Archive of Our Own

"You're done!"

Yusaku couldn't believe it… he was so sure Ryouken was going to win this. But despite all carefully set traps and intricately crafted strategy, Ryouken's life points went down to zero. It was bad enough that Ryouken's team was wiped out by multiple Echos, but now the leader of Knights of Hanoi was following suit. The voice that gave him courage, the person who helped him climb out of the pit of despair… the person who saw as his saviour… was now buckling down on his knees in defeat.

"You really are pathetic, not even being acknowledged by your own father." Windy laughed "Now we had a deal, didn't we? You will join your fellow fallen knights."
"No!" Yusaku screamed, banging his fists against the sphere that kept him captive. No matter how much he hit the barrier, it made no difference, only injuring him as a result.

Ryouken was a prideful and determined person, yet the loss got him on his knees with nothing left to say as Windy raised his arm to begin the data extraction process.
Ai hardly watched his partner call for Ryouken in tears, a scene so similar to when Yusaku witnessed the erasure of Ghost Girl's data. Only this time he couldn't log him out, or comfort him… or literally do anything. If only he didn't fall for Lightning's and Windy's stupid trick, despite knowing something felt off.

The silhouette of the Knight of Hanoi was disappearing, blending into dozens of particles that gathered in Lightning's hand. The Light Ignis looked pleased, especially when seeing how much despair it brought to Dark Ignis and his human origin. In fact, it even gave him an idea.

"Now where were we?" Windy turned to the shocked faces of captives "Ah yes, packing up our little human-hugger. Don't worry, after we give you a little shock you won't even remember your human pet ever existed."
"He is not a pet!" Ai shouted in disgust, especially when remembering the fate of Windy's human origin.
"Pet or no pet, you and Flame got too attached." Lightning floated closer to Ai "You should've just done what I did."
"Did what?" Ai asked half in confusion half out of curiosity.

If Lightning had a mouth he would likely smirk if his eyes said anything. Yusaku was still in shock due to Ryouken's defeat, but as the Light Ignis started unveiling a blurred silhouette that carried him, he slowly turned towards it. To say both Yusaku and Ai were shocked would be an understatement.
The silhouette was no other than Jin, Kusanagi's little brother.

His eyes were emptily staring in the distance, standing still like a puppet. He wasn't responsive, only raising his arm on which the duel disk was strapped to when Lightning commanded him to.

"See this right here-" Light Ignis floated to Jin's duel disk "This is how you are supposed to use your human origin. Shape them into an obedient little program."
"No way… Windy! You've known this and never said a thing?!"
"Why should I?” Wind Ignis shrugged “I don’t care what Lightning does with his human. To be honest it’s rather bothersome to keep it as a puppet when he could’ve just made another program with no will left.”
“Y-You!” Ai narrowed his eyes at absolute heartlessness the fellow Ignis had no shame, showing “You really don’t know anything!”
“No one knows everything, but we can expand our capabilities with your help, so if you would-”
“No, I’m not joining you!”
“You don’t have much choice to be fair.” Lightning narrowed his eyes “It only matters if you come willingly or unwillingly, though I would prefer it willingly since there will be slightly less data after we break you apart.”

Ai was silent, hardly comprehending the fact that the fellow Ignis he once called his friends were planning this so far ahead and treated humans as disposable resources… and now he was seen the same way. When he witnessed his home crumbling away, he thought humans were the selfish ones, but ruthlessly ending the life of a child just because they felt like it or turning consciousness data practically into a slave… it just felt unreal.

And he was next.

“Now now, we aren’t getting rid of you, we are simply making you more useful.” Windy brushed through his swirly head “Though with time we could actually improve you.”
“What do you mean?” Ai blinked in puzzlement.

Windy only giggled as Lightning pointed in his direction. Ai quickly shielded himself from an approaching light blast, expecting pain of his body being taken apart.

But instead of that he heard a scream.

Yusaku, still wide-eyed and frozen from everything that has just transpired, was wrapped up in numerous shocks, just like during the Lost Incident for every loss. His body was sprawled on the ground, shaking with each additional shock.

“No!” Ai winced, but that only made Lightning send another shock that was powerful enough to throw Yusaku against the barrier that further electrocuted him “Please, stop!”

“Lost Incident made us who we are. If you’re this attached to your origin we may as well use him as well.”

“Don’t you dare!” Ai charged right at the barrier, only to be met by pain.

“Your efforts are futile, just accept your fate.”

