A Fan:WELl...
Toaneo07 Ver2.0: *Chuckle* What's with the Ver2.0? And thanks!
Apologies for the wait! Happy New Years, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and whatever else I missed! But i've got a longer one to make up for it!
The last one's a bit of a doozy though.
12.1 dragonraptyr "Hey, Guys?"
Yusei looked up from his drink. All five Anchors were gathered in a small bar in Neo Domino City. Yuya was looking uncharacteristically pensive. "Something wrong, Yuya?"
Yuya shrugged. "Maybe? My last loop was a fused one, and one of the Loopers mentioned something called the "Crash". I wanted to know more about it."
Jaden sighed, kicking his feet up on the table. "I haven't thought about that in ages." The GX Anchor admitted. "That was one messed up loop."
"What do you mean?" Yuya leaned forward.
"The Crash was an event taking place in the Mega Man loops that resulted in an entire branch of Yggdrasil being wiped out. It just didn't exist any more." Astral said calmly.
"All the Loopers were active during that following Loop. Thoth didn't have time to be long-winded like he usually was, he just said that something major had happened and he would explain more when he had the time. It was freaky." Jaden took a sip of his drink, staring at the table. "That was bad enough, but..."
"All the loopers were looping." Yugi said gravely. "Including Paradox."
Yuya paled. He'd never run into Paradox, yet, but the thought of him was terrifying. "That's...not good. At all."
"No, it isn't." Yusei admitted. "Maybe we'd best start telling the story from the beginning...
12.2
"You're not Sora." a little-kid named Riku stated bluntly to the young tomato-haired boy, sounding unmistakably disappointed which got him a firm whap on the shoulder and icy cold glare from an-also-slightly-younger-than-him girl named Kairi.
She huffed. "Jeez Riku, I know you and Sora made a plan for the next loop, but I did not come all the way over from Radiant Garden this early to hear you be so rude!"
"It's no problem" Yuya chirped amiably.
She turned and gave a smile to their guest who was taking Sora's place that loop.
"Sorry about him, it's nice to meet you. Yuya was it?" Her loop memories said.
He gave them a brilliant smile, sitting up and shaking the sand out of his hair.
"That's me. Nice to meet you too, Riku, Kairi."
Riku sighed but tried to be hospitable. Before he could say anything though, Yuya stared out at the ocean, red eyes almost blank, as if he were somewhere else.
Riku and Kairi exchanged a slightly worried glance. "Yuya?"
"Ah...sorry! I don't normally space out like that.." He said sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "But I have a telepathic link with the other three anchors in my loop...I can't sense Yuto though..." The last part was muttered.
Riku and Kairi's eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh, okay!" Kairi chirped, Riku sighed in relief, as telepathic links were something they were used to. "At least you don't have to fall asleep to talk with them, Sora had that problem."
Kairi seemed to giggle at the memory, "When he does that for too long, his body ends up doing the silliest things."
Riku looked like he was stifling laughs for a moment. "Do you know who your friends are with right now?"
He stared out again, but tried to keep the other two kids in his peripheral. "Yugo seems to be with two people...Um, Aqua and Terra?"
Kairi looked happy and even Riku cracked a smile. "And Yuri's not really saying much to me, but Yugo said he's taking the place of someone named Vanitas..."
"Him?" Kairi said shocked.
Oh yeah, and the Vanitas guy might be a villain... Yugo added in a little late.
"Is he a villain?" Yuya asked.
"Yes, but he hasn't been very dangerous since most of us are veteran loopers..." Riku said offhandedly, then gave Yuya a weird look. "Is Yuri a villain in your loop?"
Kairi suddenly looked worried. "And you said he's an anchor?" Janus hadn't said anything, but they should be aware of any potential MLE's.
Yuya nodded, rubbing the back of his head again. "Former villian is more accurate...and according to Yugo he took one look at the guy he was working under and left." The other two looked slightly calmer after that.
Yuya suddenly looked pensive. Yuri still saw him as a big brother figure and confided in him how much he hated that he was still considered a villain by Yggdrasil. He wanted these two people who reminded him so much of Yuzu and Gongenaka to understand his brother in all but blood.
"I can't blame him...from what Yugo's telling me, it sounds awfully like what he went through back home. See, he activated in a variant and grew to resent who he was before that."
