiple fanfics of mine #look for Hunter13Hawkie on AO3 and Safe in Your Arms #I drew the sketch #I'll color it soon

[chibicrow]

for the otp meme, how about recoil/gunfire? 1, 3, 5, 7, 12, 17, 24, 25 and 29

*CRACKS KNUCKLES* LOVE ME SOME GUNFIRE....SHIPPING //punted (thank u for using both names ‘ppreciate it dlkasfjkdsafl)

For the OTP Question Meme 👏👏👏

1. Who is the most affectionate?

tbh I think it’d be Ryoken, but only at the start of the relationship b/c Takeru at the start would probably be self-conscious about affection at first (like “would it be out of line if I did this” kind of thing). As the relationship progresses tho, Takeru’s definitely the more affectionate one. 

3. Most common argument?

So, definitely two common arguments they’d have:

1. I def see Ryoken as someone who just orders take-out instead of cooking for himself, so Takeru’s like “you really need to stop doing that.” And Ryoken eggs him on so Takeru just gets so exasperated and is like “FINE I’LL COOK.” which is actually Stardust Boi’s plan the entire time. And Takeru falls for it. Every time. rip.

2. But also, Takeru might not throw punches at every urge he gets, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t get into scuffles every now and then. So he’d come back with cuts, bruises, and all that and Ryoken’s like “can you stop getting into fights?” And Takeru would be like “don’t tell me what to do.” and eventually, Ryoken just drops the subject. It’s an argument he never wins rip Stardust Boi.

5. Who is most likely to carry the other?

well, unless I missed something in VRAINS, Ryoken doesn’t really work out other than playing intense card games, so DEFINITELY Takeru. Ryoken only acts mildly inconvenienced most of the time (b/c who WOULDN’T want to be held by warm soft boi amirite). 

But when Ryoken’s in the middle of something and Takeru does it as a “go tf to sleep Ryoken” thing, he absolutely hates it lmao. 

7. What’s the first thing that changes when they realize they have feelings for the other?

hmmmm. So on Takeru’s side, he’d get flustered whenever Ryoken’s brought up in casual conversation (when he didn’t before) + so Yusaku + Aoi are like ???? 

And then with Ryoken.... I dunno. He’s not a very direct person when he talks about how he feels, but then he’s like “oh shit I have feelings for Takeru” + that starts??? slowly going away?? yeah.

12.  Who initiates kisses?

HOO BOY!!!

ok this would actually depend on the type of kiss tbh. If we talking light kisses like on the forehead or cheek or something, def Ryoken. But, if we talkin’ lip service (if y’all know what I mean.... >:3c), then it’s Takeru. 

17. Who says I love you first?

Takeru. But like. It wouldn’t be planned or anything. They’d probably be arguing over something stupid, and Ryoken’s like “well why do YOU care.” and Takeru’s all “uh, because I LOVE YOU, dumbass?” they’d be that OTP don’t change my mind. 

and meanwhile Ryoken’s like “.....oh.” 

24. Who whispers inappropriate things in the other’s ear during inappropriate times?

Kogami “Stardust Boi” Ryoken like there is no doubt in my mind about this. And he’d do it just to get a rise out of Takeru too and Takeru would be like “Ryoken what the FUCK.” out loud when he probably shouldn’t say that.

Rip Takeru.  

25. Who needs more assurance?

Ryoken. Like, all that shit he had to go through with his dad? There’s no way he wouldn’t. Good thing he has one of the VRAINS top cheerleaders as his boyfriend hee hee >:3c 

29. one headcanon about this OTP that breaks your heart

Can I do a hard pass on this one I don’t want to be sad about my Gunfire bois. 

just kidding. I’m a fic writer it’s my duty to deliver the pain no one wants. 😅😭

ok so assuming VRAINS actually does throw Stardust Boi + pals in jail or in confinement, but also assuming that maybe Stardust Boi (+ maybe Spectre) get out (legally lmao - don’t ask me about the other Knights. I don’t think they’d let them out that easy). 

Headcanon that Ryoken’s mental state’s in absolute shambles after getting out ‘cause being confined like that for so long will do that. Also he realized in said confinement that his father really was an ass and it just destroys his entire being.

But wait. It doesn’t stop there. Also headcanon that Takeru somehow realizes this wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t confronted him about the Lost Incident. Not that it makes him go down a spiral (’cause like. He’s gotta put up a front for Ryoken.), but he just. Feels guilty that what happened to Ryoken was his fault and uh. Yeah. 

so there ya go.  

