#if we knew more about naoki's vrains persona

[merryfortune]

Legend & Lore: the Deep Sea

AN: Posting this now seems like a good idea :3c

AN: Inspired by artworks by @insanitytragedy [specifically this one]

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains

Ship: Yusaku/Aoi

Warnings: Character Death, Madness, Dark Themes, Canon Divergent

Word Count: 3832

Synopsis:  Nowadays, they say that you can’t have legends and lore without a little bit of blood and gore.

In which the mysterious hacker pursues the mysterious siren that inhbits the patches of corrupted game data known as the deep seas.

  Game lore states there are monsters in the winds; in the harrowing winds of the Speed Duel. Yusaku knows. He’s reached into the depths of the unknown and pulled one out and tamed it.

  Legend, however, states there are sentient, living creatures in the pockets of patched up and ruined data known as as the “deep seas”. Not quite AIs, definitely not players looking to stir up trouble either. True, living creatures with thoughts and actions that are not predetermined by a real person using an avatar nor predetermined by a computer doing its best to handle the output.

  Legends that are unreliable. Friend of a friend. Quibbles over the massive chat log that get lost in between the hundreds of thousands of conversations between no one. And everyone. Yusaku doesn’t pay much heed to baseless rumour. To what amounts to creepypasta. He doesn’t need to.

  Game. Set. Match.

  Yusaku logs out and pulls himself out of hiding spot with a sigh. He’s sweaty and frustrated. He had come too close in that last Duel to losing. Every game is life or death and he’s already lost too much; he’s got so much he can win back.

  Kusanagi greets him with a sparkle in his eye. Impressed. Yusaku sits down next to him and is impressed. He hands him a bottle of water; it’s lukewarm in Yusaku’s hand.

  ‘Well done, Playmaker.’

  ‘I almost lost.’

  ‘But you didn’t. And you should be thankful.’

  ‘…I am.’

  Kusanagi swivelled in his chair and chucked his thumb over his shoulder to indicate the monitor. Yusaku showed little interest but acknowledged that Kusanagi wanted to bring something up.

  ‘You and I both know that artificial intelligence is somehow muddled up in this whole Knights of Hanoi business. But you and I also know that independent artificial intelligenc isn’t… fully functional. Yet. However,’ Kusanagi paused and Yusaku glared, sceptical, ‘I have reason to believe it will be soon. During that Duel, I picked up… unusual patterns. Someone – or, more specifically, something – managed to get past my barrier. Before the Duel, that zone was empty. No one came in, no one left. But something was there. And it ws moving erratically. I think you have a fan, Playmaker.’

  Yusaku slumped over the desk. He tapped his cheek.

  ‘Doubt it.’

  ‘Clear your schedule, tomorrow, you’re logging in and we’re going to go deep sea fishing. Let’s see if we can find ourselves a piece of artificial intelligence.’

  Yusaku straightened up and yawned. He flexed his hands. ‘Well, we better route the parts of data most susceptible to deteriorating and becoming part of the so-called deep sea system. If we’re lucky, since it’s only been a few minutes since I logged out, we might be able to get a trace on my “fan” but we shouldn’t get our hopes up. It could have just been… a bug.’

  ‘I dunno, Yusaku. I think we’re going to get lucky.’

  The two spent a good portion of the evening making preparations for their deep sea fishing, as Kusanagi had called it. Unfortunately, mere hours later, an unforeseen disruption to their exploration had occurred. Said disruption came in the arrogant, inhuman form of a popular charisma duelist known as “Ignis”.

 Ignis was the Vrains persona of an as of yet unknown person; presumably male but there were rumours of Ignis belonging to a female Duelist. Given Ignis’ avatar, it was hard to tell if Ignis was supposed to be male presenting to begin with. There was little in the way of either clothing and anatomy, instead some cartoonish-looking character with inky black skin and a purple web pattern and bulbous head. Despite being of small stature, Ignis carried quite the large demeanour and prescence on the Vrains.

  Ignis has been vying for the top spot of number one Charisma Duelist for a while now: cocky, arrogant, but puts on a great show. He and GO had been at odds for ages but now Yusaku – no, Playmaker – is the number one duelist in Vrains and Ignis is aggressively eying that title. He’s issued challenge after challenge but today, Playmaker finally accepted for this was no fight for popularity. No, there are larger forces at play.