Kairi chirped in sympathy and Riku eyes widened. "Chrysalis syndrome?" He muttered to himself. Kairi, who was next to him heard that and her eyes widened in recognition too.
"Ah, sorry. I brought the mood down... Would you guys mind telling me a bit more about this loop?"
And there's these awesome weapons called keyblades...
Yuya perked up at the odd familiarity of that and turned back to Riku and Kairi.
"I'm especially interested in what keyblades are."
Pogo couldn't summon his despite taking the place of someone who could.
YURI!
Hey guys, where's Yuto? I can't sense him anywhere in this loop...
Dunno...
We can't talk with him either, nor have we run into him yet. If he is going to be awake this loop, perhaps he just isn't as of now.
Yuya sighed. That was the most reasonable conclusion to draw. Not all four of them were awake every loop, but he'd hoped...
Yeah, that makes sense. I'm going to play catch up with a couple of new friends here. We're in one of the more peaceful parts of the loop, so please keep me posted.
Of course
Roger that!
"Let us welcome one of the keyblade's chosen to the Organization. Number XII, Yuxay!"
The minute he awoke he was being guided down white hallways. His loop memories...
Well aside from the alarming lack of them aside from the ones for a few minutes before he awoke, told him his name for now was Yuxay, given to him by that white haired dude after he woke up in a strange town with his mind blissfully blank.
He was asked to wait outside a large circular room where a blue haired guy drones on about hearts...and darkness. Weird.
Despite everything, Yuto... found his mind wasn't working as fast as usual, processing the little information he had slower than a sloth's pace from that one anthropomorphic animal kingdom loop. Almost as if it really were blank, or the blankness was inhibiting his thought process.
Still he knew to reflexively send out a ping as he stood in front of the circle of chairs that looked like they were too high to be practical.
A guy to his lady, with wild red and spiky hair, green eyes and strange purple triangle shaped marks was eyeing him, their gazes met, and he felt a return ping. Gently bidding his head, he saw the guy smile.
With his awareness slowly coming back to him, he then craned his neck to the first man his loop memories showed him.
Xemnas.
He was ushered out of the room, when heard a clamor in his head.
Yuto?! YUTO! Came the cheerful and relieved voice of Yuya. He couldn't help but smile at the ever-present optimism of who he largely considered his closest confidant and best friend among the loops.
Hello Yuya. What did I miss?
Oh...not much...
On the contrary, you've got quite a bit of catching up to do. Yuya's a bit busy at the moment, but I'll be waiting for you outside to explain.
"Oh no, is his replacement a zombie too?" The spiky-haired redhead looper chimed jokingly next to him.
Yuto offered him a small smirk. It wasn't much compared to Yuya's radiant smile, but he'd been practicing.
"Sorry about that. The name is Yuto. I'm one four anchors for the Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V branch."
The redhead shook his hand. "The name's Axel. Got it memorized?"
Yuto smirked again, cheek bones already starting to hurt, and nodded.
"So Yu-Gi-Oh, huh? That's one of the...card game ones, right?"
Yuto couldn't help but roll his eyes. "I see the reputation of those loops precedes us."
Axel chuckled. "Sounds like you guys just sit on your bums playing card games all day. Well, if you wanna get through this loop, you'll likely end up going through some traumatizing stuff- -"
- -Everything disappearing into the abyss
...he suspected he wasn't supposed to be seeing this, but there it was.
Yuya was standing onto the desolate beach, strange weapon in hand and dueldisk nowhere in sight as he slashed a large shadowy creature and the area was torn to shreds around him- -
The scene that was different and yet so-SO familiar in the most horrible way because it was Yuya of all people in the middle of it, ricocheted off Yuto's brain.
It would appear he wasn't as recovered as he thought.
A familiar yet muted sense of fury started building, so he brutally socked Axel in the gut, causing him to double over.
"Don't ever assume it was a walk in the park."
He turned smouldering but quickly dulling gray eyes to a shocked and unexpecting Axel.
"Never insinuate any of our loops are easy. Because they're far from that." He hissed with a deadly calm demeanor
Axel's eyes were wide, and he shakily smiled while pointing fingers guns at Yuxay.
"Never say the card game loops are easy...gotcha." Yuto nodded.
"Ah...hah...okay then! Let's move away from the doom and gloom and start showing you around, eh Yuxay?"
"...Yuto."
"Right...Yuto! I'll get it memorized." And he tapped his head, the smile returning to his face.