#natsumi talks vrains #otp meme #Anonymous #spoiler alert: i had no idea how to answer no. 7 clearly dsalkfsdajlkfajs #BUT ANYWAY FINALLY GETTING AROUND TO THESE..... #recoilshipping #gunfireshipping #i know the point is to just put the names and not like big-ass paragraphs but #i graduated w/ an english degree i can't help it

[lazella]

I posted 86 times in 2021

27 posts created (31%)

59 posts reblogged (69%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 2.2 posts.

I added 79 tags in 2021

#infinity stones au - 13 posts

#yugioh - 12 posts

#vrains - 11 posts

#yugioh vrains - 9 posts

#yusaku fujiki - 8 posts

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#avengers - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 52 characters

#i'm wondering if my mental health can recover at all

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Infinity Stones AU: Face your Fears, Part 1

I apologize for nothing. Enjoy.

Yusaku took a sharp breath in, coughing as he tried to make his lungs work again. For a moment it felt like he was back in that white room, alone and only a voice for company. Looking around, he tried to piece together the events of the past few minutes. Yusaku did recall that they had joined the Avengers on a retrieval mission and had infiltrated the warehouse but then he was drawing a blank.

“Ai...can you tell me what just happened...Ai?”

Yusaku was puzzled when he didn’t hear Ai respond right away and looked down at his Duel Disk, and spotted the Ignis with tears running down his face.

“AI?!” Now Yusaku was worried, Ai had never cried before.

“Yusaku….” Ai’s voice was quiet, and he had also not used any of his nicknames for Yusaku, “I hope that was all fake....”

“Fake?”

“Nevermind…” Ai shook his head, “That stone of yours seemed to break whatever that lady did to you.”

Yusaku raised an eyebrow, “Lady?

Ai took the opportunity to explain, “Some lady came in and hit you with this red stuff then everyone started screaming. You just kind of froze but after that I’m not sure as I started seeing stuff as well…”

Yusaku quickly put his theory together. First, they had been ambushed by an unknown enemy. Second, it seemed like she had the ability to cause hallucinations most likely based on fears. Third, it seemed that the Mind Stone could reverse the effects which is why he felt fine now even with how brief his vision was.

“We need to locate everyone else…” Yusaku got up and surveyed the room, “They must still be under the effects of that attack.”

“Good luck with that…” Ai muttered, “They all ran off in different directions attacking anything in sight…”

“Then we’ll just have to be careful……” Yusaku stated as he ran off in his chosen direction. 

…………………………

The first person he found was Yugi. Thankfully he didn’t seem to be lashing out at anything and was just leaning against the wall but judging by the red haze over his eyes, he was still under the effects of the hallucination. 

“Yugi!” Yusaku grabbed the smaller boy’s shoulder and gave it a good shake, “Yugi snap out of it!”

Yugi just continued to stare blankly ahead.

“Might have to do this the hard way…” Ai pointed to the Mind Stone.

“Afraid so…let’s just hope Yugi makes it easy….” Yusaku said as he placed the Mind Stone against Yugi’s forehead letting its power do its thing. Reality around Yusaku and Ai but Yusaku knew he was just now entering Yugi’s mind, and hopefully to find out just what he was seeing.

What he did see did not make any sense. Everything around them was dark and foggy obscuring anything that could be approaching. Yugi was no longer on the ground but suspended in the air by an invisible force gripping onto his wrist and ankles. But the most shocking part was that Yugi’s knee and elbow were missing and other parts of his body were slowly dissolving away.

“Th-this is bad!!!!” Ai cried out, “What kind of madman thinks of doing messed up stuff like this!?!”

“A sick one fore sure….”

Yusaku spun around and he was quite sure if it was relief or worry when he spotted Yugi’s other self, Yami, slowly pulling himself along the ground. He wasn’t looking good judging by the blood dripping from his mouth.

“Yugi’s had nightmares about this duel….” Yami panted trying to catch his breath, “I’ve tried to snap him out of it but…” Yami seemed to cough up more blood, “I’m not doing too good either…”

“I’ll warn you, it’s going to be a shock to the system….” Yusaku clenched the Mind Stone tighter, “I don’t think we have the time to ease him out of it…” Yellow light blinded everyone as Yusaku just focused on making the vision end quickly. Within the blink of an eye, they were back in the warehouse. The red haze was gone from Yugi’s eyes and he was checking himself over as if to see if his body was whole again.

“Doing okay?” Yusaku found himself asking.

“I-I think so...,” Yugi said with shaky breath, “What was that?”

“My guess is that we were hit with something that makes us hallucinate our worst fears. The Mind Stone snapped me out of it rather quickly and you were the first one I found still under the effects.”

“What about the others?” Yugi asked.

“Not sure but we better stay on our guard…” Yusaku said, “Who knows if anyone can tell friend from foe right now….”

………………………………..