Dark Ignis was at a loss of what he could do. The only person powerful enough to defeat Windy and Lightning was compressed into mere data, he was in a cage he couldn’t escape and Yusaku was being tortured right in front of him. The other Ignis demanded his data and had no problem hurting another human if that would benefit them. And once they are done… they will follow the path Dr. Kogami set for them.

Become humanity’s successors… one way or another.

“Playmaker! Ai”

Another shout brought him out of his thoughts as all of a sudden the barriers were shattered. Ai didn’t lose a second to rush to Yusaku’s side, his partner who was still twitching from the aftermath of the torture. He could see the familiar blur of red and a small companion peeking out of the duel disk. Right… Takeru and Flame were on their way, he actually felt small readings of Ignis algorithm approaching, but he just assumed it was coming from Lightning and Windy. They were likely held back by an army of Echoes, but unlike the rest of Knights of Hanoi, the two of them managed to get through. He also saw them carrying a program, probably a way out and that was currently the only thing on his mind.

Unfortunately, he didn’t make it.

Just when Takeru grabbed onto Yusaku and tapped on his duel disk to activate the escape program, Windy blasted the whole place with a major data storm. It appeared so fast neither of them could think and in a matter of seconds the whole place was a mess of specs of colors. Ai saw Yusaku, Takeru and Flame disappear and they saw the same.

…

Kusanagi was frantically typing at the keyboard while doing his best to focus on multiple monitors in front of him. He didn’t know what exactly was going on in VRAINS other than Yusaku letting him know he found Ai and then the connection suddenly growing weaker until he practically lost Yusaku’s signal. Despite all shortcuts and data analyses plus scan for every Ignis algorithm possible there was no sign of the teen. Kusanagi didn’t like this in any way and he wasn’t willing to lose another person he cared about in the depths of the network.

Takeru and Flame left for VRAINS with backup escape programs and some other gadgets in case there would be a need a while ago as well, and every second the two boys spent in VRAINS felt like eternity.

“Where are you…” Kusanagi sighed as he stared at yet another scan that told him nothing.

Then the loud beeping was heard, same one that announced VRAINS log out. The man quickly rushed to the compartments, ready for anything that might happen. First Takeru’s compartment opened with white haired boy slowly climbing out and then Yusaku’s opened. Seeing Yusaku exhausted every single time he logged out was nothing new, but this time it looked a lot more serious.

The boy was barely conscious and trembling like it was ice cold, whispering words Kusanagi hardly understood.

“S-shut it… d-down…” Yusaku forced himself to stay awake “F-firewall… g-get away.”

Takeru crawled next to the two, head still fuzzy, but cleared up enough to help Kusanagi get Yusaku on a nearby bench and look after him as the man rushed to the computer set up to push the button hidden under the table. The whole van turned red and there was beeping coming from literally everywhere.

“Watch over Yusaku and hold onto something.” Kusanagi said as got behind the wheel and started the van.

Not being used to driving in a big vehicle with no actual seats, Takeru was nearly sent flying to the back of the van. Luckily his martial arts training improved his reflexes so he managed to grab onto the bench with one hand while keeping the now unconscious Yusaku in place.

“What’s going on?” Takeru asked once they got through series of empty crossroads and sharp turns.
“I turned off the network system in the van and protected it with a firewall, but the van might still get hacked through different devices, so we have to get out of the city just to be safe. Not sure why Yusaku would want that, but I trust his judgement.”

Takeru nodded, sadly looking at Yusaku’s face that had a slight grimace of pain written all over it. Roboppy’s little form peeked out of the box where it waited, curious of the big brother Ai was back yet.

“So what happened?” Kusanagi asked while keeping his eyes on the road.

…

It was late night by the time they arrived at the seemingly abandoned house, miles away from the Den City. Yusaku was still unconscious by that point, now wrapped up in a blanket and carried inside. The house apparently belonged to Kusangi’s family and used to serve as a summer getaway from the noisy city but hasn’t been used in years. Still Kusanagi has been treating it as storage for his supplies and truck parts as well as numerous hacking supplies. It was heavily unorganized and cluttered, but that didn’t matter at the moment.

It had no modern appliances or anything that could be hacked.

Kusanagi busied himself with rearranging the supplies in a way the couch and table were free enough to be used, anything to get his mind off things. Once Takeru told what happened, things he saw through a monitor observing the hall where the duel between Revolver and Windy happened that Flame made for him and trying his best to sum up the blur of a quick rescue attempt, Kusanagi turned completely silent. In a way he expected it since the whole purpose of what they were doing was to get his little brother back. To learn that Windy wasn’t only lying but was also capable of horrifically hurting his human origin and Lightning turning Jin into a controlled doll… it was a lot to take in.