"Anyway, it's my job to show you how to use that Keyblade of yours."
Yuto remembered what he heard when he walked into the circle-chair room."I heard that blue haired man say something about being the keyblade's chosen..."
"Yeah, well, that's actually a lie."
Yuto's eyebrows crinkled.
They're not rare at all! I have one, and so does Yuya, and so does Pogo...
YUGO you bastard!
Hello Yugo.
Oh, hey Yuto. I don't have time to talk, I'm busy helping Yuya at the moment.
Yes, well get back to it Slow-go.
FOR THE LAST TIME IT'S- -
Didn't you just say you should be helping Yuya..?
OH, right! We'll talk more later!
...
You really should stop teasing him one of these loops. His yelling is going to make us all go deaf someday.
I know, but his reaction is always priceless...
Yuto cracked a smile That it is...
"Hey, are you in there?"
Yuto blinked, focusing back on Axel.
"Look, I meant it as a joke earlier when I compared you to a zombie, see the person you're replacing this loop, my good buddy Roxas, could barely speak the first day he joined the organization. He was, y'know as my teasing suggested, like a zombie. Heck still is on the rare occasions he's not looping..."
"Well, I apologize for spacing out in advance. I have a telepathic link with the other three anchors- -"
"Just like him with Sora and Ven! Wow, who'd have thought. I haven't met the other visiting loopers, but I bet you they fit the people they're replacing pretty well."
Yuto nodded with another smirk. "Yes, Yggdrasil loves it's irony."
"Well, I'll stop bugging ya. I'm sure you have stuff you wanna go and do, I've seen you eyeing that door.
Just be sure to get some rest, you've got missions starting tomorrow. And then I'll take you out for ice-cream afterwards. Got it memorized?"
Yuto nodded and gave a genuine smile at the offer. "That sounds great. Thanks Axel."
"No problem. Welcome to the Kingdom Hearts loop, Yuto.
12.3 krspaceT
"I activate the Miracle Synchro Fusion magic card!" Kaiba shouted at his latest foe, Alexis Rhodes, who looked undeterred "I banish my Naturia Leodrake and Versago the Destroyer from the card graveyard to Fusion Summon! Knight of the Earth, shatter all effects before you! Take Flight, Gaia Drake, the Universal Force!"
The winged, armored knight rose up from a spiraling vortex in the ground, spreading it wings and pointing its spear at Alexis (3500, 2800).
Kaiba grinned (LP: 2400) "This card cannot be targeted or destroyed by any monster effects."
Alexis rose an eyebrow "It looks like one of Yugi's monsters".
"That isn't relevant!" Kaiba shouted as he pointed at Alexis's field, where she controlled Blue Flame Swordsman (1800, 1600), Harpie Queen (1900, 1200), T.G Wonder Magician (1900, 0), Scrap Dragon (2800, 2000), and Cyber Blader (2100, 800) "Now Gaia Drake, destroy Blue Flame Swordsman!"
Flying right at the warrior, the monster attempted to defend itself with a sword swipe, only for the sword to be pierced right through by Gaia Drake and shattered.
As pieces of the monster went everywhere, Alexis was pushed back (5200- 3500), but looked defiant "Wrong call Kaiba! When a Blue Flame Swordsman is destroyed, I can special summon the regular version from my extra deck!" the regular red swordsman appeared on Alexis's field in a fiery tornado (1800, 1600). But Kaiba wasn't done yet.
"Yeah yeah, you get Wheeler ace 1.0, it's not going to matter. In fact, I'll make sure to destroy that thing just to make my victory all that better! I now activate the quick play spell card Super Polymerization!"
Alexis now looked a little bothered as the field around the two began to spiral.
"With this card, by discarding a card from my hand!" Kaiba sent a Necro Gardna to the grave "I can combine monsters on either of our fields together! I'm thinking your Cyber Blader and your Scrap Dragon!"
Alexis looked bothered as Cyber Blader was sucked into the maelstrom with Scrap Dragon "Hey! That's my favorite card! How would you like it if someone took your Blue-Eyes like that".
"I'd stop them first" Kaiba asserted. Now, the Dragon of evolution meets the warrior of the past! Become a path of power and growth to the future and the past! Fusion Summon, become the perfect Paradox, Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste!"