They found Yusei next who thankfully was also not lashing out. Yusaku found him in a vision of a destroyed city but it ended on its own the moment Yusei spotted Yusaku. The hacker wished he could be grateful for the quick conclusion but Yusei had spent at least five minutes hugging Yusaku and Yugi tightly as he could.

“Sorry about that…” Yusei explained as he composed himself, “I know that future will never happen but still...I just needed reassurance that you were alright.”

Yuya was the next one they found. He seemed to have snapped out of it on his own but the room he was in was completely trashed. Yuya was hugging his knees in the center of the room but his dull stare made it hard to figure out exactly who was in the driver seat. 

Yugi carefully knelt down next to Yuya and began trying to talk to him, “Yuya...can you tell us what happened here?”

“Yuto actually…” So it seemed that Yuya wasn’t the one in control right now. “Yuya is still processing his panic attack. Yuri buried himself somewhere in our subconsciousness and Yugo is giving all of us a headache by yelling at our bad memories.”

“Sheesh...what’s gotten all four of you worked up?” Ai asked.

“Our past….” That’s all Yuto was going to say on it as he just sat in silence until Yuya came back to the surface.

“I think I hurt Yuma earlier…” Yuya said when he finally came back out, “I’m not sure but I think I heard him crying in pain…”

“What ever happened was not your fault…” Yusei said as he squeezed Yuya’s hand, “It’s not any of our faults.”

“The real fault lies with that woman who attacked us…” Yusaku said with renewed determination, “Let’s find the others.”

……………………………………

Things started to get complicated when they finally found Yuma. The young boy had one of his swords in hand which was strange to the others as they thought he had to be fused with Astral to summon them. Yuma was swinging the weapon around in a panic while crying out…

“Give Astral back!!!! Just leave us alone!!”

Yusaku wasted no time in using the Mind Stone to bring the group into Yuma’s vision. They found Yuma surrounded by creatures made out of crystals and rock or some sort of black sludge. Laying on the ground was Astral unconscious with what appeared to be a large crack spreading across his chest.

Yusei sprang into action, charging in and punching the creatures away in an attempt to reach Yuma. Yugi and Yuya hung back behind Yusaku not out of fear, but at the shock of seeing Ai emerging from Yusaku’s duel disk and changing form into that of a mass of tentacles. Yusaku didn’t object to Ai’s actions, and let the Ignis do his thing protecting Yusei’s back and tearing the creatures to shreds. 

With Ai watching his back, Yusei reached Yuma in no time, the younger boy crying tears of relief at the sight of rescue. Yusei quickly scooped him up with one arm and grabbed Astral with the other. Ai used his large mass to create a protective dome over them while he worked on getting a secured grip on them.

“Hold on tight…” Ai warned as he launched himself back towards Yusaku.

Now that he was back in the safety of the group, the red haze faded away from Yuma’s eyes as everything returned to reality.

“Wh-what...happened?” Yuma asked as he blinked clarity into his eyes.

“You just got hit with some trippy stuff no worries…” Ai grinned...forgetting that he was rather frightening in his larger form.

Yuma obviously panicked, “AH!!! Monster!”

“Now that hurts...it’s just lovely old me Ai…” The Ignis pouted.

“Has he always been able to turn into the embodiment of nightmares?” Yuya asked Yusaku.

“Since I first met him but he’s still an idiot…” Yusaku sighed.

“At least this version of me is great for hugs!” Ai demonstrated this fact by giving Yusei, Yuma, and Astral who were still tangled up in his limbs, a tight squeeze. “Just ask Yusaku, he quite enjoys them.”

Yusaku turned his face away to hide the fact he was now blushing out of embarrassment.

“We still need to find Judai...and the Avengers team as well…” Yugi said, trying to refocus the group, “But where are they?”

His inquiry was answered when Thor was launched through the wall by some sort of strong force.

“Hey boys….” Thor grunted through the pain, “We could use some assistance....”

Before Thor could elaborate anymore, a shadowy tendril shot through the hole in the wall and dragged him back through. Once everyone got over their shock, they followed Thor through the hole.

On the other side was the very definition of a nightmare. Every Avenger member was pinned to the walls by shadows and in the very center, was a tall imposing figure dressed in black and gold armor, the helmet obscuring the figure’s identity. 

“Who’s this guy?” Yuya found himself asking.

Tony flipped his visor open and cried out, “It’s Judai! Judai is in that armor!”

This came as a shock to the newcomers, just what had happened to Judai?

Everyone had to scatter when another wave of shadows swept through the room. Yusei held onto Ai tightly as the Ignis refused to let go of anyone and had even grabbed Yusaku to keep him out of the line of fire. 

“Ai...do you think you can get close to Judai?” Yusei asked.

