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

S2-43✩ The Truth of that Night

After walking a short while, Yusaku and Ai finally arrived at Takeru's apartment. Yusaku stood firmly in front of the door, but when he was about to ring the bell, he suddenly found himself feeling a bit nervous and hesitant. He rushed there because after listening to Kusanagi, he realized he needed to explain everything about the Lost Incident to Takeru to clear up the misunderstanding between them, but then he remembered what Kusanagi mentioned before presenting his theory:

"He might have feelings for her back then and even now."

Yusaku shivered at the thought of it possibly being true. He didn't want to admit it, but he was worried about what would happen after he told Takeru the whole story behind the Lost Incident. If Takeru did have feelings for Mirai all along, would those feelings resurface when he found out she didn't hurt him? How would that affect their relationship? Should he confront him and ask him about it?

Yusaku was snapped out of his train of thoughts when Ai curiously called him out. Ai would definitely tell him he was being jealous of Takeru again if he knew why he hesitated, so wanting to avoid that, Yusaku finally pressed the bell button in one swift motion.

Ding-dong~

The two waited for the boy with partly gray and vermilion-colored hair to open the door, but much to their puzzlement, no one showed up. Yusaku pressed the bell once again, but still no answer. "Is he not home? Where could he be around this hour?"

"The konbini... perhaps?" Yusaku replied to Ai after he tried to call Takeru but also received no response. He opened the maps in his phone to find the nearest convenience store and quickly found it located in the opposite of the way they came from. He exchanged nods with Ai before setting out.

"By the way Yusaku, it just occurred to me that..." Ai mumbled, but then shook his head. "On second thought, maybe I shouldn't say this."

As Yusaku continued walking towards their destination, he glanced down at his hesitating AI. "What is it? You can tell me."

Ai awkwardly scratched the back of his head, still hesitating until Yusaku finally glared at him, slightly scaring him. "It's just, I suddenly recalled your duel with Bohman. You know, the one where he accused you of being a fake?"

"I remember that. What about it?"

"At that time, you were sure that you're the real Fujiki Yusaku because only the real you knew your abductor was not Dr. Kogami but his son, Revolver. He later admitted that he was the one who went and kidnapped you guys for Dr. Kogami, because as Mirai's childhood friends, you were easy targets."

Yusaku nodded, wordlessly telling Ai to continue. Catching on, Ai crossed his arms as he lowered his voice into a soft whisper. "You see, Revolver kidnapped you guys under Dr. Kogami's order, right? But in Takeru's case, he went to Revolver by himself instead of being brought in. Now think about it; doesn't that mean Takeru had never been intended to be a part of the project in the first place?"

Yusaku had to stop walking to process Ai's words. It wasn't like Yusaku didn't understand them, but he still asked, "What do you mean by that, Ai? Elaborate."

"Okay, okay! Don't get mad, please?" Ai whined when Yusaku glared at him again, more intensely this time. "It's obvious that Dr. Kogami based his research on Duel Monsters. There are 6 Attributes in Duel Monsters, so naturally there would be 6 Ignis and 6 children. I read that humans love making connections between their personalities with the elements of nature from Readdit... cough, so I think Dr. Kogami must have decided which child had the right personality for each Attribute before he started working on his project. Because it would be a lot easier to give us shape with the right composition, yes?"