12.4 [Snowboard Kids 2/ Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V]
"A snowboard just isn't as cool as a D-wheel..." Yugo pouted, inspecting his standard-looking blue board while sitting in the snow. Yuya absentmindedly pat his shoulder, pressing the left arrow button and changing into a winter outfit.
"Now, since the X-course has so many jumps, I recommend the feather board." The cute blonde girl said. "Just use the selection options to pick different board categories, and it'll be under 'special'"
Yuya duly flipped through the boards they had the option to choose, sliding his fingers over "special" and eventually finding the feather board.
He inspected it, noting how light it was, dropped it on the ground with a soft *whump, and jumped on.
He was able to balance all of two seconds before slipping on a patch of ice underneath.
The second local looper, a kid with spiky black hair sighed and facepalmed while the blonde girl helped him up, Yugo chuckling in the background.
"Don't worry, it's normal for new loopers to need to get used to snowboarding..."
Yugo huffed. "Yeah, well what if I want to ride my D-wheel?!" And then there was a motorcycle in a snowdrift.
Yuya's eyebrows crinkled slightly. "Will that even work with all the snow and ice Yugo?"
His banana haired counterpart nodded looking eager. "It sure will! Me and Yusei made some adjustments! This baby'll ride in just about anything!"
"Put that away!" The spiky-haired kid demanded.
"Oh yeah? Or what?"
The spiky haired kid pulled out a really large rocket and strapped it to the back of his snowboard. "If you get out-of-loop items, so do we."
The blonde girl looked slightly sheepish. "And if you two can't beat us, you don't get to move on to the next course. That's where you'll be meeting up with your friends."
Yuya sighed at his banana-banged counterpart. "Put the D-wheel away and let's just get this over with Yugo."
Scowling, Yugo reluctantly put his D-wheel away, the spiky haired kid looked smug.
"Alright you sorry excuses for snowboarders, I'm Slash and this is Nancy. We're gonna whip you into shape! Get on your boards and let's race down the mountain! Get you two some hands on experience!"
Yuya sighed but complied. Getting on the snowboard and managing to push off without falling due to his sense of balance.
He just needed to learn how to handle ice patches and he'd mostly be good.
As far as punishment loops go(And after the...explosive end the last loop had, he was assuming this was their punishment loop)...this isn't too bad... He admitted to himself. It wasn't even a full null loop, they had partial access to their subspace pockets after all. Still...
Yugo...why did you let Roget blow up all of Academia while we were STILL IN IT?
His banana-banged counterpart blushed slightly, mentally muttering an apology before getting on his snowboard and following him and the other two kids down the beginning of the course.
12.5 [Arc-V]/[Magical Passcode 1111]
Are you familiar with...magicians?
They are mysterious people who harbor Magi in their minds,
and extract their magical power for their own use.
You've never heard of them? Well then!
Let me tell you the tale of the magicians and the Demon Lord!
Once upon a time, the magicians were utterly destroyed by their sworn enemy.
No, no! That's not the whole story! Please, just relax.
Only two magicians in the entire world survived
The magician Anglad and his disciple Yuya.
They lived deep in a forest, far away from mankind.
He awoke in a pretty comfortable bed
which was odd, all things considered, since he usually awoke sitting, standing, or mid-stride.
And he was wearing these weird robes, but those were apparently normal for a magician's apprentice.
"Well..here we go again Lenya- -"
He suddenly came face to face with a light pinkish-haired, fluffy, feathered... goat...spirit...thing... Who stared at him with shocked red eyes.
"Where's Spellenya?!" The goat thing cried.
"And who are..." The goat thing...Meteo, his magi, whatever that is apparently, paused, eyes drifting upwards as if in thought and his eyebrows furrowed. "Yuya...?"
He smiled gently and gave a thumbs up to try to put him at ease. "I...how do I know that? I've NEVER seen you before..."
He rubbed the back of his neck "Right...well it's a bit of a long explanation..."
"And where's Spellenya!? That boy's useless without us!"
Yuya sighed. So these guys had probably just started looping, or at least hadn't encountered any other fused loops.
"Alright...How much time do we have? I'll explain."
"Ugh...Meteo? You look...different..."
Yuto eyed the new...male in front of him with bobbed white hair striped black the entirety of the left side, and glimmering yet questioning amber eyes.
"Whoever this 'Meteo' is, I can assure you I'm not them..."