“Not without letting you guys go which I am not going to do.” Ai protested as he scooped up Yugi and Yua next. The Avengers were still pinned, unable to move.

“Throw me Ai….”

Everyone turned to Yusaku in shock. “What did you just say?” Ai asked.

“Throw me at Judai…” Yusaku’s gaze was firm and determined, “Throw me and I will break through to him with the Mind Stone.”

“I am not going to…”

“DO IT!” Yusaku cut Ai off, clearly not in the mood for arguing. 

Rather reluctantly, Ai took careful aim and shot Yusaku forward, a tendril still wrapped around him as Ai clearly didn’t want to let him go. Yusaku gripped onto Judai’s cape and began trying to wrestle the helmet off. It took some doing but Yusaku managed to slide the visor up revealing that Judai’s eyes were completely blinded by the red haze.Yusaku didn’t even dare try to view Judai’s vision, instead he slapped the Mind Stone on Judai’s forehead and yelled,

“WAKE UP ALREADY!!!!!!”

Yellow light began cracking through Judai’s armor, then down the shadows that were blanketing the room. With a quick flash, everyone dropped to the ground exhausted, Judai included now freed from the dark armor.

Tony groaned as he got to his feet, “That’s it….extra therapy sessions for everyone.”

Steve rubbed his head in frustration, “I still have no idea what Wanda was up to…”

This caught Yugi’s attention, “You know the woman who did this?”

“Her name is Wanda Maximoff, she’s actually an ally to us…” Natasha explained, “But the fact that she attacked us today indicates that something outside her control is going on.”

“So an outside force?” Yusei asked.

“Mostly likely…” Clint said, “Which means we’ve got another conspiracy to break down.”

“Does this happen often?” Yusaku asked.

“More often than we like,” Tony said as he hefted Judai over his shoulder, “Come on...let’s head home. And get that nightmare fuel to shrink down already…” Tony said pointing to Ai, “We already have enough trauma to deal with.

Ai huffed as he finally shrunk back down to his smaller form. He really didn’t care about this Wanda character or any supposed conspiracy theory. The vision he got was still on his mind. After all...the sight of Yusaku’s bullet ridden body was forever burned into his memories.

44 notes • Posted 2021-05-12 23:25:53 GMT

#4

Don’t know how many Mermay pictures I can do for this year but I’ll start by sticking with my current hyperfocus of Twisted Wonderland. We don’t have a cannon design for Azul’s mer-form but hopefully the poor boy will be able to rebuild his confidence to show this side of him without being ashamed. We love our octo boy.

45 notes • Posted 2021-05-06 01:12:42 GMT

#3

Get this as a sticker on my new Redbubble page!

“Ai” Love You Sticker

working on adding stuff so be sure to check back

47 notes • Posted 2021-07-08 22:32:55 GMT

#2

One more round of this galaxy brain crossover before spring break ends (sad face).

-We all know Yusaku won’t be riding a broom the “normal” way, he would totally treat it like it was his board from Link Vrains.

-We all know Yusaku is bad at coming up with names so Tsunotaro lives on

-Vil catches Yusaku to give him a look for the Ghost Bride event. Yusaku is now planning revenge. 

-Also I can totally see Yusaku asking Jamil to pierce his ears so he could start wearing earrings like Ai.

61 notes • Posted 2021-03-20 16:48:03 GMT

#1

Best screenshots I could get of Link’s new arm. At this point I’m not sure if it’s a full on prosthetic or an exoskeleton on his regular arm that got injured or cursed. Thinking cursed as we see those markings going past his shoulder and down his torso.

176 notes • Posted 2021-06-15 17:05:47 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[kuriboo]

Hugsaku 2021

Day 2 - Don’t Touch Me | “I don’t want your help!”

I handwrote my first three entries for this, this part being the last one I handwrote. I was able to start typing it out after this, thankfully, since that was a lot easier. 

This is the third part of a continuous fic I’m writing for hugsaku week: Yusaku ends in Heartland with no idea of how he got there or how to get home, and Yuma commits to helping Yusaku out. I’m also posting the whole story together on ao3. I’ll post the link to it in the notes. I hope you enjoy!

--

“What do you mean you don't like hugs?"

"I don't like people touching me. At all.”

Yusaku walked ahead of Yuma, pulling on the jacket of his school uniform. His hands had gone into muscle memory to loosely tie his tie around his neck. Pulling it too tightly felt uncomfortable, like a noose around his neck, but this made him look more sloppy and disheveled. He didn't dislike that. It seemed to be a fairly average look for boys his age. Yuma, meanwhile, had just changed out of his school uniform and into an outfit similar to what he'd worn when he met Yusaku; Yuma had just gotten out at school. For some reason, Yuma had thought it was a good idea to let Yusaku sleep until he got home, rather than wake him up so he could begin his search to get home. Yusaku didn't need that much rest. Between that and Yuma’s apparent constant desire for physical contact, he was a little annoyed. 

