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

S2-42✩ Forgotten, But Not Forgiven

Summer temperature couldn't possibly get any hotter than it already was. That was what Takeru believed, only to find out he was wrong when he could feel it boiling his blood. That was just an exaggeration, of course, but he felt exactly that after Yusaku told him that he decided to team up with the Knights of Hanoi, so suddenly, without telling him first. Emphasis on teaming up with the Knights of Hanoi, although it did hurt his feelings a bit when Yusaku excluded him from any decision making in their team. He knew Yusaku was their team leader, but still, he thought that was rather cold of him. He guessed Yusaku acting cold must be because he still stubbornly refused to forgive a certain silver-haired friend of his. To prove his point, Yusaku didn't sound regretful at all when he broke the news to him via a phone call on that Sunday night, so Takeru didn't hold back when he spat his frustrated reply, "I can't believe what I just heard!"

"Takeru, please understand. This is necessary if we want to have an upper hand against Lightning and his cronies. Kusanagi-san also agrees."

"But why did you not tell me first about it?" He groaned while pacing back and forth in his room, "Besides, aren't they your enemies?"

"For this plan to work, the leader of the Knights of Hanoi needs programmers who understand the Ignis Algorithm. You are not one of us, so technically, you don't have a say in this but I still want to let you know," Yusaku explained, making Takeru wince with his directness. "And yes, they are my past enemies but right now, we have the same goal that is to protect humanity. For me, the present is more important than our past conflict. That's why I don't want to dwell in the past while ignoring the approaching threat in front of me."

Upon hearing those words, something within Takeru snapped. "Yusaku, you're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

"Sorry?"

There was genuine puzzlement in Yusaku's voice, but as Takeru had already given in to his anger, he failed to notice it. His emotions ended up bursting and made him yell, "You keep deliberately pissing me off because I resent Tsubaki-san, right? If that's what you want, then suit yourself!"

BEEP!

Silence quickly followed after Takeru harshly hung up the phone on Yusaku, leaving the boy speechless.

"How is it, Yusaku?" asked Kusanagi as he placed a cup of hot coffee in front of him. After he returned from helping out at the orphanage, he went to check on Kusanagi at his hotdog truck, and that was when he found a calling card from Revolver being stuck between its doors. He logged in to LINK VRAINS to answer him, and after that brief meeting it was decided that his team, Ghost Girl, and Blue Maiden would team up with the Knights of Hanoi against Lightning.

Yusaku still stared at his blank phone screen in silence when he eventually gave his reply, "He's upset."

"For real? You always end up upsetting someone over the phone, it's starting to sound like a curse!" Ai cackled at his own joke until Kusanagi flicked his forehead to discipline him. The poor AI rubbed his forehead as he continued, "Uh... anyway, don't blame yourself, Yusaku! Revolver himself told us in his invitation not to bring Soulburner with us... for some reason, even though he knows we're working with him."

"Right, there's also that," Yusaku nodded in agreement as he crossed his arms and leaned back. Kusanagi and Ai watched as he frowned. "But what Takeru said to me just now bugged me more. To think he's still angry at Mirai..."

"Welp, it can't be helped, since she kidnapped him--"

"Mirai would never do such a thing," Yusaku firmly cut in, "She's already sick when the kidnapping occurred and in fact, Takeru said he was kidnapped when he went to visit her, so can she really be blamed for what happened afterwards? I just can't believe his irrational thinking."