  Ignis had been instated, albeit temporarily, as a Knight of Hanoi.

  It was a dirty fight. Trick after trick, deception and traps abound but Playmaker pulled through. For himself. For the crowd. It was a riveting duel but a selfish one. Flashy, spectacular, and full of twists: a conversation, of sorts, wherein it was two people greedily yelling at each other but tactfully disguising it as fair play and civility.

  But Playmaker pulled through, at the last second, after a destiny draw and sealed Ignis’ fate in a loss. The evil planted in him dissipated and his card, token of the Knight of Hanoi’s affection for him, banished. It was all well and good but Speed Duels are always a matter of life and death.

  Ignis made one mistake and it almost cost him his life.

  He was making rude remark after rude remark. Yes, he had enjoyed the duel but he didn’t enjoy the loss. That was the kind of person Ignis was. As such, he was passing off his dissatisfaction in cuss words and taunts. Playmaker couldn’t have cared less. He was about to make his temporary escape.

  He turned his back on Ignis but in the corner of his eye, he saw Ignis slip. Such a mistake would likely kill his corporeal form especially from this height. They were above the city and a vicious wind was raking the space between them and the virtual cement; cracked and turned to something akin to water.

  There was a single moment that felt like an eternity. Ignis’ eyes widened as he fell back and his arms outspread by his side. His mouth gaped and he blinked. Like, he didn’t quite believe what was happening. Fortunately, Playmaker could believe that the foolish duelist had fallen off his D-Board.

  Ignis hissed before he screamed. Playmaker whipped back around and instinct took his mind before logic could. Before Kusanagi could.

  Playmaker grabbed Ignis and yanked him back, they traded places in peril. Then Ignis rolled over and blew a raspberry at Playmaker. Playmaker braced himself for the worst and snuck a glance over his shoulder.

  ‘No one beats Ignis-sama and gets away with it.’ he taunted.

  Ignis floated in the digital space. He happily hung out like he was on a gently swinging hammock. Meanwhile, Playmaker was plummeting. He could feel the rush for real. His heart pounded in his chest.

  Yusaku closed his eyes and accepted that, for the first time in years, Vrains will have claimed another casualty. Finally, the mysterious hacker’s identity would come to light. He just wished that he could have reclaimed his past first. He has no doubt in his mind that Ignis would have no qualms over his death.

  Playmaker, no, Yusaku slips into the unknown.

  It’s not like a dive into a pool. It’s more like slipping into a recuperating sleep. Unfeeling but welcoming. His body goes numb but he’s not dead. He’s not dying.

  But that makes it sound too serene. Phasing through the protected realm of vrains into the deep sea is far from peaceful. He’s just experiencing a terrible dissonance between what is happening and what he’s feeling. He actively recognises that nothing is real. He can’t feel anything in his fingers because, technically, they’re not real; not to mention gloved too but some part of his brain refuses to accept that so, his fictional clothes become heavy with fictional water. His eyes sting and he’s gulping down water in lieu of air, not on purpose of course but nevertheless, his lungs are filling with imaginary sea water.

  His eyes flutter shut. He feels infinity at his fingertips. Infinity feels strangely like electricity. Tingling and gradually getting hotter. Yusaku sinks further into the unknown depths of zeroes and ones; of bubbles and seaweed. There was a grave pressure on his chest and he could hear his bones creak and bow beneath it; not snapping, yet, for there was nothing actually pressing upon them. He truly feels like he was at the bottom of the ocean; if the bottom of the ocean was a fault in a highly complex video game data.

  No one’s ever clipped through into the deep sea. The deep sea is highly protected and strongly guarded. It was thought to be impossible to clip through, and yet he had. Playmaker had phased through the other side of where the internet was thought to be impossible to touch. No one expects him to return alive.

  Nor does Playmaker. Nor does Yusaku.

  However, there is one. An unprecedented “one” in this cold, watery sea of “zeroes”.

  A giggle. A light chortle with something deviant lurking beneath its innocence. It sounds almost like the chimes of bells. Yusaku opens his eyes and everything is glitching. He thinks. He’s not certain. It could be his eyes playing tricks on him. It could be the game playing tricks on his eyes. But then, he sees her.

  And she’s beautiful.

  Or, at least, her avatar is.

