Archive of Our Own

Five years previously, her brother had received a job offer from SOL Technologies. That had been the start of it. Originally, he’d merely started out with a simple desk job, making slight improvements to their systems and generally staying out of the spotlight, working diligently so that he could provide for the two of them.

It hadn’t taken long for him to receive a promotion. He was good at his job, and his superiors appreciated that, elevating him to a more important position that allowed him to add some diversity to their meager apartment.

Four years previously, he was promoted again. He had responsibilities now, which required him to arrive earlier and leave later. He began to have less time for her. In addition, he was pushed into the spotlight occasionally. It wasn’t much, but slowly, the other students at her school, previously having ignored her for her silence, began to approach her.

It was a bumpy road from there, but eventually, her eyes cleared and she saw that, while she had originally appreciated finally having friends, they were not truly her friends. Every time her brother showed up on the news, the next day, they would ask small requests of her. At first, she was happy to help them, using what little money she had set aside to assist them.

The requests slowly began to escalate. Eventually, it became too much for her and she began to apologise for not being able to help. Her friends, in return, began to drift away, finding her to no longer be of use to them. She was alone once more, and this time, her brother wasn’t around to comfort her. She spent many nights lying in darkness, crying into her pillow, helpless.

Three years previously, she became Blue Angel. She bought her duel disk with her own money, painstakingly saving up so she wouldn’t have to ask her brother for one. She knew he would have given her one without question, but she didn’t want to rely on him. Not when he had already abandoned her.

She was a natural at dueling, and her popularity quickly soared. Within months, she was receiving advertising requests, people who wanted her to show off their products in return for a paycheck. She wanted to refuse. She didn’t want to be popular. She wanted to make friends. But it was too late. She was already popular. People were already approaching her with fake promises of “friendship”, just so that they could brag to their own friends about knowing Blue Angel.

Her brother still didn’t know. Once, over the dinner table, he told her that they were considering contracting Blue Angel as their poster girl. It was less than a week later that she was officially approached by SOL. She accepted, of course, but not without misgivings. Were they really so stupid as to offer her a job without doing a background check on her identity?

Apparently so, as the next several months passed by without a single inquiry as to her identity. Her brother was promoted even further, becoming the head of security. He no longer spent time with her, instead preferring to solidify his position in the company. It became less about her, and more about his position. Her heart could take no more, shattering into pieces and becoming a black ball of hatred, beginning to fester as her brother continued to ignore her.

She still kept her mask on. One day, she would get back at her brother. He would understand that she was more important than SOL. She hadn’t wanted to live comfortably. She had wanted to live with him. With her brother.

He was no longer her brother.

Two years previously, she was approached by an ambiguous party. The Knights of Hanoi, they called themselves. They were looking for an Ignis, supposedly, a sentient AI. One that used to belong to SOL. They planned to destroy it, and along with it, the entirety of SOL’s infrastructure.

It was the perfect chance. They hadn’t even asked anything of her, and yet she was already considering asking if she could help. It was obvious they wanted something out of her, even if they hadn’t directly said anything. If she helped them, she could destroy SOL, the corrupting presence in her brother’s life. Even if it would ruin their living conditions, it would show her brother that all he was supposed to do was look at her. He had made a mistake in trying to get a higher position.

The Knights knew who she was. They claimed they had a use for her. If she, Aoi Zaizen, could get inside information from her brother, and relay it to them, they would let her assist in their activities as an undercover agent. They still weren’t going to open full hostilities with SOL, as they waited and amassed power, but they would be fighting in the shadows, attempting to retrieve the Ignis before SOL could.

But more importantly, they somehow knew what she was feeling. While promises of bringing SOL down were already making her waver, what they offered alongside it was even more tempting. They took care of their own. So long as she said yes to their offer, they would support her. She would have a family again.

She accepted. While to the common person, they seemed to have evil intentions, she had spent years learning to read people, and she could tell that they genuinely believed that what they were doing was right. She believed it, too. If the Ignis were really a possible threat to humanity, and SOL were using them, then they should be destroyed.

One year previously, she met them in person. They welcomed her with open arms and smiling faces. She broke down on the spot, crying tears of happiness as, for the first time in years, she felt truly loved. She felt as if she belonged.

They hadn’t asked much of her. Bits and pieces of information, here and there, but ultimately, while they said they had a use for her, they hadn’t, not really. They were good enough at what they did, and were able to get most of the information they needed without relying on her help.

They had long since told her how the Ignis had been created. She felt sorry for the children. They hadn’t deserved what they had been forced to go through. Even more so, now that the Ignis that had been created from them were going to be destroyed. In the end, the Hanoi Project had been pointless.

Spectre was one of the children. At first, she felt sad as he told her his past, but then, she felt jealousy. It was unreasonable, she knew, but she was jealous all the same. He had began with no family, and then gained one that loved and appreciated him. She had began with a family, but then was abandoned in her brother’s pursuit of money and influence.

She shouldn’t have felt jealous. After all, they were all the same family now. But she couldn’t help it. The ball of hatred in her heart had long since spread throughout her completely, tainting her view of the world. It wasn’t fair for others to have good things happen to them. Not if she had to suffer in return, whether they were connected or not.