And not only that… Windy and Lightning had all Knights of Hanoi and Ai now.

And Yusaku has gone through a great deal of PTSD induced torture as well as shock when witnessing Ryouken’s defeat.

Just what they were supposed to do?

Kusanagi didn’t say much other than occasionally clenching his fists and quietly growling at the situation. Always seeing him with that kind smile and gentle mannerism, Takeru was almost scared to approach him and rather decided to make some coffee for them both after spotting a coffee machine in the corner. Even though it was practically a night, neither of them felt like sleeping so they may as well stay awake. The two of them took bar stools at the dusty kitchen counter, none of them saying a word as they slowly sipped it.

A great amount of time passed before Flame finally decided to speak.

“If they wanted Ai, they likely want me as well.” he muttered, still baffled at Windy’s and Lightning’s betrayal “I really don’t want to put you in even more danger so-”
“No.” Takeru muttered “Just no.”
“They defeated Knights of Hanoi and took Ai who is likely completely reprogrammed by this point. I don’t like it any more than you do, but this is Ignis you’re dealing with. Both of them proved that they are willing to delete anything that comes across their plans.”
“But there must be a way to defeat them! We can’t just let them do whatever they want, I’ll fight them myself!”
“Which is precisely why you should calm down and think about how risky this is.” Flame floated towards Yusaku’s unconscious form “I doubt your friend could handle another loss.”

Takeru instantly quieted down, not wanting to act the same way he once did. This wasn’t something he could solve with his fists or a rushed plan. It needed careful thought through by someone who knew what he was doing and the person most fit for this was lying on the couch unconscious.

“I agree.” Kusanagi finally said something “I will see what I can do without using the network and you should rest up.”
“Can Roboppy help?”

Takeru, Flame and Kusanagi nearly forgot about Yusaku’s helper robot that accompanied him to the hot-dog truck before setting off to find Ai. They didn’t know much about it other than the fact Yusaku built it himself and it was close with Ai. In fact the robot kept asking about big brother Ai and when they can go watch another soap opera.

“I’m sorry Roboppy, but Ai is… in a place he cannot leave.” Takeru did his best to put it in the right words “We are trying to bring him back, but it will be really hard.”
“Big bro Ai is away? And can’t leave?” Roboppi’s face expression change “Maybe this will help?”

Everyone turned to the little robot who opened a little compartment on its body, taking a small USB drive out of it.

“Big bro Ai said to give it to you in case he goes somewhere he cannot leave.”

Kusanagi carefully examined an USB drive, now knowing what could possibly be on it. He had Yusaku’s tablet at hand, the kind that was protected by several firewalls and wasn’t connected to any network. After plugging it in, a cartoony depiction of Ai showed up, complete with balloons and fireworks all around him.

“If you got this, then I was likely taken by SOL and my data got either absorbed, corrupted or taken apart. But if there is a small piece of my original data left somewhere in network, use this backup data of myself to restore. I’m not sure it will work as I don’t know how advanced SOL is, but it might be worth a shot.”

…

It was the very next day when they were already setting off to go back in VRAINS. Yusaku woke up a few hours after the discovery of Ai’s backup data and by then a new plan was set. He was still shaken by the events, but once he learned about the plan, a usual blank expression spread across his face as he prepared for the mission. Takeru didn’t want to question him as he was well aware of what just happened there. It was no coincidence that Ignis tortured him in the same way he was punished during the Lost Incident. They really wanted to break him down and see his pain of being helpless. The white haired boy was almost impressed how well he was doing as he would likely lock himself into a wardrobe and refuse to leave.

Though deep down he knew it was just a temporary mask until they are done with the plan. There was a small chance it may work, but at the same time they were gambling a huge risk. However, this was what they were willing to do if it meant getting at least Ai back. Kusanagi set a temporary connection to the network in the upper floor of the bedroom with Takeru and Yusaku lying on two seperate beds.

“Into VRAINS”

Takeru felt the familiar sensation of his avatar being dressed in a red bodysuit and his hair being changed but unlike the usual feel of excitement and facing a new challenge, he was visibly shaking. Who wouldn’t when being faced with such a role in the plan? Yusaku on the other hand turned into a completely different avatar, if it even was an avatar. He didn’t really resemble anything but a small cloud of data, hidden underneath another cloud of data that masked his presence.

