Under the Rain [Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS]

S2-21✩ Some Things Change, Some Stay the Same

Yusaku slowly opened his emerald-green eyes. The virtual world of LINK VRAINS that he saw as Playmaker just some seconds ago now was replaced by the narrow walls of his special login room in Kusanagi's food truck. He blinked a few times to get accustomed to the dimness, then pressed the button that opened the door. As soon as he stepped out of the room, he saw Mirai standing up from her seat and hurried over in worry. "Yusaku! Welcome back."

Yusaku nodded in response. "I'm back. Did you watch the duel?"

"I did..." She nodded back, watching as Yusaku walked by her and sat down in Kusanagi's seat. She only stared in silence as he unequipped his duel disk and placed it on the spot next to the touchscreen keyboard. The terminal beeped once, seeming to recognize his duel disk. He then turned to her and said, "I need to reprogram my duel AI. It will probably take a long time to finish, since Kusanagi-san isn't here... so you should go home before it gets dark, Mirai."

She shook her head. "Let me stay here until you finish... please?"

"...alright then, if that's what you want," after a pause, he nodded and motioned to the empty chair next to him, "If you're gonna stay, you should sit down."

Mirai blushed slightly, soon scurrying back to her seat while Yusaku turned to the terminal and started working. A brief moment of silence passed between the two of them, but when Yusaku felt her intense gaze on him, he knew she had something bothering her mind but was holding herself back from telling him, perhaps because she didn't want to disturb him. But of course he would prefer for her to be more open with him, so without stopping what he was doing, he asked, "What's wrong? You have something you wanna say to me?"

She jolted up. "Ah, no... it's nothing!" she frantically waved and gave him another quick shake of her head. Unfortunately for her, her awkward attempt at avoiding his question only caused him to smirk. "Come on, we both know it's definitely not nothing. I could feel you staring at me, you know."

Mirai pouted at his response but soon decided to give in. "Umm... I've watched Playmaker's duels several times before with my friend, but that was my second time after knowing his true identity... and it felt different, after all."

"I've always dueled like that, though?"

"I mean, it has always been Playmaker but now, I see you dueling there. It's... making me have mixed feelings," she murmured softly, clenching her skirt. "Sorry... I don't really understand it myself."

Yusaku stopped typing to give her a calming smile and a light pat on her shoulder. "It's alright, you'll get used to it eventually. Now wait until I finish, okay? After that, I want to introduce someone to you."

Mirai was silent, but managed to give him a small smile and nod, allowing Yusaku to focus on the monitors again. Time quickly passed by, with only the sound of his diligent typing echoing inside the food truck since Mirai had fallen asleep while waiting for him to finish. Yusaku might be a genius programmer, but understanding how an Ignis worked and repairing it by himself was no easy feat. After a few hours of racking his brain and programming had passed, he pressed the final button on the keyboard and that caused his duel disk to glow a purplish light. He stopped frowning then as a small triumphant grin appeared on his face. "It's done!"

His small cheering made Mirai wake up. She slowly rubbed her eyes, trying to get rid of her drowsiness. She was still barely awake to be able to hear clearly, but she could tell someone unfamiliar to her was talking to Yusaku. That voice sounded somewhat cute... but it suddenly yelled at her, startling her into wide opening her eyes. Then, what she saw before her was a small humanoid creature standing atop of Yusaku's duel disk with both of its hands on its hips. It had purple stripes running across its pitch black body and a pair of glowing yellow eyes that excitedly studied her from head to toe.