“How can you not like hugs? They’re good for the soul!" 

"Alright, boys, hold it right there." 

Both boys turned around to look up at Yuma’s older sister, Kari. Most of her red hair was kept back in a ponytail, but her bangs framed her face . Like Yuma, she had some strands of pink hair, a fact that made Yusaku pull self-consciously at the pink strands in his own hair. She always seemed to stick to casual clothes since she was old enough to be done with school. She wore a nice blouse under a hooded vest, as well as galaxy print leggings. Kari sighed, her attention focused on Yuma. "Yuma, leave him alone and apologize.” 

"But Kari- "

Kari cut him off. " I thought we taught you better than this, Yuma. No means no, If he doesn't like being touched, that's all there is to it."

Yuma turned to Yusako, biting his lip. " You're right, Kari... Sorry, Yusaku.”

Yusaku shrugged. "It's okay," As long as Yuma backed off in the future, that was all that mattered in the end, he supposed.

Kari kept her attention on Yuma. "Now, is your room clean, or did you leave your clothes all over the place when you changed?"

"I'll, uh..." Yuma gulped. "I'll be right back!! " He dashed back towards his room at top-speed.

Kari rolled her eyes. "Sorry about him,” she said to Yusaku. "I know he can be a lot. 

Yusaku blinked. "Why is he so..."

"He's just like this with all his friends. And he's made a lot of new friends, lately. He insists anyone he duels is his friend. He's brought over more new friends in the past couple of months then I can count.”

“I'm not his friend. We didn't even duel; I declined his challenge." 

"That's probably enough for him.” Kari sighed. "I wish he wouldn’t duel so much. I know I'm hard on him about it, but someone has to be." She frowned at Yusaku. "He said you don't like to duel."

"Bad experiences." Yusaku shrugged, He refused to get any more specific than that, but he had a bit of respect for their mutual dislike of the game. "He said you don't like it either.”

“Most of it's because of him," Kari admitted. "Don't get me wrong, I love my little brother a lot. But that's actually the problem. Mom and Dad told me that dueling was going to put him in danger. I don't want to see him get hurt.” She sniffed. "I don't want to lose him. He's..." She sounded too upset to keep going from there. Yusaku didn't know how to respond to that.

Right in that moment, Yuma ran back into the room. “Okay okay, my room's clean now. Can we go?”

She recovered fast. "Fine, but you better be back before dark. You can't be late for dinner, and you still have homework to do!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll do it!” Yuma said in a tone that sounded like he'd already forgotten about the homework. "Come on Yusaku, you gotta meet Bronk and Tori!" 

Tori and Bronte turned out to be two of Yuma’s friends. The three of them were in the same class, and Yuma and Bronk dueled against each other a lot. 

“The five us us can figure this out together for sure," Yuma declared after they all met up in a local park. Yusaku was confused about Yuma's math for a second, until he remembered the apparent existence of Astral. “Right .. " Tori placed her hands on her hips. "So what's your master plan to figure this out,Yuma?"

Yuma stared blankly at her.

“Figured.” Tori stuck her tongue out at Yuma, then looked more softly at Yusaku. "What about you, Yusaku? Any thoughts?

Yusaku’s first instinct was always to hack his way out of his problems. “I'd see what I can find out on a computer, but I left mine at home and Kari is busy with hers." And Kolter’s hacking hot dog truck was at the same place Yusaku’s computer was: home.

“Finally, someone with a brain,” Tori said. "You're in high school, so of course you'd be smarter than Yuma.” Yusaku knew better than to make an assumption like that. "There's computers at the library we can use. And the library's close by.” 

"Libraries make me itchy," Yuma mumbled. 

“Just because you don't like to read doesn't mean they can't be helpful!" Brank laughed. 

When they got to the library, Tori jumped onto the first computer they found. "So, Yusaku, where are you from?"

"Den City."

Tori typed the city into a search on the Internet, but no results came up. Den City apparently didn't exist. "Uh..." 

"That can't be right,” Yusaku reached around Tori to type other queries in to the search. He wasn't stupid enough to search for himself. He went out of his way to make himself as unmemorable and invisible as possible. But he tried other things. Den City High School. Akira Zaizen. SOL Technologies. Playmaker. Blue Angel. Link Vrains. It all came up with nothing. "There's no way…”

(“Maybe he really is from another world.”)