  She comes closer and Playmaker sighs. He grimly accepts his fate. She comes closer still and clasps her hands either side of his face. She’s curious. She can’t be felt. Her fingers clip through part of her face and her tail twists and sashays to keep them both afloat. The loose, fluttery white fabrics of her outfit are battered by the inertia.

  She feels around the data of Playmaker’s persona and learns of him. She smiles to herself and decides that she will try and save him. After all, this is not their first meeting. It would appear the final hour was upon them: the hour in which Playmaker, no, her beloved Fujiki Yusaku would deliver upon his promise.

  So, she saves him so he would have the opportunity to return the favour like she always dreamed he would.

  She removes her fingers from his face and he falls in love with hers. It’s like a fairy tale for the modern age: superficial and nonsensical whilst maintaining the long honoured traditions of disturbance and cruelty. She is careful to not breach the sensitive data keeping Playmaker’s avatar in tact so she can remain strong enough to pull him through. Unlike him, the data that comprises her is far more flexible. No barrier can keep her out or in. He’s a lot more difficult and cumbersome but, nevertheless, she succeeds in bringing him to the surface.

  Kusanagi, meanwhile in the real world, succeeds in keeping Yusaku alive and breathing. Safe.

  She decides that she doesn’t want to leave the water. She remains by his side though. She idly watches as Playmaker spasms. She watches his back arch as he slams himself down, trying to rid himself of the imgarinary water in his imaginary lungs. He grunts and moans. She giggles. She thinks its funny. Cute even.

  Playmaker comes to and doesn’t log out. He’s hazy and aching. He’s definitely dying now that he can make sense of what he’s trying to process. He turns his head and she catches his eyes. He is quickly ensnared by her unearthly appearance. She’s too solid. She’s too real. She’s not real.

  But she’s beautiful. Large eyes and a button nose. She’s busty but it’s hard to tell with all her jewelery slung around her neck and how the fabrics she’s wrapped up in flutter. She looks as though she has wings. She looks as though she might have had wings once. There is a sense that she is ripped up and broken despite seeming as perfect as a porcelain doll.

  ‘Who are you?’ Playmaker asked; his hands shaking by his side as he tries to make sense of her. Of himself. Of his surroundings.

  ‘Blue Angel.’

  Again, she laughs.

  ‘Are you a duelist?’

  ‘Not yet. I’m still putting together a deck. It’s very difficult, you know when you have to steal the data.’

  ‘Who are you?’

  ‘A siren.’

  Yusaku glares at her. There’s all sorts of weirdos on the internet but Blue Angel doesn’t strike him as one. He examines her avatar. Blue. Lots of it. Blue hair, blue eyes a blue tie around her neck. She basically blends in the water. She’s vaguely angelic too with her fluttering fins at her lower back where human-like skin turned to azure scales. Yusaku couldn’t help but be reminded of the old adage: the more beautiful and colourful, the more venomous.

  Blue Angel huffs. Sick of Yusaku’s scepticism.

  ‘Fine. I’m a rogue AI.’

  ‘And here I thought I would find you.’

  ‘I’ve wanted to meet you for a while, Playmaker. You and I… we’re alike.’

  ‘We are?’

  ‘Well, if we’re ever found by the wrong people, we are doomed to be deleted, correct?’

  ‘…Correct.’

  ‘See? Plenty in common already…’

  Playmaker got to his feet. He craned over his shoulder. He need to escape. He needed to go to the hospital.

  ‘Promise you’ll come and play again.’

  ‘I make no promises. Especially not ones I don’t know if I can keep.’

  Blue Angel became mournful.

  ‘I’ll wait. Forever.’

  She slunk into the water and her eyes became luminous. Her lips move beneath the water and bubbles and ripples shatter the stillness of it. It also caused disruptions to the water’s rendering. It spreads and breaks: unnatural waves.

  ‘Bye, bye.’

  Playmaker logs out once she leaves. Blue Angel gave him a bad feeling. It was deep and torrid. Visceral. It revived an unknown emotion in him: one he had long forgotten. One that he couldn’t explain. Especially not in a state like this. But he could connect it to his voided past. He just didn’t know how.

  Yusaku skipped school for the next few days to recover. He wasn’t the same after his accident; after his encounter with the siren AI known as Blue Angel.