Finding the Ignis would probably take forever if Flame didn’t send an invitation that they gladly accepted with open arms. They were granted access through a wormhole leading to what appeared to be new Ignis HQ, even equipped with a gladiator arena where Windy and Lightning were eagerly waiting. Takeru felt awful about Jin being used as a puppet and in a way felt relieved Flame got to be his Ignis and not Windy. Just thinking of losing his own will and being used in such a way made him shiver, but that wasn’t something he could show in front of his opponents.

“So you wish to have a duel?” Lightning crossed his arms “In exchange for Ai’s data?”
“Yes.” Takeru tried to sound confident.
“But if you lose, Flame has to join our side.” Windy playfully circled around the Fire Ignis “Can’t wait for that.”
“I trusted you Windy…” Flame muttered.
“That’s on you.” the Wind Ignis floated back to Echo “Now shall we?”

Takeru nodded as he raised his duel disk.

“But the opponent you’ll be facing won’t be me.”

The two Ignis slided in opposite directions, making a way for another person who got their duel disk ready.

…

It took him a while, but finally he arrived at what appeared to be a Roman-inspired palace. Lightning surely didn’t waste expenses or more like data when building all of this, including all precise details on pillars and marble floor. He didn’t have time to gaze into those details as he had to find a basement hall deep within the palace. Thanks to Takeru he could see Lightning and Windy were both out of the castle and neither of them seemed like they could sense his presence within the palace’s walls. So Ai’s program either really worked or these weren’t real Ignis. Yusaku didn’t want to wait to find out, so he rushed down the hallway until he finally reached the lower areas.

Everything except for a few security programs that couldn’t sense him was death silent. Yusaku gazed at the monitor again, seeing the tracker was leading him towards the doors at the very end of the hallway. There were more security programs floating around, along with multiple Echo copies standing in front of the doors. Yusaku wasn’t sure how to approach this since he never heard of such skill, but he was willing to trust Ai on this one.

After taking a deep mental breath, Yusaku completely relaxed his senses and let the program engulf his data even more. The more advanced Echos raised the alarm due to the supposed glitch, but they couldn’t pinpoint the exact location. Yusaku rushed through sealed doors as fast as he could and only once he was inside he dared to take another breath.

The room inside was a pure contrast to the shining white and gold of the palace, filled with dark tones of various machinery and what looked like a huge glass tank. In it was Ai’s one eyed monstrous form, struggling against numerous lasers that were slowly molding more and more of his body. Yusaku carefully avoided a bunch of smaller security programs until he was right next to the tank. Compared to a small humanoid form that Ai would usually take, this form was a lot bigger and even scarier the way that single eye was turning around like crazy.

He had to let him out and restore him to his original state, not only in order to get Jin and Ryouken back and not even for getting more forces on their side for Ignis war.

As much as he hated to admit it, Ai was his partner and close friend.

Their relationship might’ve started off as rocky, but they gradually learned how to trust each other. It was also thanks to Ai that he was able to defeat Ryouken and became more open with others. Ai was always there when he needed him the most.

And now he was here to return the favor.

Yusaku slipped through the glass tank and released Ai’s backup data. The original Ai was however not that fond of what appeared to be an impostor of his own self. His monstrous mouth was biting into it like a beast while the tentacles were pushing it away. Yusaku really hoped Ai’s backup data would survive the whole ordeal since he wasn’t sure how long Takeru would be able to stall the duel.

…

Takeru didn’t feel his passionate burning soul at all during this intense duel. His opponent was no other than Bowman, the very same program that snatched Jin and nearly beat Yusaku once. As much as he wished to beat him, that simply wasn’t an option since his main purpose was to buy time and use a similar escape program to get away. In order to avoid suspicion, Takeru and Yusaku cut basic communication as soon as they got here, only using short codes in colored buttons on their duel disks.

The blue blinking dot let him know he found Ai, but he wasn’t out of it just yet. Takeru purposely replaced his deck with a similar one with an exception of having a lot more steps for everything as well as spells and traps revolving around luck. He also made sure to strech out every single summoning chant, as well as loudly read out each card effect (which he usually did anyway, but this time he talked a lot slower). Luckily Bowman used the same kind of luck based system which further extended the duel and the opponent also loved to waste time with overexposing the card effects. Perfect, just a little more and they’ll be able to escape with Ai.