Pain throbbed in Yusaku’s head. This couldn't be right. "It's like my entire life just doesn't exist…” What was he supposed to do without Kolter or Ai? Who was he supposed to be if the Lost Incident never happened or if he wasn’t Playmaker? Now what did he do? 

Yuma, Tori, and Bronk each shared a look. “We'll just have to work even harder to help you get back home, then.” 

"I don't even know if I can get home.” If he remembered how he got here, he could at least try reverse engineering that, but Yusaku didn’t even have that much. He was alone, in a strange place where he didn't exist. He had nothing here to drive him, no reason to keep going.I have nothing to go on,” Yusaku muttered to himself. "What’s the point?"

“There's still a chance. It's small, but as long as it's there it's worth trying. We can't give up yet,” Yuma insisted.

Yusaku stared blankly at him. "’We'? I never said I wanted your help. Actually, I don't want your help.” All he was doing was wasting their time. “Just leave me alone." 

Tori and Bronk actually laughed at that. "You really don't get it, do you?” Tori asked. "Asking Yuma not to help someone is like telling a bird not to fly." 

"It's about feeling the flow!" Yuma added. "And right now, I’m feeling it. Now that we're friends, I'm not giving up. I don't care if you think it's hopeless, Yusaku. It might look that way, but there's always hope deep down if you look hard enough. We're going to get you home."

"Now that you're friends with Yuma, you can't get out of it,” Bronk added. “Yuma always does everything he can to help his friends. And any friend of Yuma's a friend of ours, too, so now you're stuck with all of us." 

Yusaku couldn't really get it. His idea of friendship was clearly different from theirs. But he could see he couldn't talk them out of it. "If you're not going to give up, I guess I have no choice. It looks like I can't give up, either." 

"Great!" Yuma pumped his fist into the air. “Can we do a group hug?" 

Some part of Yusaku felt like he needed it. "Yeah." 

The three of them gathered next to Yusaku and brought him into a gentle but firm hug. Comforting and grounding. For a moment, Yusaku really believed they might be able to get him back home.

#hugsaku #hugsaku2021 #yugioh zexal #yugioh vrains #tater writes #this part introduces some new characters...don't get your hopes up for any vrains characters yet though

[breakdawn-avenue]

if you're taking requests for the sentence prompts, how about 23 and datastorm? :3 thank you!

coming from this “sentence prompts”with pleasure! ^w^Summary: They’ve managed to settle the Ignis warfare without great losses. Oddly enough, the truce between Playmaker’s team and the Knights of Hanoi is still going strong. Not that Yusaku would complain about it, though.Word count: 2.188Note: I. Just. Can’t. Do. Short! asdfghj but maybe this is the reason why no one asks me for these prompts lol (just so you know, I used some sort of headcanons of mine for describing since I’m already using them in my own story)