  When he was in good enough shape to think clearly, his first matter of business was to dissect the Vrains for Blue Angel from the safety of his monitor. Not from the inside of Vrains. He hacked through every strain of data and information he could find with Kusanagi in tow. The information that they reaped in return was not what they expected.

  They found old player records belonging to a Zaizen Aoi. She had been Blue Angel before her account was forcibly deleted. The avatar Aoi used, parts of it, had become the rogue AI calling itself Blue Angel: the face, mostly. The AI had transformed the avatar from a winged human to a mermaid. Little wonder: wings would be useless submerged in the depths of the fictitious ocean.

  ‘Do you think we can believe her?’ Yusaku asked as he folded his arms.

  He wanted to believe. He wanted to meet her again.

  ‘We have no login or log-out records for the Blue Angel you encountered. The commandeered avatar is almost definitely its own entity. A simple stalk of Zaizen Aoi’s internet history show that she hasn’t logged into Vrains since her account was forcibly deleted. I have reason to believe that she hasn’t been in a duel since.’ Kusanagi replied with a shrug.

  ‘We have to keep her safe.’

  ‘Zaizen or Angel?’ Kusanagi raised an eyebrw.

  Yusaku shuddered.

  Kusanagi sighed then diplomatically stated: ‘We need to find out if there are other rogue AIs.’

  ‘Blue Angel takes first priority.’

  Kusanagi glanced at Yusaku. His eyes had been taken over by an obsession that twisted them a darker hue of green; or maybe, it was just the light from the monitor slightly discolouring them. Kusanagi hummed. He folded his arms.

  ‘A little obsessed, aren’t you?’

  ‘She’s an improbable existence. She’s fascinating.’ Yusaku admitted. ‘Scientifically speaking.’

  He hastily added that after he had come to a complete stop in his dialogue.

  ‘Mmhm.’ Kusanagi nodded. He sighed. ‘Well, assuming all the deep seas are connected then we’ve already narrowed it down. We can rule out downtown Vrains as well. Too many people know she’s been there so she’s likely avoiding it like plague.’

  ‘But there’s still thousands of digital kilometres that she could be spanning. And we don’t know the full extent of her abilities, she could have the ability to leave the Vrains and enter other internet accesses.’

  ‘I don’t think that’s likely given that her entire existence hinges on Vrains. I don’t believe she would be able to sustain form outside of Vrains.’

  ‘Do you think she can be captured?’

  ‘Captured how?’

  ‘Do you think we could download her to a duel disc? Like the other AIs? Presumably, she has cannibalised one of those and from that, she cannibalised Zaizen’s Blue Angel and likely gained sentience along the way.’

  ‘You want to take the mermaid’s freedom?’ Kusanagi asked. Genuine concern filtered into his voice and it scared Yusaku to his core.

  He hadn’t expected defiance from Kusanagi. Questioning from Kusanagi. He put his hand over his heart and bunched the fabric separating them in his hand. He couldn’t really feel it. His sensory understanding was still numb at best. At this point, he wasn’t expecting for it to return to the way it was before his accident. At least he could feel the movement of his heart though: a slow and steady pulse. It reminded him that he was real. Lately, that simple little fact was slipping form him mind. Frequently too.

  He took a breath and closed his eyes. ‘Yes.’ He decided at long last.

  ‘…Interesting.’

  Kusanagi didn’t further interrogate Yusaku from there but Yusaku’s feelings on the matter were as transparent as glass. His intentions quietly reflected.

  But to Yusaku?

  He could barely decipher the bits and pieces of emotion he felt. He felt tinkered with and now, whenever he moved he could hear the rattle of something having been broken but couldn’t place it. On top of that, because he was still functioning, he couldn’t decide if he was broken at all. Instead, he was just rattling. Something had come loose.

  Yusaku swallowed. A desire as deep as the depths of the sea filled him. He refused to name it but he was apparent. Love, lust, obsession: Blue Angel. He took a breath and for a split second, he was drowning again. He widened his eyes and willed himself to remember he wasn’t online. He was Fujiki Yusaku. He wasn’t Playmaker. This was the real world, not Vrains. He swallowed again as his breath hitched his throat and a sweat broke out on his brow and dripped down his side. He clutched harder onto his shirt.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Kusanagi asked, panicking as he got his feet.