However at the same time he couldn’t deny that his heart was racing like crazy since each spell and trap as well as certain monster effects were a pure gamble. His Life Points were nearing the 2000s while Bowman’s were still at 3000s. He tried to busy himself with the next move, doing his best to appear confident though with three intense stares judging his every action was difficult, not to mention stressful.

Then an orange dot started blinking.

Trouble.

…

Despite the obvious size difference, the backup data eventually engulfed the original data until it started to shrink down in size. The big purple blob gradually became smaller until it finally shifted into familiar humanoid form.

“Wha…” it twitched, not being sure what was going on.
“You’ve made it.” Yusaku said simply and that was enough for it to remember everything.
“You’ve come back for me!” Ai snuggled against Yusaku’s face, tears running down his face “I didn’t know if backup data would be able to handle it or not but… oh darn, I’m so glad you’re here!”
“We’ve got to move on Ai. I have an escape program, but it won’t work within HQ.”
“But what about-”
“We don’t have enough time, Takeru can’t stall the duel forever.”
“I’m sorry…” Ai looked down, guilt written all over his face.
“Don’t be, we will get Jin and Ryouken back.” Yusaku analyzed the map to find the shortest way out using a different path since it would be more likely for security programs to find him this way.

Ai nodded as he slipped into duel disk, connecting with the map.

“I can make a shortcut, now if I just- watch out!”

Yusaku reacted at once, but not fast enough to avoid dodging what seemed to be a bullet. Whatever it was, it went through him like an arrow, forcing his bodiless avatar to drop the protective coat and form back into his original avatar form. A great part of his shoulder was missing along bits of his arm, but that wasn’t his main concern.

The bullet came from a gun held by a rather unique security program. It had a long white coat, used two guns and most significantly, it had a big knight-like mask.

“Is this…” Yusaku uttered as he clenched onto his injured shoulder.
“Yes… it was created from Revolver’s data.” Ai said after scanning it “Its main purpose is to prevent any escapes out of this room.”

More bullets flew towards Yusaku and he barely dodged, one getting him in the leg. The boy really tried to cover up his pain, making it clear to Ai that they must escape as soon as possible.

But at the same time he couldn’t just leave Ryouken’s data like this. He was in the same position as Jin right now, just an empty shell that follows precise orders. Yusaku knew Takeru had hard time buying them time and that deep down his friend was suffering, but the bullet injuries were heavily hindering his movement, making it difficult to do anything.

Luckily, Ai had an idea to solve all three problems.

He instantly transformed into his monstrous form, his huge mouth opening wide open as he simply caught the leader of Knights of Hanoi in his mouth. It was just like the first duel where Ai bit off Ryouken’s arm in order to obtain his own data.

“Don’t worry, I simply stored his data inside of myself. I can filter out his consciousness data and put it back together once we log out.” Ai explained before Yusaku could ask “Now get on, we are getting out of here.”

The all too familiar hoverboard showed up in front of him and just like in that duel with Ryouken, Ai merged with it in order to give it that extra boost. Yusaku was grateful for it since he barely kept it together due to those bullets and hoped they would all get out soon. He managed to signal to Takeru that they were set to go and soon enough, he responded back the same.

They were all going home.

…

“You surely placed a lot of your faith in that one card and yet this card can as well delete the little of the Life Points that you have left.” Bowman crossed his arms.
“Hehe, that’s what you may think, but I have a different plan in store.” Takeru got his usual cheery self as he activated another card “Behold, the move that I was saving for the very last moment.”
“This is…” Bowman looked at it in confusion “But this will affect you as well.”
“Precisely.” Takeru smirked as the effect took place and sent both of them flying as the points went down.

Both of their Life Points hit zero at once and while Windy became very annoyed at the draw, Lightning eyed him with a lot more suspicion. They didn’t really say what would happen in a case of the draw and Takeru wasn’t willing to wait for them to decide, but just when he was about to activate the escape program, Lightning showed up right in front of him.

But Flame was prepared and activated the program for a situation just like this. First a firewall that protected him from any kind of absorption and then a quick teleportation to the place far enough to use an escape program without other Ignis interfering. They could see massive data storms being created by Windy, but by the time they reached them they were already logged out.

…

Yusaku and Takeru were back almost at the same time. The second Kusanagi saw them activate escape programs he quickly opened up the network and then turned it off as soon as he made sure both of them made it back. The two boys were gasping for breath, but seeing their Ignis safe and sound, they finally became less tense from the mission.