School couldn’t end sooner for Yusaku. He even manages to be the first student out of class. Luckily, no one stops him when he leaves the schoolyard. But it still takes the usual forty minutes to get back home. He could’ve asked Kusanagi to simply take him home but he doesn’t like to rely on his acquaintance like this. And Ryoken doesn’t expect him any time before six o’clock. On his way back home, he tries his hardest not to think about what they could be doing while being at Ryoken’s place. At first, he thought he could never set a foot on Ryoken’s doorstep again. Not after what had happened in his living room about eight months ago. He wondered about it during the whole school day but he couldn’t find anything, any reason inside of him that screams and tells him not to go. If he’s honest with himself, Yusaku couldn’t care less where he would meet Ryoken. The only bonus he has with Stardust Road is a slight chance to see its beautiful bioluminescence this night.Kusanagi couldn’t provide him any information about the pattern when the plankton gathers and illuminates the sea, nor did he ever find something about it when he browsed through the network. He didn’t dare to ask his Ignis, though. Maybe he could have a chance to ask Ryoken. Maybe he’ll manage to ask him without coming off as creepy during whatever they’ll be doing. Yusaku knits his eyebrows in an attempt to stop his wild running thoughts. It’s ridiculous. All they would do is tracking SOL Technology’s last transactions in Link VRains, and maybe check if and what they possibly could’ve caught in their Duel Disks when they went through SOL Technology’s thick firewall the previous evening. They would be only working. Nothing more. A work date. Yusaku shakes his head, almost vehemently. This won’t be a date, no matter how he views it. He is 100 % certain. One, they won’t be alone – what his peer considers as a requirement for a date – because if anything, Ai will be with them the whole time. Two, the work they more than likely will be doing isn’t considered a fun activity by his peer’s standards of a date. And three, all they have is a current mutual truce. Nothing more, nothing less. Ryoken still is hellbent set on destroying the Ignis.When he returns home, Roboppy greets him with a heart emoji on her display and a wave with her right arm. He registers the greeting with a curt nod before throwing his school bag next to his bed. A surprised »Oi!« echos through the main room of his home, followed by an offended »Careful! Sensitive software here!«. Yusaku mumbles an apology before grabbing his hoodie as well as his jeans. He steps into the small bathroom to change. When he gets back from the bathroom, he sees that it was Roboppy who opened his school bag and took out his Duel Disk. She holds it in her tiny hands and chats blissfully with Ai.“I’ll be taking out the- ”»Ooooohh, Yusaku-chan has a date!«The recipient flinches. He feels his cheeks heat up right away.“It’s not a date!” he defends himself quickly.»But you changed into a casual outfit!« Ai immediately points out.“So?” Yusaku raises his left eyebrow in confusion.He doesn’t know why his Ignis makes such a big deal out of it.»If it would be a simple meeting like you sometimes have with Kusanagi, you wouldn’t have bothered to change your clothes!«Yusaku ducks his head a bit.»Aniki, what is a date?« Roboppy asks curiously.“It’s not- ”»Oh, you know, minion – what they did in our soap operas!« Ai explains. »You know, like dressing up and eating in a fancy restaurant- «“That’s enough. And call him by his name, it’s ‘Ai’,” Yusaku chides them. “For you, Ai – one, her name’s Roboppy. Two, don’t go into detail. And three, we’ll be going. Now.”He takes the Duel Disk into his hands and fastens its lock on his left wrist.»Why not?« Ai pries curiously.“Because you’re giving her false ideas. Now be quiet,” Yusaku insists.He heads for the cupboard and takes out the garbage bag. He then fastens it with knots.“I’ll take out the garbage.”»What would you like me to do, master?«Yusaku looks around.“ …Actually, it’s fine. Activate the save mode,” he instructs her.»Certainly. Have a nice day, master!« Roboppy chirps happily and displays a waving emoji before driving up to her charging spot under the stairs.There, she turns around. The two sun yellow stripes on her display that mark her eyes turn into dots. They start to blink. Yusaku nods slightly before checking the windows three times. But they are locked. He heads for the front door, locks it and checks it three times as well before throwing away the garbage bag. Then he starts the 50-minute walk to Stardust Road. Ai’s occasional teasing is by far not enough to distract him from his own wondering, his quiet wish that the meeting with Ryoken might be a date after all. Or just simply the both of them finally spending some time together. His heart flutters. His palms start to sweat. He still tries to convince himself that it won’t be a date. He’s 100 % certain it won’t be like this. He still thinks that they’ll only be working. Since he is certain that Specter more than likely comes and goes as he pleases – that is, if he doesn’t already live with Ryoken. The lucky one.They are still only on a mutual truce. Even though it goes beyond the settled Ignis warfare. He shouldn’t be so bold, to dare to think too much into it. Once he reaches the streets that are more and more deserted from other human beings, his tense shoulders relax more and more. Even though he still teases him, Ai does help to pass the long walk to Stardust Road. The sun is already setting as he climbs up the mountain like hill Ryoken’s house is build on. He remembers that it has been the same time of day when he confronted the other teen with Kusanagi after their second to last duel in Link VRains. Back then, he was distracted with his raging emotions and the realization that his Special Person and Revolver – the cyber terrorist and leader of the Knights of Hanoi’s – are, in fact, the very same person. He has visited Stardust Road with Kusanagi during day time before, and he saw Stardust Road during night time – more so, illuminated. But in the end, it doesn’t matter what time it is, Stardust Road is always beautiful.It doesn’t lose anything of its charm even if the plankton isn’t illuminated. The sun illuminates the lazily moving sea on its own way, throwing sparks that look like diamonds on the sea’s surface, painting a path on its own up until the hill. The only difference is that he can’t look at it directly without getting blinded. It’s almost like the sun creates a Stardust Road on its own. He could stand there for hours, watching it change to the beautiful picture during night time and maybe even with the illuminated plankton. He needs to correct himself. Specter isn’t the lucky one to be probably able to live with Ryoken. Ryoken’s the lucky one to live at such a beautiful place.»Yu! Sa! Ku!