 His hands moved rapidly before Yusaku’s eyes but he could barely see them. They were blurry and Kusanagi was quickly moving out of focus as well. Yusaku shook himself. Took a breath. He willed himself to remain in a conscious, healthy state of mind but he was muddled nonetheless.

  ‘No. Yes. Just let me find her. I have to find her.’

  He heard that laugh again. Light, airy, twinkling like the chime of silver bells. That was Blue Angel’s laugh. He could hear her perfectly. Clear as day. Somehow, it calmed him down. The tension stringing along his shoulder in tight threads relaxed. Kusanagi relaxed too upon seeing Yusaku’s grip on himself lighten.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  Kusanagi sounded like Yusaku had water in his ears. He was vague and murky. Yusaku blinked then stared. And stared. But he could barely see a thing.

  He resolved to find her. He had to find her.

  Yusaku got up and grabbed his Duel Disc. He stormed off and he was unknowingly playing right into Blue Angel’s plans for him. He slams the door behind him and enters the virtual slipstream where he was likely to abandon the air – the winds – forever.

  Playmaker finds her easily enough. She was waiting for him. She watches him with her big, glittering blue eyes and beckons him to the pool where she waits. It’s a puddle in the virtual sidewalk. It’s quiet here. Almost abandoned. It’s almost like someone put a block on the area so only select people could visit.

  Blue Angel begins to sing. She sings a heavenly song that bubbles up from the depths of her throat. She doesn’t speak like she’s speaking through a microphone. That’s one thing that makes her distinct from the players. The players have a crackle of static electricity when they breathe. She doesn’t breathe.

  So, it’s to little eerie wonder as to why Yusaku becomes so entranced by her song. It pulls him in like the moon pulls in the tide. She’s haunting. Lovely. Indescribable. He thinks he’s in love.

  She’s lonely, you know?

  It’s awfully dark and dreary at the bottom of the ocean. She wants – needs – some company down there. Someone who understands how difficult it is to hide when they are everything the other – the commoners – desire in a celebrity. Someone who understands what it is like to hunt and be hunted; to always be teetering on the edge of life and death. Someone who understands what it’s like to phase through life and death. One and zero. And he was the only one to have ever done that. Now. And when he was smaller; younger.

  Finally, they can be together. Forever. Like Yusaku promised her when she was just… Blue. The tame AI. Like she had desired when Yusaku was just that: Yusaku, not Playmaker. He was a chosen child from the experiment. The one that went horribly, horribly wrong all those years ago. Of course, no one remembers. Why should they?

   Yusaku slips. He’s the one who makes the fatal mistake now. He’s too entranced by Blue Angel and her charm to care. He has no one looking out for him from the corner of their eye. So, he slips. He phases through the zeroes and ones once more except this time, he doesn’t emerge as a survivor.

  He sinks. Down and down. In a listless spiral and Blue Angel playfully joins him. She most certainly thinks it’s a game. She batters at him as his hands reach out. A slow regret poisons him. Perhaps, he shouldn’t have trusted the silver song of a siren. She’s not real. But then again, he’s not real either. Not anymore anyway as he sinks further into the deep sea where is transformed into Playmaker for the last time.

  Together… forever. Just like she always wanted. Like he thought he wanted in those tragic days of unreality.

  And now, it’s not just a siren you can find at the bottom of the deep seas but a ghoul: waterlogged and once human… if you believe the stories. The ones fools type out in the group chat: to everyone and no one.

  Nowadays, they say that you can’t have legends and lore without a little bit of blood and gore.

[shidoukanae]

It’s probably pretty obvious at this point but my interest in VRAINS has wavered. I’m not as enthusiastic about it as I used to be and that sucks, honestly. The latest episodes, namely Akira vs. Yusaku and episodes 21 and 22, have failed to capture my attention. Recently, however, I rewatched episode 7 - Blue Angel’s duel against Playmaker - and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time grinning like an idiot even if I knew the results of the battle. 

With the current episodes, however, I can’t react like that. I don’t hold any excitement to the upcoming episodes - it doesn’t feel like we’re getting anywhere with the plot. And, sure, we’ve learned a bit about Yusaku’s past but it’s honestly not much past what we already knew or had speculated about beforehand. The only thing that leapt out to me personally was the weird eye-like being that appeared and, even then, the knowledge that it won’t get addressed for quite some time weighs down on me. The whole Akira vs. Yusaku fight had potential to push the show somewhere new - to start talking about the six lost kids or to start thinking about real life Revolver or even Kusanagi’s brother some more. Instead, we’re still going over the whole “I must find answers” spiel that’s been started since episode 1 and…I honestly don’t feel like we’ve progressed any further.