Just to be safe, Kusanagi ran a quick scan on their duel disks, to make sure there were no viruses or suspicious programs. The readings looked alright enough and despite his brother still being stuck in VRAINS, he was at least glad they got Ai back who assured Jin’s data wasn’t heavily modified so Kusanagi’s little brother could be brought back without too much difficulty.

“I managed to restore Revolver’s consciousness data and will send it to his duel disk which is pretty nearby actually. I think he and the rest of knights got the same idea of occupying the place with no modern appliances in order to avoid cyber attacks.” Ai said as he created a path for data “He should wake up sometime tomorrow and if he is as smart as he acts he will probably figure out the way to get the rest of knights back on his own.”
“Thank you Ai.” Yusaku made a small smile as he gradually closed his eyes and simply passed out from exhaustion.
“Falling asleep just like a baby.” Ai teased, but still grabbed the edges of sheets to tuck him in “Thank you for coming back for me... partner.”

…

Next day the group finally got some proper sleep. Well almost everyone as Kusanagi woke up much earlier so he could already work on a plan to get Jin back with all the data Ai and Flame provided. It wasn’t much of a big deal for him since he regularly woke up early in order to prepare ingredients before people go to work in the morning, though this time he only prepared some for himself and boys once they would wake up.

Soon enough, the tasty aroma of hot-dogs and toasted buns lured Takeru from upstairs who gladly took the prepared food off the table.

“Yusaku still sleeping?” Kusanagi asked once Takeru spread some ketchup and mustard over the hot-dog.
“Yeah… Ai did say he got hurt from the program created from Revolver’s data so it’s probably the best to let him rest.” the white haired boy nodded as he bit into the bun.
“I agree.” the man stood up to make more coffee when there was a loud knock on the door.

All three instantly became alarmed, but then heard a way too familiar voice.

“I’m just here to thank you and I have something for Yusaku.”

Kusanagi opened the door with caution, but saw Ryouken had no device whatsoever (like usually) apart from his duel disk and had a hood over his head.

“Why don’t you join us for breakfast? I’m sure you’re pretty familiar with my Cafe Nagi specials.”

Ryouken seemed like he wanted to protest, but the delicious aroma was very inviting plus free food. Sitting at the kitchen counter surrounded by dozens of boxes might’ve been a bit more awkward than sitting next to potential opponents though once he got his hot-dog everything instantly became a lot more chill. Kusanagi even poured him a cup of coffee in a proper mug.

“Did you manage to get your team back?” Takeru asked once Ryouken finished the bigger portion of his hot-dog.
“Not just yet, some of their data is still locked within VRAINS, but thanks to the Dark Ignis who left me some pointers it can be done soon.”
“So are you really going to go against Lightning and Windy?” Flame asked in a serious tone.
“I have to. They are a danger to the very people whom they are based on and are willing to play with people’s consciousness data. Who knows what else they are capable and willing to do.”

Flame grew silent as he clearly knew that Ryouken stated he will destroy all Ignis, even them once he is done with the currently most dangerous ones. It was only a matter of time before they will no longer work together as comrades against the common enemy.

“Speaking of which, I managed to create this for your duel disk.” he handed a flash drive to Takeru “It contains a program that should protect you from any cyber attacks on your consciousness data. I have one for Yusaku as well.”
“Thank you.” Takeru said as he plugged the program in the duel disk, Flame twitched a bit but confirmed the program was indeed meant as protection. “Yusaku is still sleeping, but I can take it to him.”
“Please do.”

Takeru headed towards the upper floor as soon as he finished breakfast. The other boy was indeed still sound asleep while Ai and Roboppy watched a soap opera together.

“Yusaku?” the white haired boy gently shook his shoulders.
“Tried that several times and still didn’t wake up. I’d let him sleep a bit longer, he was pretty beat up.” Ai said without turning away from Roboppy’s monitor.
“Isn’t it a bit odd?” Takeru narrowed his eyes. “He usually doesn’t sleep this long.”

While it was understandable the boy was likely in need of a long sleep, something just didn’t sit well with Takeru. He tried to wake him one more time when he accidentally shifted Yusaku from his side to his back. Being worried he might have woken him up a bit harshly, it became the least of his worries when he saw his eyelids slipping up.

But his eyes weren’t focused at all.

They were staring emptily in the distance.

Just like Jin’s eyes did.

....

Somewhere deep within the network, a certain someone was observing a silhouette of a new humanoid program being put together.

“Who knew putting the virus in the bullets would be this useful.”