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

S2-39✩ Returning Home

On the cold floor of that soundless room, Mirai sat by herself, hugging her legs and burying her face in them. Half an hour had passed since Queen left to prepare a new LINK VRAINS account for her to use for their agreed upon Ignis hunt, since she claimed that she had lost her ability to log in after her separation with Earth. But despite Mirai already agreeing to fulfill her promise--the one that Queen didn't deserve, she wasn't allowed to leave the room and had to wait for the woman to return there instead, before she would then work with Earth to find the other Ignis.

Queen seemed to really mean it when she said Mirai was like an open book to her, because she easily saw through her, that she was just making up an excuse to meet Earth immediately. As childish as it sounded, Queen wouldn't let her have her way. After all, they were inside SOL Tech's headquarters; her home turf. Everyone there must bow down to her.

However, Queen failed to realize that Mirai wasn't actually as gullible as she looked. Many assumed that a kind soul like her would and could never tell lies, but no; just like any other human beings, Mirai, too, had experienced her own share of the world's cruelty and as a result she was quick to adapt to her surroundings and follow their unwritten rules. The lies that smoothly left her lips and her quiet responses never meant she accepted any of Queen's demands, which was why the moment the door was unlocked and opened by that same intern, who brought her iced lemon tea, she sprang up and rammed her small body to the man. Leaving her footsteps masked by the voice of shattering glass behind, she hastily made her escape as fast as she could and searched for any other companionships she could find there. There was no way she would trust Queen again after cheating in their duel, and that left her to place her hope in that man, Zaizen Akira. If it was him, he would surely listen, she assured herself.

Mirai was only thinking about seeing Zaizen as she ran, unaware of the intern that she tackled back then was giving her a chase and had already closed the gap between them. When he grabbed her wrist, she screamed by instinct, but the man quickly covered her mouth, muffling her cries for help and forcing her to walk towards the room she left. She struggled to break free, but the man was by all means a full-grown adult while she was but an exhausted highschool girl. She shut her eyes as she gradually gave in, ashamed for letting herself be shoved and dragged around not only once, but twice, at the same day even.

"What are you doing over there?!"

When all hope seemed lost to her, a rasp yet commanding voice suddenly echoed in the corridor. Her glistening eyes shot open then as she found that distraction as a chance to free herself, biting the man's hand without mercy and thankfully, it resulted in him releasing her just like she had hoped. While the man writhed in pain, Mirai ran to the owner of that voice and hid behind his tall figure, tightly clenching his blue coat that reached his ankles, as if asking protection from him.

"Argh, you little--!"

"Oi, I'm talking to you," the man rebuked, a sharp glare still adorning his sullen face, "Answer me. What were you trying to do to this girl?"

The intern's face quickly paled upon recognizing the other man's face behind his dark spectacles and maroon muffler. Cowering under his intense glower, he clumsily tried to compose himself to present himself as professional as possible in front of that man, but failed miserably. "Um, Sir, please understand!" He whimpered, "Queen-san tasked me to watch over that girl, but then she tried to run away. I was just doing my job!"

"Tried to run away...?" the man murmured under his breath with a small frown. He glanced from the corner of his sharp eye at the girl behind him before shifting his attention back to the disheveled man in front of him and at the same time, he held Mirai's wrist with his left hand. He didn't notice how she tensed at first but quickly calmed down when she didn't feel pressured. Instead, she felt safe, despite hearing him scoff, "You damned fool, couldn't even do your job right. Go back to the pantry and make yourself useful like you were supposed to."