There are still five children left to identify. There are still five AIs trapped in a world. There are still mysteries the show has left to touch upon if only briefly instead of bringing them up for one second and then dropping them like an anchor into a sea. It feels like, since episode 1, we have this giant wall of a gazillion horizontal layers looming over us. And, as it stands now, out of those gazillion layers maybe only a handful or so have been taken off. That leaves a whole gazillion minus five layers to delve through. We’re at episode 22. There should be more layers destroyed at this point - not a handful. 

Not only that, but I’m losing my attachment to our protagonist. I can’t place it into words, exactly, but someone on my dash once pointed out something about him that caught my eye: the show worships Yusaku. He’s made out to be an eternal hero, the savior of Link VRAINS and the only threat that matters in the world to Hanoi or otherwise. And, while there’s a basis to this - Yusaku holds a creation of eternal value - the show seems to focus less on the fact that every one and their cousin wants Ai and more on that Yusaku is a “hero” who needs to be taught a lesson by the bad guys because he’s that good guy that everyone needs to love. 

What makes the show’s hero worship of Yusaku/Playmaker the most annoying thing to me is that everyone seems to agree that the guy is respectable and “awe-inspiring”. Revolver respects him, Blue Angel respects him, Go Onizuka respects him, Aoi Zaizen respects him, Akira Zaizen respects him, Ema Bessho respects him, Shoichi Kusanagi - do you see where I’m going here? The only characters who don’t seem to respect Yusaku (Specter, Dr. Kogami, virtually everyone who’s never seen him or met him yet) are inspired by him. He touches the lives of every single damn person he meets. Every. Single. One. And, lemme tell you, that’s almost characteristic of the Gary Stu trait - to have everyone think of the protagonist in a favorable light just because he’s cool/good at dueling/a savior/mysterious and so on and so forth. 

There has to be someone who could care less about Playmaker - whose life doesn’t consist of either chasing after him (Blue Angel, Revolver, etc.) or fawning over him (Naoki, Ema to some extent), someone who sits in the shadows and lets Playmaker play distraction while a greater plot unfolds behind the scenes. At the very least - can’t we have someone who genuinely hates Playmaker and refuses to change their views of him even after one little duel (and, no, Revolver doesn’t count. This latest episode has proven that Revolver thinks highly enough of Playmaker to at least want to duel him one more time - if not out of fun than out of a craving for dominance over someone who “bested” him and thus who he respects). 

Part of what I love about all the adults so far (sans, obviously, Shoichi) is that their lives don’t necessarily revolve around Yusaku. Go’s manager seeks to tend to Go and encourage him to do what Go believes is best. Akira thinks always of his sister and when he’s not chasing after a lost AI (and *grumbles* Playmaker himself) he’s working hard for his sister’s sake to make her happy. Dr. Kogami is working to destroy one of his own creations to right a wrong. Ema Bessho, though heavily involved with Playmaker in her duel against him, very much walks her own path. She’s more involved with Akira than she is anyone else and, when she’s not working with Akira she’s off trying to make a profit. 

Both Ema and Dr. Kogami seem to have the least “worship” to Playmaker as a whole and act almost independent of what Playmaker wants (although, with Ema, I’m hoping she won’t become the type to bend to Playmaker’s will just because of her current “crush” on him). They’re also the two remaining characters I’m interested in (with my initial infatuation with Aoi falling the longer we see her either by Playmaker’s side or off-screen entirely without a chance to shine) specifically because they have a focus that doesn’t center solely on him - Ema wants a profit (for reasons unknown or because she really likes money even though she doesn’t really live too luxuriously) and Dr. Kogami wants to destroy his creations even if he was to destroy Link VRAINS (and maybe even himself) to do so. 

