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

S2-24✩ Overprotective Instinct

Humans could make plans, but in the end, whether they resulted in a success or a failure, only fate got to decide that.

That was the case with Yusaku, who despite having spent all-night devising a plan to apologize to Mirai, couldn't carry it out because the girl in question kept avoiding him at school. She didn't even wait for him in their usual meeting spot where she handed him his bento every morning. That left him with no other choice but to buy lunch at the school canteen, something that had caught a particular noisy sidekick's curiosity.

"Whoaa, not having bento for today, eh, Fujiki? And here I thought I could finally eat mine with you! We had sukiyaki last night so my mother packed me some leftovers. Wanna try some?"

"No thanks." was Yusaku's curt reply to Shima as he munched on his yakisoba bread. Tasteless.

"Are you sure? It's a high-quality meat, you know! Way better than what you're having right now."

"Like I said, no."

Shima finally gave up, but still rambled on even though he knew Yusaku wasn't paying attention to him. "Anyway, we're going to have our first school festival in highschool! I was so pumped when they announced the theme! Say, do you think I should cosplay as my LINK VRAINS avatar? Won't that be cool?!"

Shima's ramble continued on until lunch break was over and although Yusaku had finally gotten his peace back, he couldn't focus for the rest of the day. He was still like that even after the class had been dismissed and he had joined Kusanagi and Takeru in Café Nagi's inner compartment.

"This morning, Ghost Girl emailed me something interesting," Kusanagi told Yusaku, Takeru, and their respective Ignis partners. "I've managed to decipher most of it but somehow, the rest can only be accessed in two days from now."

"What does it contain, Kusanagi-san?" Takeru asked him.

"For now, the coordinate of the gate to the restricted area in LINK VRAINS. It's top-secret information, so the source must be directly from Zaizen."

"Does he want us to go beyond that gate?" Flame narrowed his eyes.

"But SOL Tech has the bounty hunter! Doesn't that make this a trap?!" Ai flailed his hands as he whined in worry, "I knew it was bad news immediately when you mentioned her name, Kusanagi!"

"Still, we don't have any other leads. We only know the enemy went missing into that area, so although it may be a trap, we have to check it. No matter what the risk is."

Everyone turned to Yusaku, who finally spoke after being a silent listener for a while. Strangely, nobody responded to him except Kusanagi, who stared into his eyes and finally smiled. "I understand. The rest of the info should be arriving in two days, so until then, just prepare yourself."

"Got it. Then let's wrap it for today."

Yusaku stood up from his seat and headed towards the exit. Seeing this, Takeru promptly bowed to Kusanagi and hurriedly went to follow after the boy, but just then they were stopped by Kusanagi. "Wait. Yusaku, can I talk with you for a moment?"

When Yusaku heard that, he merely gave him a glance, but still obediently turned around and stayed. Meanwhile, after seeing Kusanagi smiling apologetically at him, Takeru replied with a quick nod and said to his friend, "Then I guess I'll go home first. See you tomorrow at school, Yusaku!"

As soon as Takeru went outside and closed the door behind him, he let out a long silent sigh of relief. Flame of course found this as an opportunity to tease him, cackling, "Ha, they kicked you out!"

"I hate to say this but I'm glad they did. The air was so thick inside," Takeru shuddered, "I could still feel Yusaku glaring at me. Tell me, Flame, did I do something to tick him off?"