« Ai suddenly shouts at him and attaches himself on his right cheek.The recipient jumps to the side.“What?!” he replies with his heart jumping to his throat as he peels off his Ignis.»We have company,« Ai informs him before retreating into his Duel Disk.“Finally back to earth, Playmaker?”Ryoken’s voice. Way too close to him. Yusaku flinches again. He tries to defend himself but once he realizes his nonsensical blabber, he shuts his mouth with more than likely scarlet red cheeks.“Goodness, I know that Stardust Road is breathtakingly beautiful but we really need to try to pull ourselves together.”“I – I – yes!”“Let’s go inside. Everyone’s waiting for you,” Ryoken says and turns around to head back to his mansion.Yusaku feels his shoulders drop.Because he is a bit disappointed? Because he did hope in secret to be alone with Ryoken? Because he actually wanted it to be a date by his peer’s standards? He just made a joke out of himself. In the end, he’d only have to deal with Ai’s teasing at home. After all, his Ignis is still afraid of Ryoken. Yusaku might be certain that Ryoken won’t just grab his Duel Disk and delete Ai but his Ignis isn’t completely convinced. Yusaku looks back to Stardust Road for the last time before following Ryoken to his mansion. He heads for the stairs but he stops one floor beneath the giant living room. He sees that the hallway leads to two closed doors as well as a kitchen at its end. Yusaku isn’t sure if he should follow him into the kitchen as well or just wait for him. But Ryoken suddenly stops, about three steps away from the door frame, leading to the open kitchen, and turns back to him with an astonished expression on his face.“What are you waiting for?”“N- nothing,” Yusaku mumbles with burning cheeks and hurries to catch up on him.Ryoken enters the kitchen and heads for the fridge. Yusaku stops before the dining table. Ryoken opens it, and for whatever reason, it confuses him a bit that the door opens to the left. The door points towards him. Just underneath the brand’s logo, he can see a photograph. It’s rather a picture, simply printed out on reprographic paper. Yusaku almost gapes. He would’ve never taken someone like Ryoken to have photographs on the fridge. More so that the photograph shows him. He remembers the late evening that it depicts. It was the evening when he entered one of Ryoken’s subordinate’s flat – without her consent – after her duel against Blue Angel. The photograph shows him in semi-profile, standing before Vyra’s running computer as well as Ryoken’s subordinate herself, still engulfed in the neon blue orb.“ …Why do you have a picture of me? On your fridge?”Ryoken flinches a bit. He closes the fridge’s door but stops halfway as he notices the aforementioned photograph. With flushed cheeks, he yanks it off of his fridge and stuffs it into the right pocket of his jeans. Casually, he notices a bottle of water in his other hand. He eventually closes the fridge’s door.“L- let’s go – they’re waiting- ”“Careful! It’s a present from my brother!” they hear Aoi shout exasperated from above.“I am!” Specter insists. “I’ve been supervised by none other than Ryoken-sama himself!”“Why couldn’t you just wait until he comes back with Fujiki-kun?!”“ …You meant Zaizen and Specter by ‘everyone’?” Yusaku asks while the aforementioned teens continue to bicker with each other.“Homura’s still visiting his grandparents. The Wind Ignis’ Origin is still… kind of out of commission. And Kusanagi Jin… refused to come,” Ryoken admits, a bit meekly. He takes out two glasses from the cupboard on the wall next to the fridge. “He preferred to spend his time with his brother. Actually, I… can’t really blame him.”He doesn’t need to go into more detail for the last one. Yusaku nods.“ …I still don’t know why you have a picture of me on your fridge!”Ryoken blushes and hisses quietly. “Never mind, Playmaker!”But he does. Yusaku can’t help but smirk in secret. He might not know what to think about the fact that Ryoken kept a photograph of him. It confuses him a bit that Ryoken knows that he had entered Vyra’s flat without her consent. And why he keeps it on his fridge. But a quiet, a bit hopeful voice inside of him whispers sweet things into his ears, making him hope, more than ever, that him chasing his Special Person might finally pay off. Working with Ryoken might be a good start towards it.“I can always provide you a better picture of me,” he offers.Ryoken jumps a bit.“Never mind, Playmaker!”Yusaku chuckles in secret. They climb up the stairs in silence but before Ryoken enters the living room, he stops again. Yusaku is just about to ask him why they stopped as Ryoken pre-empts him:“Stardust Road seems to have a special impact on you.”Yusaku blinks. “Excuse me?”“ …I told your Ignis to get back your attention because I thought for a second… that Stardust Road might take you with it,” the other teen admits with a barely audible whisper.Yusaku’s eyes widen astonished. “I… what?”“I don’t want you to become one with Stardust Road, Playmaker. Not yet.”Quickly, Ryoken enters the living room, leaving Yusaku behind, gaping in disbelieve. He doesn’t follow him suit. The teen doesn’t even feel when Ai pokes him affectionately.»You sure it’s not just a double date, huh?«

#lily-liegh #sentence prompt #yugioh vrains #Fujiki Yusaku #Kogami Ryoken #Datastormshipping #Ai #Ignis #Roboppy #guest: Zaizen Aoi #guest: Specter #bA's writing #damn don't you just love it when your pc dies on you? -__- #thank you so so much for asking!