…So, in summary, I dunno. I’m hoping if I wait this current arc out that I’ll get rewarded but, having slogged through the last Hanoi arc (which did little to pique my interest, honestly, aside from Ghost Girl’s bits), I’m not sure about that. Ema’s honestly one of the few reasons why I keep watching - if only to see bits and pieces of her here and there. Aoi’s also another reason but considering how rarely we see Aoi (and, I’m not including her online persona bc her online persona has kind of become a bit saturated in the plot rn) she’s not really a doable reason to keep watching. I’m also hoping that maybe we get somewhere - that maybe we try another route, something that doesn’t involve fighting Hanoi or claiming a need to “seek for the truth of the past”. Both of those rhetorics are getting real old now and, I feel like, if the show doesn’t step on a new path soon enough, it’ll get pretty stale to me quickly…

Put another way - I’m guess you can say I am infatuated with the beginning of VRAINS but I am also losing interest in the modern era of VRAINS.

[shidoukanae]

Who are the People of the Data Storm? (theory)

Okay going over episode one again because there’s so much information packed full into there and since everyone’s combed through the obvious information I’m gonna comb through the “doesn’t-seem-too-important-but-I’m-gonna-scream-over-it-anyways” information. Namely, about the special group of people Kusanagi talks about when bringing up the infamous Data Storm of the VRAINS.

Alright, so, Kusanagi mentions that a “certain” group of people did Speed Duels, introducing to us the fact that Speed Duels (and therefore probably Data Storms too, since he’s on the topic of it) are not new to VRAINS. Alright, okay, cool. On one hand, this is an obvious in-show explanation to familiarize the audience with the concept of Data Storms and their importance to the show (namely, Playmaker’s skill and his ability to draw new cards to help him in battle). On the other hand though, it’s also a means to bring up some questions.

For example, this special group of people...do they still exist? Who are they and where are they now? Supposedly, they were well-known and (possibly) well-liked as Kusanagi seems to imply. I mean, if they were notorious for the concept and perhaps the creation of Speed Duels, now that Speed Duels have been reinvented, where are they? Past this point, there has been nothing mentioned about them or even referenced about them. Yet, obviously, they had some huge impact on the VRAINS world. 

In the current day of the show, we see that the re-emergence of Speed Duels and Data Storms had created quite a stir with the real world. People are fascinated by it, trying it out for themselves and overall making a huge fuss about it. Kusanagi is the only one who seems to have a decent recollection of what a Data Storm (and what Speed Duels) are while Akira is hinted to at least recognize them in some vague fashion. Other than that, it seems like both Speed Duels and Data Storms have become a sort of “myth”. 

In episode two, the audience watching Playmaker’s duel seems to have heard of it but none of them actually seem to recognize the Data Stream that has appeared before them. And, what’s more, in episode 3, people seemed initially unaware of the dangers of riding the Data Stream, with two surfers tackling the mysterious ‘wind’ head-on with the intention of looking cool in front of the cameras. They were more fascinated with internet fame than wary about the potential harm that could occur from surfing on such a strange thing. It’s unknown whether anyone has actually died in the past from a Speed Duel but it’s been implied that, yes, it has, because Akira himself was well aware of the consequences enough to be certain about it in front of his sister. 

...But, back to the point. I feel like this “certain group” of duelists holds high importance to the plot. They may be the “true” antagonists we’ve been thinking of, the so-called “Dark Signers” or “Barians” of this series. Their evident lack of existence so far in the series is suspicious. 

Despite only ever being mentioned once, the show wouldn’t have reason to talk about them if they didn’t have a place in the plot. We already know episode one is chock full of “gonna be important later” facts (we have yet to see the other five AI’s, SOL’s desperation to find Ignis, Cyverse, Yusaku’s seeming connection to Ignis/the VRAINS) so it’s not out of the question that this “certain group of people” will have relevance too. 

Another possibility is that we already know these special people. Or, at least, some of them. From what little we know, it was likely they were active five years prior to current day. Likely, they were kids or young adults as those two groups are the only ones who seem interested (as of now) in Speed Duels. But, if it’s five years later, those “certain people” of the Data Storm are likely adults.

Like...Kusanagi. Or Ema. Or Akira. Or, even, Revolver’s dad. 

Consider this. All the adults we’ve been shown so far seem to be hiding something. Kusanagi, though more a background and supporting character to Yusaku than anything else, seems to know a lot more than he’s tell us. The mere fact that he seems brings up Speed Duels randomly to Yusaku hints of both plot explanation AND of plot importance. Kusanagi doesn’t only mention Data Storms and groups of people we’ve yet to know, but of “monsters in the wind” and a “paradise” that sounds eerily significant for something to occur down the road. 