Spellenya snorted, yet gave him another once over. "Now that you mention it...he probably would have said something really snarky by now." Spellenya stretched out, and Yuto noted the lack of freaking out...for now.
Spellenya yawned, shaking off the sleepiness. "Well then...who...
...
...Oh my Demon Lord... WHERE'S METEO!" he frantically looked around Hellfire? Euphoria? Tsunami?
A list of about 10 names rang in his head. Yuto figured he wouldn't mention that he could hear Spellenya's projected thoughts just yet.
Yuto placatingly put his hands up, "Hey..just calm down and I'll explain...see there's this big tree-computer called Yggdrasil..."
Yuya couldn't help but think of his Master's reacton to the note Meteo had them leave before heading out.
"Spellenya It's time to get up! I have a special task...
What's this?"
Off to conquer the world!
-Spellenya
He came out of his musings in time to hear Meteo say:
"...Me and the other magi figured there was something really weird going on...See, Epoch's powers are time-based and he sensed some sort of shift in space time...then there was one of those resets that had us all as regular magicians and the war hadn't happened."
"That reminds me..." Yuya quietly asked as he shot magic at another rock monster...demon thing. "What are magi?"
"Couldn't be helped..." Meteo sighed and explained the concept to him. "We're the lingering emotions and magic of a magician that dies, and while rogue, we're not unlike the demons you've been fighting. Except we can join up with another magician, regain sentience and help them out."
As if to demonstrate that, Yuya pulled on the well of power Meteo offered him, shooting another monster down with a comet-like attack.
"Got it...and are there are other magi that you and Spellenya are particularly close to, that may also be looping so I can go get them?"
"Yes, in fact you're approaching one of the magisafes now."
He hopped out from between a couple of bushes to find a young girl, no older than him wearing red and with straight black hair. She whirled around, startled, and ran off.
"Ah, wait!" He cried, but she didn't stop.
"Who was that?" He asked, but Meteo just pointed to a shiny object on the ground she had dropped, a rare smile on his face.
*Please input your 4-digit passcode* The magisafe, despite being an inanimate object, chimed.
He looked to Meteo who looked like he was trying not to laugh. "Just punch something in."
Four numbers.
"Uh...1111?"
He'd said it as a joke.
Meteo chuckled amusingly and murmured, "Good luck, you're gonna need it..."
And what he got out of it was a large crowned phoenix monster bearing down on him. It started spewing fire everywhere, of which he just manged to avoid.
Can't say the same for the plants since they were in the middle of a forest..
Yuya pulled on Meteo's magic and shot comets at the phoenix, which barely seemed to slow it down.
He had just avoided being set on fire for the umpteenth time, by a mere inch when he muttered, "Hey Meteo, I'm about to show you something else regarding the loops."
"Oh? And what's that?"
He smirked, catching sight of the girl in the corner of his eye, hiding behind some trees on the edge of the battlefield.
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" He called enthusiastically, holding back a chuckle to see the girl's and Meteo's eyes widen in confusion as he reached into his subspace pocket.
Even the Phoenix had stopped as he pulled out his duel disk.
"In a moment, I am going to make this huge phoenix, and all this fire around us disappear~!" He let some stars fly out from his hands for effect.
"Won't Hellfire like that..." Meteo muttered.
In a flash his dueldisk opened and he had a card in his hand which he slammed down on the blade.
"Make way for the star of the show, Performapal Guitartle!
In a flash of light a blue top-hat and bowtie wearing turtle, with it's stomach and tail being a guitar popped out, smiling at the girl who gasped loudly. If they didn't already know she was there, they would have now.
And in an instant the monster squirted water all over the clearing, putting out any lingering fires(which started to die out moments after catching anyhow)
The phoenix, while still alive, was now soaked and didn't seem to be able to spew fire anymore. Yuya took the opportunity to strike it down with a full power Meteor attack.
He looked over to Meteo who's jaw had dropped, red eyes widened before composing himself.
"Well...not bad, Yuya."
"Agh I feel all fuzzy...Hey Meteo! We doin' this again?"
"Well Hellfire- -"
"Wait, WAIT!" A kid on the younger side with bright red hair, green eyes and wearing regal-looking clothing that was just a little too big floated in front of Yuya, examining him.
"Who the heck is this?"
Meteo sighed. "Well..that's what I was trying to tell you Hellfire. This is..."
"...Yuya right? Well, nice to meetcha! Now let's go find Epoch, and Euphoria, and Tornado, and Nemesis, and Decay, and Osmosis, and Void..."