In the present, she met a boy. Was “rescued” by a boy. His name was Playmaker, and through some twist of fate, he had managed to capture the Ignis that they had spent so long searching for. In the chaos of Hanoi’s attack on VRAINS, one of the grunts had almost deleted her account.

Ryoken, Revolver, urged her to pretend to help him fight them. Playmaker refused her help, telling her that she wasn’t involved. She insisted, but he wouldn’t budge, and she was forced to give up.

A boy approached her at school. His name was Yusaku. Yusaku Fujiki. He joined the duel club. She didn’t honestly believe that he enjoyed dueling, so when he approached her, she immediately accused him of approaching her for her brother. She already had a bad impression of him. It didn’t help matters that he stopped talking to her after the accusation.

They lured out Playmaker, pretending to have her lose control after a virus took over her avatar. Her brother still didn’t know that she was Blue Angel, but as she was an important figure to SOL, he lured out Playmaker, thinking that he had caused it. It was almost too perfect.

Ryoken showed up, telling her brother that he would “wake” her if Playmaker beat him in a duel. Her brother, foolish as he was, accepted. Unexpectedly, however, Ryoken lost. None of them thought it would happen, but it did.

Although, now they knew, Playmaker was one of the children of the Hanoi Project.

They began a different phase of their plans, tracking down hackers around Playmaker’s age one by one, forcing them into comas in an attempt to draw out Playmaker. Ryoken requested her to fight the grunts, continuing the pretense of helping Playmaker and SOL.

They lured out Playmaker. No, it wasn’t Playmaker. Go Onizuka had disguised himself, but promised to give them Playmaker’s identity if they beat him in a duel, so they accepted. Genome was the first to fall, but Ryoken spied a chance.

Vyra and Faust went out together, defeating the swarm of AI duelists and proving that SOL would need to send humans after them instead. This was the moment Ryoken had been waiting for. Vyra agreed, and Aoi, as Blue Angel, went out and challenged her. To say Vyra lost on purpose would be the truth, but it didn’t matter, as Aoi would have won either way. She was solidified to the public as someone on Playmaker’s side, and this helped their efforts.

The final phase began. The Tower of Hanoi rose from the underground, beginning to eat the data of Link VRAINS and preparing to purge the network of not just the Ignis in Playmaker’s hands, but all of them others as well. There would be no escape.

Ryoken gave her a program. If it worked, they would be able to pull off the plan flawlessly. Not only would they destroy the Ignis, but SOL, as well, and she could finally get her revenge for everything her brother had done. He also told her that he had found out Playmaker’s identity. It was that boy from school, Yusaku.

She met up with Playmaker and Go Onizuka, putting on a serious expression as they discussed the situation. Go Onizuka, in his own fashion, yelled that he would surpass Playmaker and defeat Revolver first. She inwardly smiled. He was such an idiot. He would never be able to beat Ryoken. However, Playmaker was an unknown variable.

Before Playmaker could leave, she requested to talk to him, grabbing his arm and pulling him into an alley to hide from the cameras that were watching. He tried to escape from her grip, but she just held tighter, and then activated the program she was given.

A cage sprung up around them, dragging them into the ground and leaving them alone. He asked her, angrily, what she thought she was doing. She smiled at him.

She was one of the Knights of Hanoi, what did he think she was doing? Did he really believe that she would just let him stop the tower?

The box they were in descended deeper into the ground, destroying any chances of Playmaker being able to escape it. Playmaker yelled at her, asking why she would do this. She asked him if he was the only one allowed to fight for revenge. He went silent.

If he, Yusaku Fujiki, was allowed to fight for his revenge, then why couldn’t she, Aoi Zaizen, fight for hers?

He questioned how she knew his identity. How long she had known. Not long, she told him. Long enough to squash any feelings of pity she may have had for his situation.

He was helpless. He knew his acquaintance could see his horizontal position, but from the interface, all he would be able to see was that he was standing in the same spot, unmoving. They had failed. The Knights of Hanoi would win.

Aoi was happy. By now, Go Onizuka had probably been defeated, adding his own data to the tower. She decided to give Playmaker, Yusaku, a false sense of hope. She told him that if he defeated her in a duel, then they would be transported back to the surface.

The Ignis laughed. They had defeated her once before, they could do it again. Of course, she replied. That’s why she wouldn’t accept a duel request. Her revenge was more important to her than giving him a chance to fulfil his.

Hours passed, and she knew that the end was coming. She had been prepared for it. She would get revenge on her brother for destroying her life, and then she would die with her real family. She only wished that she could see them one last time. She didn’t want the last thing she saw to be the face of her enemy.

She truly was sorry. It didn’t have to be like this, she told him. If her brother hadn’t betrayed her in the first place, maybe she would have been fighting with him, side by side.

He said he believed her. She didn’t know if he really did, but at this point, she no longer cared. They sat in silence after that, waiting for the end.

Slowly, the world around them began to dissolve. Their bodies soon followed. Everything was gone, and her last fleeting thought was that she wished she could have seen the fallout that would follow. Her brother’s expression must be priceless at this moment.