Ice Flower

Chapter 29

"Kayla, we may have a problem," Was the first thing Winter said when Kayla woke up that morning.

"What kind of problem?" Kayla sat up and stretched. "In Link VRAINS?"

"No, Link VRAINS was shut down temporarily for repairs. But...you might have forgotten to take off you duel disk last night."

Kayla looked down and was shocked to find that Winter was right. She quickly yanked off her duel disk and stashed it under her pillow. "I'm guessing that that's not all?"

"No. Your brother came down to check on you when you did not go upstairs this morning and saw you duel disk."

"Which means that he probably knows my identity in Link VRAINS now." Kayla sighed. "This is fun to wake up to. Is he still home?"

"No. He said something about going to Kolter's to review the problem in Link VRAINS. It is nearly lunch by now."

"Okay." Kayla stood. "I'm going to go make some lunch. Any suggestions?"

"A sandwich, since that seems to be the only thing we have ingredients for."

"I guess that I have no choice then." She grabbed the duel disk she and Yusaku had bought and strapped it to her wrist before going up to the kitchen.

"How are you so calm?" Winter demanded. "If it was me I would be panicking and trying to fix my problem."

"I have to eat."

"You humans are so strange."

"AIs are weirder."

"Not true!"

Someone knocked at the door. Kayla opened it and found herself staring at Roken. 

"Hi?" She said for lack of anything else coming to her lips.

"Where is Playmaker?" He asked immediately.

"He's with Kolter." She answered. "You look tired. Long night?"

"Something like that." He turned and started to leave when his stomach growled. He muttered something angrily under his breath.

"You want some lunch?" Kayla asked. "I was just about to make some for myself."

"I'll be fine."

"You can't properly duel troublemakers in Link VRAINS or whatever it is you do without food." She grabbed his hand. "It won't be long, I promise."

A few minutes later she and Roken were seated across from each other at the table.

"Come on, you don't have to act like you think I'm poisoning you or something." Kayla sighed when he didn't touch his food. "Dig in. It's just a sandwich. We can trade if you want."

"How do I know that that's not what you wanted to happen?"

She gapped at him. "Seriously?!"

Roken cracked a smile. "I was just playing with you."

A faint blush came to her cheeks. "Oh."

They ate in silence. Occasionally Kayla saw Winter peek out of the duel disk to see what was going on and had to hide it under the table, much to Winter's disappointment. 

"I heard that there was some big problem in Link VRAINS last night," Kayla said eventually. "What happened?"

"An organization of duelists called Spriggan attacked Link VRAINS." Roken looked up from his food. 

"Spriggan? I don't think that I've ever heard of them before."

"Not even I had until Glacier told me about them. Most of them were average duelists, people that almost anyone could defeat, but there were a few that were harder, almost to Playmaker, Glacier and I's level."

"Interesting."

"I've been trying to get a hold of Glacier, but the person we've been communicating through refuses to call her." Roken stood. "Thank you for lunch. I should get going now."

"Any time." Kayla smiled. "See you around."

"Are you going to agree to a meeting with him?" Winter asked when he was gone.

"No."

"Why not?" 

Kayla stood and cleared both her and Roken's plates. "There's no doubt in my mind that Yui won't be very happy with me if I do, and besides, I just pulled an almost all-nighter. I think that I could use some rest at this point. Also, he's got enough to do. He looks like he didn't go to sleep after we saved Link VRAINS."

"So what? You're just going to avoid going into Link VRAINS for the next few days?"

"Pretty much." Kayla nodded. "I was thinking about walking around the city today. Want to come?"

"Better than being stuck here," Winter grumbled.