Kusanagi seems to be more knowledgeable than he lets on and, perhaps, the reason why he is the only one (so far) who has referenced this notorious ‘group’ is because he was one of them. He’s aware of Speed Duels when most of the public has forgotten about them, speaking that Speed Duels (and, by extension, Data Storms, which are needed for Speed Duelst to exist) must have had some sort of relevance with him for him to have not only remembered what they were but what they looked like as well. 

I definitely feel like it’s suspicious that he’s able to recognize them while Naoki, someone who is a fan of the VRAINS enough to keep up-to-date with the latest in technology and the trendy idols, seems clueless as hell about what Data Storms are aside from basic rumors (which means we can infer that images of Speed Duels are apparently unavailable as otherwise how can you NOT recognize such a weird and obviously Speed Duel-related phenomenon if you’re such a fan of the VRAINS??? This makes it even more suspicious that Kusanagi is able to recognize just exactly what a Data Storm looks like) which is just plain odd.

It’s possible that Ema (and yes, I AM bring her up again because, like I’ve mentioned before, her potential can go in so MANY directions that it’s hard just to place in one certain direction and automatically assume I’m right) was once a part of this "people of the Data Storm” group too. There’s nothing to point her in this direction necessarily but her baring some similarities to Kusanagi makes me wonder. Both seem to keep to themselves, seem to be loners (aside from Yusaku, in the latter’s case) and, if Kusanagi is suspicious of knowing more than we know than so is Ema. She’s just as secretive as Kusanagi is, with few connections and just as lacking in motivation as the hot dog man is. 

Well, anyways, episode 8 will hopefully be more indicative of whether or not she has more major influence than we realize. Personally, I wonder if she has some history with Kusanagi. The fact that the writers are keeping her from interacting with anyone but Akira (who seems to be, as of now, a business-related contact only) makes me a bit suspicious. Every other character introduced has had their time to shine so far in almost every episode (and I’m including the times whenever Aoi appears as her Blue Angel persona) and yet Ema is the only character to have shown up for a grand total of like maybe a minute throughout the duration of 7 episodes. I realize she’s been off-screen investigating into Playmaker but with all the on-screen appearances other characters have made (even Specter, of all people, has had more screen-time than her) you’d think she’d be shining a little more brighter. Yet, the fact that they tuck her away makes me think they do so for a reason (And hopefully not just because she’s a YGO female). If she knows other members of the cast like Kusanagi, it is better to keep her from interacting with them so as to maintain her mystery and as well as to hide from us just how much she really knows. The less we see her the less we know about her and her connections and how she plays into anything at all like being in this ‘special group of people’.

Now, Revolver’s “father” and Akira Zaizen can also potential members of this perplexing band of hidden individuals but I actually believe they don’t really have any relevance. This is merely because Revolver’s dad looks a bit too old to have partaken in such shenanigans (and how would being the ~potential~ leader of the Knights of Hanoi have tied in with him being a member of this group, anyways? It doesn’t seem like the two factions are in any way related to one another from what he know so far) and, had Akira been a member, his sister would have known and used that against him. Akira being a notorious duelist (unless he kept his identity a definite secret from even her, I guess) of the Data Storm would have given Blue Angel fuel to fight against her brother when he chided her for partaking in such dangerous duels. Not only that, but if he knew of the consequences of the Data Storm firsthand (as I’m sure this group of people were super attuned to that fact) then he would’ve been more pushy and insistent to the point of probably locking her out of her account instead of just letting it slide when she went against his wishes. It might also explain why Ema and Akira are on familiar-ish terms to each other and why Akira seems to trust her when we’ve learned beforehand that she’s just as likely to help someone as she is to harm them (apparently. Again, waiting for episode 8 before anything concrete can be assumed about her).

Tl;dr: Kusanagi mentions a certain group of people in episode one and I believe they hold a lot of importance to the plot and what little we know about it so far. I also believe that Kusanagi might have been one of their members (due to recognizing the Data Storm immediately in episode 2 while others in the audience only knew it by name and rumors) and that it’s possible the other relevant adults - namely, Ema, Akira, and Revolver’s father - were also members of this special Speed-Dueling team. Whoever this certain organization was could also be villains or could be relevant to the plot in some other way.