Archive of Our Own

From the moment Yusaku learned about soulmates, he'd tried his hardest to reduce what little contact he'd had with other people to an almost negligible amount.

For most people, finding their soulmate would be one of their dreams. Not Yusaku. After what he'd been through, he didn't want anyone else to have to experience it.

It was a sound plan. Try his best to avoid any possibility of getting a soulmate, all the way up until he was twenty one and the bond would break.

He'd been going so well, too. Sixteen full years and he had yet to find his soulmate.

There hadn't ever been a case of someone finding their soulmate while inside Link VRAINS. They were probably the first. He hadn't even known it was possible. In hindsight, given the nature of the system, it should have been obvious.

Immediately after he logged in, he rushed to the site of the attack, where the Knight of Hanoi was still going on a rampage. Gritting his teeth, he dived right in, moving to save the idol - Blue Angel, his mind supplied offhand - from the flames spitting out of the Cracking Dragon's mouth. He needed to get everyone out of the way, so he could draw the Knight’s attention.

He dived to grab her out of the way as she ran from the flames, holding her in his arms.

Something clicked, and ten years of loneliness, sadness, and eventually, neglect, rushed into his mind. Countless memories flashed through his head as feelings that weren't his own welled up inside of him. He was able to weather it fairly well. Loneliness was his life.

Then his eyes widened in horror as he realised what the memories meant.

And the screaming started. The girl in his arms - Aoi, he gleaned from his new memories - writhed in pain as she felt six full months of torture within the span of seconds. It was all he took to not drop her from the spasming.

He tried to lay her on the ground, but being concrete, it wouldn't be very comfortable for her. Thinking fast, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the connection between them.

She’d laid down on her bed before she logged in. Perfect.

“Log out!” He called, trying to reach her through her screams, but it was no use. She continued to flail on the ground, so he instead held down her arm that had the duel disk, breaking the security on it and manually forcing the logout himself.

“What's going on?” The AI in his duel disk finally spoke up, but he ignored it in favour of logging out himself.

The plan to try and get anything out of Hanoi was canceled.

He almost tripped as he rushed through the door of the cubicle in Shoichi's truck, throwing his duel disk onto the table and then sprinting for the exit without a word.

“Yusaku, what are you doing?” Shoichi called after him. Yusaku didn't blame him for being confused. “What happened?”

Yusaku stopped midway through opening the door, glancing back at Shoichi. “Soulmate.”

The single word response left Shoichi speechless, but it explained everything in an instant, so Yusaku flew out the door in a hurry.

“What's he talking about? That doesn't explain anything!” The AI complained, but Shoichi shook his head.

“You probably wouldn't know, but if someone finds their soulmate before the bond breaks, their memories are shared in full in a single instant.”

“Then why is he in such a rush? Is he that happy to have found his soulmate?”

Shoichi gave a deep breath.

“Yusaku was tortured for six months as a child. Whoever his soulmate is just experienced all of that in an instant.”

Yusaku ran through the streets, dividing his attention between the path and his phone as he looked up as much information as he could about what little researchers knew about the soulmate connection.

Given how intimate it inherently was, it was understandable that the vast majority of people who did find their soulmates were unwilling to be subjected to research.

There were always a few in dire need of money, however, so research had been able to happen.

The amount of information he was able to find was extremely limited, almost to the point of uselessness. Researchers had been able to prove that there was a connection, but much beyond that was out of their reach due to technological deficiencies.

It took him the better part of half an hour to reach the building Aoi lived in. He headed directly for the elevator, ignoring the receptionist’s shout of protest.

The elevator required a special passcode to reach the rooftop apartment that housed Aoi and her brother, and he referred to his memories to try and find it. Punching the code in rapidly, the elevator soon began to ascend slowly.

Yusaku hoped she wouldn't go insane from the experience. It was hard enough to experience in real time, and he didn't want to imagine how it would feel for it all to happen at once.

He hoped he could find a way to help her. Even if he'd only just became aware of her, he didn't want her to feel all the pain that he went through. At the very least, not alone. There was no way her brother would be able to leave work to be by her side.

He had to be there for her.

The elevator stopped, having finally reached the top, and the doors opened to reveal a now-familiar apartment. He ran through the halls, heading directly for Aoi's room. He could hear screaming, and his heart sank. Even after almost half an hour, she was still in pain.

He burst through the door. “Aoi!” She laid on the bed, spasming and flailing as she screamed.

He fell to her side, grasping her hand. “Aoi, it's okay! Calm down!” He closed his eyes, bringing his forehead to touch her hand. “I'm here.”

Her breath hitched and for a moment he thought he'd gotten through, but then she continued screaming and he knew he hadn't.

He closed his eyes, focusing on the connection that he could feel between them now that they had physical contact, then went limp.

The pain came first. He'd felt it all before, so it wasn't as bad for him as it was before, but he could feel that he'd taken a load off of her, allowing her some slight reprieve as the pain noticeably faded.

Aoi, can you hear my voice?

The thought shot through the connection, and he could somehow feel her attention shift away from the pain, now that it had something else to focus on. Unlike outside of their minds, there was nothing blocking her from hearing him like this.

Who is that? How are you talking in my head?

The message came through full of confusion, but after a few seconds a second one came.

Oh, you're Yusaku. My… soulmate, I guess? I wasn't expecting to ever find mine.

Yusaku, somehow, blinked.

You're coherent?

You took most of the pain away. Saying it hurts is an understatement, but in here, I can hold a conversation. The intensity was causing it to perpetuate itself, but it's dying down now.

Yusaku was relieved.

I'm sorry. I never wanted to find my soulmate because I knew this would happen. This is my fault.

Aoi didn't respond back, but he could feel conflicting emotions running around her mind.

At least the pain was finally beginning to subside. After a minute, she finally responded.

I think it's going to be fine. Stay by my side? I might not wake up for a while.

Then he was thrown back into his body as the strain on his mind became too much.

Yusaku blinked. What a surreal experience. But he'd heard her words, so he held her hand, sitting next to her on the bed.

“Of course. That's why I’m here.”