"What about Tsunami?" Meteo asked with a barely concealed smirk.
"Ugh...what about her?"
"Excuse me guys, but can you stop talking for a minute?"
"Hello?" The girl hesitantly chimed. "Are you a magician?"
"Maybe~" Yuya said with a smile, rubbing the back of his head.
She took that as a yes.
"That was so amazing! I've never seen anything like that!
12.5 Lermis [VRAINS Activation loop] (This one's gonna be a doozy. You have been warned.)
"You didn't… plan this."
"…"
"Did you?"
"No."
"…"
"It'd be… I dunno."
"Can't you see it?"
Wrong. All wrong. It wasn't possible.
First: According to his memory, he was not physically in this location.
Second: He had made no plans or arrangements to arrive at this location.
Third: There were elements in this location that no longer existed.
"… I don't want to."
That wasn't a yes. But it also wasn't a no.
"… I want to believe you but… but…"
"Come on, Yusaku. You can come up with something."
First: This platform had disappeared approximately four months prior to the last events he remembered.
Second: This platform evidently had the AI Roboppy downloaded to it.
Third: Roboppi had been deleted.
Roboppi had been
deleted.
"Do you want me to start with the reasons why I should or why I should not? What's going on here, Ai!?"
Behind them the sun was setting. There was a slight breeze. An ordinary breeze. No data to read here. Nothing to reach out for.
"Are you sure we should continue this here? SOL Technologies should be starting their scan in a few hours."
Yusaku was hearing the words. He heard the way they were spoken, which words he chose. It wasn't the Ai he first met. It wasn't that Ai at all.
Because these words… the way he talked, there was screams and the wrong smiles and tears and he was alone again in that room it was full but empty it was blank and that stare those eyes were EVERYWHERE but he called out and the boy DID NOT ANSWER and why did he-
"YUSAKU!"
He couldn't breathe.
"Yusaku, calm down. Deep breaths, come on… Three, right? In, one two three, out, one two three… Come on, Yusaku, stay with me."
Three. Yeah, three. Always.
In.
One.
Two.
Three.
Out.
One.
Two.
Three.
In…
He didn't know how long he was standing there. He regained feeling of his limbs but it was slow.
The sun was still setting.
"Are you okay, Yusaku?" Ai was right there before him, much closer than before.
"Y-yeah. I'm fine." No he wasn't.
"No, you're not." Of course he wouldn't be able to lie to Ai. "They were never this bad before."
"Ai…" Yusaku didn't even know where to start. Because it was true. It wasn't bad as of late. In fact, he hadn't blacked out like that in a long time.
Roboppi was here. It… he, they, had been deleted. Yusaku was right there.
Yet here they were, with Roboppi greeting him in the same hour as always, calling him "master" like they always did. Normally, Yusaku took comfort in routine.
Except that he no longer had a routine.
And Roboppi was
not supposed to be here.
He had to know more. He had to make sense of this.
"Roboppi…"
"Yes, Master?"
He choked. He swallowed. "What is the last thing you remember?"
"Roboppi woke up Master at 06:45."
Yeah, they had. As always. "And before that?"
"Master went to sleep at 04:53."
04:53. He used to do that every day – if he managed to get any sleep to begin with. He was trying to drop that habit.
He was succeeding too.
In fact, he knew he had managed to sleep before two o'clock last night.
"Roboppi… What is the date?"
They answered.
First: Roboppi had no recollection of past events.
Second: Roboppi had reported past sleeping habits that had since been dropped.
Third: The date was wrong.
"Ai, I believe you. You wouldn't do this. Not after… everything. But- how?"
"You're wondering if this is a simulation."
Yusaku nodded. Damnit, why was it so hard to talk!?
Actually, he knew exactly why. Years of therapy had explained it to detail. He had a name to put on it.
It wasn't helping.
"From what I can tell, it's not a simulation at all. That's just plain old Link VRAINS. Right before the whole mess with the Knights of Hanoi went down."
Ai was no longer looking at him. Instead, he was gazing at the horizon. The old landscape of Link VRAINS was not nostalgic, exactly. At this point, Yusaku was just doing a job, feeling nothing but anger, converting it to the fuel he needed so he could keep standing up.
"I called Kusanagi-san this morning."
Ai's neutral expression fell. "His brother, right?"
