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

S2-47✩ Dame of Hanoi (Part 1)

Meanwhile in LINK VRAINS, Zaizen and Ghost Girl stood on a roof of an empty building as they monitored the growing restless crowd below them. Some time had passed since Mirror LINK VRAINS disappeared and caused a bug that prevented logging out, and although Zaizen had long ordered Hayami and his other underlings to solve the situation, he hadn't heard back from them since then. It was then when a floating screen suddenly appeared in front of Ghost Girl. Ghost Girl explained to Zaizen that it was a program made by Playmaker's support, which would allow them to see what Playmaker and his group were seeing. Right now, it was showing the duel between Windy and Revolver to them.

Unlike Ghost Girl who focused on the duelists, Zaizen stared at the foursome who watched the duel from the sideline and noticed there was an unfamiliar girl among them. He gasped as his eyes widened in disbelief, because he could tell she was Aoi in her alternate avatar and was surprised she had teamed up with the missing WATER Ignis all along. "Ghost Girl, what's going on? Why is my sister there?"

Ghost Girl glanced at him and when she saw his demanding glare, she awkwardly averted her gaze. She had been friends with him for years, yet he still scared her sometimes. Sighing thinly, she stared at the girl on the screen instead when she answered, "She's called Blue Maiden while in that avatar and she's there for her childhood friend, Sugisaki Miyu, one of the victims of the Lost Incident and the original partner of the WATER Ignis. Sugisaki-san is currently in a coma because Lightning infected her with a powerful virus."

"Sugisaki Miyu... oh, I remember her! I think Aoi used to call her Miyu-chan," Zaizen's glare gradually disappeared as he finally connected the dots and came to a conclusion, nodding to himself. "I can't believe it. I thought it was because of my job that Aoi got involved into this whole Ignis mess... but she actually had been involved in it since long before. Fate is so scary sometimes."

Zaizen noticed that Ghost Girl was giving him a weird look, making him raise an eyebrow back. "Ahem, what's wrong?"

"I'm just curious. How did you know that she's your sister?" Ghost Girl pointed out as she tilted her head slightly to the left. "In a virtual world like LINK VRAINS, your appearance could be very different from your real self. Aoi-chan is no exception, but you could almost instantly guess it was her."

"Ah, that?" Zaizen thought for a moment, putting his hand on his chin. After some time had passed, he turned to her again and said with a straight face, looking at her innocently, "...an older brother's intuition, perhaps?"

"What does that even mean, jeez!"

"But it's true," Zaizen defensively raised his hands in front of him when Ghost Girl snapped. "It's just like that time when Blood Shepherd called your real name during our perilous bounty hunt. Thinking about it again, I'm positive that lone wolf only agreed to cooperate with us back then because he knew he would be helping his sister. We just know."

Ghost Girl still stared at him weirdly after hearing his explanation but said nothing against it, instead sighing and turning away to continue watching the duel. Seeing her reaction, Zaizen scratched his cheek and decided to join her. He saw Revolver summoning his monster before glancing at her again and trying to make a small talk to fill the awkward silence. "So, you said that Revolver was the one who reached out first and made this alliance work. What do you think motivate him to do that?"

"Ai-chan said that he was afraid of Lightning and he didn't try to deny it," Ghost Girl murmured after some pause, now with more seriousness adorning her face, instead of frowning. "Apparently he was also watching when Lightning defeated Blood Shepherd. But... actually, the idea irks me."

"Does it? Why?"

"Because in my eyes, Revolver is a ruthless criminal that I can't forgive easily, and yet for him to feel afraid like that... it made him sound very human. I dislike it," Ghost Girl groaned. "I find it much easier to hate some random bot on the internet than an actual human being who uses an avatar, that's why. You get what I mean, right, Akira?"