Ice Flower

Chapter 7

"Yusaku, I'm home." Kayla called, switching on the lights with her elbow and setting the groceries on the table. 

There was no response. 

"Are you even here?" She asked. 

She quickly put away the groceries and went down into the bedroom just in time to see Yusaku come out of a hidden room in the wall. They both froze. 

"I didn't know you were home yet." Yusaku said slowly. 

"I just got back." she glanced at his wrist where an old-fashioned duel disk and deck were. "You want me to make dinner, or are we ordering take-out again?"

"We can get take-out." He hid his arm behind his back. 

Too late. Kayla wanted to say. Instead she said "Want anything in particular?"

"Not that I can think of." 

Neither of them moved to find their phones and order dinner. 

"Yusaku, how long have you been using Link Vrains?" Kayla asked eventually.

"About three years." He let his arm fall to his side.

"I thought that you hated dueling."

"I don't hate it." He started uneasily. "It just used to... scare me."

"Why?"

"Let's order dinner first." He reached into his pocket. "I'll do it."

"Kay." Kayla sat down on the bed and put her head in her hands. When Yusaku was done, he sat down next to her. 

"I was going to tell you eventually." He said. 

"You were?" She couldn't help but doubt that.

"You're my sister, and we're living together now. Besides, you would have noticed that something was wrong eventually." he shrugged and took off his duel disk, setting it on the bed between them. 

"So who exactly are you in Link Vrains?" 

"It's a long story?"

"I have two questions. One: why did you say that like it was a question, and two: how is it a long story to tell me one name?"

"It would make more sense to you if I told you what was going on from the beginning."

"That's what I'm here for." She turned to face him, crossing her legs. "Besides, the restaurant that you ordered from takes forever to get here. We learned that a few days ago, remember?"

Yusaku sighed. "I completely forgot about that. Okay, so it started back when I went missing back when we were kids..."

So he told her everything. There wasn't much of a reason to keep it hidden now. Kayla hung on to his every word, not wanting to forget the slightest detail. She committed every card in his deck to memory in case she needed to know it later for reasons she did not know and was tempted to write down what he told her about Ai. By the time that their food had arrived, Yusaku had finished and Kayla knew more about her brother than she ever thought she would. 

She had always wondered what had happened to him when he was taken. When he came back he was different, quieter. He barely said a word to her or her parents and never smiled. Every time someone mentioned dueling he looked ready to faint. And all that was to blame on the Lost Incident, or, the Hanoi Project. 

"You're really Playmaker?" She asked uncertainly when he finished.

"I am." Yusaku agreed. 

There was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it." Kayla jumped to her feet, anxious to move. She went up the steps and opened the door to see the boy who had helped her earlier that day.

"What are you doing here?" Roken demanded.

"Well, I live here." She crossed her arms. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to speak with Playmaker."

Kayla didn't skip a beat. "Who?"

"You know who. In fact, I bet that you're just some AI he's using so that he doesn't have to leave here." Roken started to push past her but she planted her hands on either side of the doorframe.

"Well, I don't know who you think you are, but I'm not some program that you can push around." She snapped. "I'm an actual human being and I live here, so you need to leave."

"I something wrong?" Yusaku called from the stairs. 

"Nothing!" She called back. 

"Yusaku, I know that you're here!" Roken shouted. He was met by silence except for the creaking of stairs.

"What are you doing here?" Yusaku demanded, right behind Kayla this time. 

"I was just telling your AI that-" Roken began.

"My sister is not an AI, Varis." Yusaku interrupted. 

"Sister?" Roken looked her over, as if just noticing their family resemblance for the first time. Kayla shot him an I-told-you-so look before dropping her hands to her sides. "No matter, I have something that I need to discuss with you, Yusaku."

"And what is that?" Yusaku stepped aside, motioning for Kayla to do the same. Roken came inside, shutting the door behind himself. 

"Certain matters that your sister might not need to know." Roken answered primly.

"I already told her everything." Yusaku said. "She can stay."

"Fine then. There is a new duelist in Link Vrains, Glacier. Her abilities as a duelist and hacker are off the charts, even for me and you. Almost at the same time as she started appearing in Link Vrains, a new group has begun to rise up and cause chaos. They don't seem to have a particular reason or agenda, and in my several duels with them, Glacier came up once or twice. I don't know if she is working with them or their leader, but she has some sort of connection to them. I wish to find out what that connection is. I've tried several times to contact her, but either she hasn't gotten my messages or is ignoring them."

"If I was her, I'd ignore you, too." Kayla said matter-of-factly.

"And why is that?" Roken turned to her, clearly not happy with her comment.

"Because from Yusaku told me, you guys don't always play fair. If she lost, or you managed to overpower her, what would happen? Something tells me that she wouldn't just be allowed to walk away."

"Of course not. I would take any information she has on this new group and would attach a virus to her avatar so that when she logs out we'll be able to track her location and arrest her."

"But what if she's not guilty of helping these people?"

"There is no doubt in my mind that she is guilty."

"Why do you need my help?" Yusaku interrupted. "This sounds like a job for the Knights of Hanoi."

"She doesn't trust us, as your sister just said." Roken seemed agitated. "But you might be a different story."

"And why do you think that I'll help you?"

"I don't. But I thought that you might be interested in the only thing we know about her."

"And what's that?" Yusaku's eyes narrowed.

"We don't know how, but she had something to do with the Lost Incident."

"I gave up that obsession a long time ago, Varis." From the look in his eyes, though, Kayla could tell that he wasn't finished with it just yet. 

"Fine then, it's your choice." Roken turned and opened the door. "I hope you made the right one, for all of our sakes."