"I didn't ask about him. I concluded that if Jin did – anything, he'd tell me." He swallowed. "Jin wasn't there."
"So we're back at the beginning, huh? I guess that's eternity."
He felt that one. It hurt. Like a punch through his chest, knocking his breath out of him. Again.
One, two, three… One, two, three…
"Is that what you wanted!?"
"H-Huh?"
"To have me with you? If you can't do this by yourself, you drag me with you? I can't DO that, Ai! I told you! I can't leave everything else behind and now it's all been reset!"
"You're accusing me of time travel?"
"No! This is a simulation! It has to be!"
"But I can't do that, Yusaku, not to you, I couldn't do that, I was DEAD!"
"Then what IS this!?"
Because it couldn't be time travel. It couldn't be a dream. If it was a simulation, he could escape it. He could fight his way out of it. He could hack it and he could go back where they managed to get a happy ending, a closure for everything.
But Yusaku couldn't escape his own mind.
And he had no idea how to begin escaping an impossibility.
Yusaku had discovered a long time ago that all those who claimed that you could feel no pain in dreams were wrong. Dead wrong.
He wished they were right.
He could feel everything in his dreams. The knots in his stomach. The hunger. The buzzing of that electronic voice in his ear. The weight of the equipment on his head. The
shocks.
The shocks always woke him up.
Maybe those people being wrong was a good thing. Because otherwise, Yusaku wasn't so sure that he could wake up.
He checked the time. Then he called Kusanagi-san.
"Yusaku. I would never do that to you. After our duel, I…"
Now Ai was the one at a loss for words. He was holding onto Yusaku's shoulders like he was an anchor in a vast ocean of data, and he was threatened to be torn by the torrent.
"I was fine with the way things ended. I was happy. Me and the other Ignis… We had you. All of you. You would remember us, and I didn't have to face eternity, so…" He chuckled, but it was forced. "I'm a coward, aren't I? That's what I get for trying to run away. I'm sorry you got dragged in this, Yusaku."
"Ai…"
"I love you. I told you that. I wouldn't tear your bonds away from you. I won't do that, ever again."
First: Roboppi was present.
Second: Jin was not present, and Kusanagi-san gave no indication of realizing there was a change in his previous situation.
Third: The date was wrong.
Conclusions:
First: People close to him had been reverted to their state prior to meeting Ai and bore no memory of their struggles together.
Second: Events had been erased up to the same date.
Third: He was TRAPPED and NOBODY KNEW.
"Was it all for nothing? Ai?" Because all his bonds had been erased. His friends were now strangers. Everything they ever fought for was gone and forgotten. Because he had moved his time, pushed it and pushed himself as far as he could and it snapped back exactly where he started.
"No. We still have our bond, right? I'll be your partner, so you can keep me strong enough to continue. Alright?"
"…"
"…Yusaku?"
"…Yeah. Let's do this."
12.1: The Crash is an important part of the infinite loops. If you wanna know the details, we can talk over a PM.
Or you can just look it up, there's probably an article or two about it somewhere.
12.2: The original part with Yuto and Axel was a bit more angsty. I don't think I edited it on the spacebattles forum, so it should still be there.
12.3: It's one of the shuffle duels! I do believe the last one was the finale, but I'll have to go check...
12.4: Old N64 games because why the hell not! I have one of those things at my grandma's house, and me and my sister went at it with Snowboard kids after I watched her clear the Great Deku tree in Ocarina of Time with this old tips and tricks manual we found.
I won on the first few courses...and then we started doing the harder ones. At that point the computer controlled-skaters kept beating us...
12.5: The magisafe thing is why it's called Magical Passcode 1111.
It's a running joke, but there's actually an in-game reason for it...
Go play it BTW, it's a lot of fun!
12.6: Yup. Angsty. Though it kind of had to be because of the way VRAINS ended.
At east there were no further complications...but Yusaku and Ai are not going to be in a good place mentally for awhile...
GET THESE BOYS A THERAPY LOOP!
Okay so...if there is a next one, it will probably focus more on the other characters aside from the Yu-boys, and maybe an entry or two from Gx or something because that's the only other one I'm familiar with. And that's through the dub so...not too good on S4.
With any luck, someone else on the SB forums won't mind helping out and we'll have another VRAINS one or a snip for one of the other series'.
Well, I will hopefully see you guys in the next one.