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

S2-31✩ Unexpected Chain of Events

"Behind his strong sense of justice and unstoppable dueling talent, Playmaker is actually an ordinary student of Den City High School who, following after the Hanoi Tower incident, managed to inspire his classmate Soulburner to fight alongside him against the threat that looms over the new LINK VRAINS. They are incredibly serious people, but will occasionally drop their masks at the chance of attending fun events--like school festivals, to relieve their stress. After all, heroes also need rest, don't you think?

-S"

Blue Angel closed her hovering pop up screen as soon as she had finished reading that message and sighed heavily in disappointment. Currently, she was in a less crowded area within LINK VRAINS after she just ended the flash event that she held to lure Shima's avatar, Brave Max, into dueling Ghost Girl and spilling more information about Playmaker's identity after his defeat. However, that plan had to fail because it turned out that he didn't know anything and could only hand her that message that she had already received from her classmates earlier that day.

She sighed again. Knowing she was just wasting her time, she promptly logged out and distracted herself by watching TV while waiting for her brother to come home from work. When he did, they had dinner together and she could no longer hold herself from telling him about what happened today. He nodded after she had finished her story. "I see. Without anything to back it up, that message clearly is just a made-up story."

"Right? He should've checked the source first before spreading it," she pouted, "I bet whoever made it just wanted to mess with him, but why would they do that in the first place?"

"Perhaps they wanted to distract you from something and used him for that reason," Zaizen remarked, catching her attention. She tilted her head to the side in curiosity as he continued, "To lead people's attention away from a widely known issue is called diversion. Try to remember, Aoi. Did something not ordinary recently happen at your school?"

Aoi broke eye contact with him as she tried to dig up her memories. Moments passed by with Zaizen patiently waiting for her answer, then finally, he could see her eyes widening as her head perked in realization. "Oh! A video went viral in my school's main chat group. It was a pretty big deal, everyone knew about it."

"What kind of video was it?"

"Wait a moment, let me show you."

Aoi grabbed her phone and searched for that video, but strangely, she couldn't find it. Zaizen silently observed her changing expression from normal to confused with a small amused smile on his face. "You can't find it, can you? That means their diversion was successful. By the time everyone has lost interest in it, nobody will remember that video you mentioned, and even if they went out of their way to find it, they wouldn't succeed because it's already been cleared up."

His explanation had made Aoi speechless; it sounded very logical, hence why she could accept it, but even so, she felt like there was still something fishy. She lifted her head when her brother continued, "In any case, you don't have to worry about Playmaker's identity too much. I did want you to help, but just focus on your studies for now, okay?"

She slowly nodded in obedience before glancing at her phone again. She finally decided she was too tired to think about it for now and quickly went to bed.

✩

The next morning, Aoi walked to school as usual. She passed by the track field and briefly saw the Track Club members running laps together, but she paid no heed to them and went straight to her classroom. She plopped down in her seat and her eyebrows raised when she saw Mirai's empty seat. She turned to Hitomi, who was busy playing a mobile game on her smartphone, and curiously asked her, "Morning! Where's Mirai-chan?"