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After coughing from the smoke even within Link VRAINS, Playmaker shot determined green eyes complete with a determined scowl to his opponent — Yuya Sakaki, or better known by his username, Z-arc. As grey, green, and red hair beautifully blew in the virtual breeze, Playmaker found it easy to be in awe, yet having to deal with the turmoil of being stuck in a pinch at the same time. He continued to look at Yuya’s smirk on his avatar’s face as he continued to soar on his favorite dragon after it’s jump over Playmaker’s head — time seemingly stopped as their gaze remained locked in the moment as it persisted and persisted.
Playmaker steered himself — he could focus on those emotions later, as he lowered his gaze to his cards. He had to think of a counter play to this.
“And with that, I end my turn!” Z-arc spoke proudly in a deeper voice reserved for Yuya’s portrayal and persona within Link VRAINS, giving Playmaker a bow. “It’s your stage now, Playmaker!”
Playmaker took the baton with a nod; executing his draw phase and adding a new card to his hand. With the new spell card at his disposal, he quickly reassessed his strategy.
The “hero” of Link VRAINS was quick to summon a monster to replace the one he had lost. And another. But it was all a ruse to lead him into a trick —.
— just as Yuya was sure that he was going to simply Link Summon once again, he instead activated one of his new monster’s effects — leading into the bulky, digitized monster being the very reason Odd-Eyes lost attack for all the fallen comrades the cyberse monster had.
“Battle!”
Z-arc let out a tiny little whine in the sudden fright leave his lips as he thought he was done for—.
— Before trained, keen eyes found themselves locked onto a nearby, lone card floating atop a skyscraper in a bubble, separated from the desolate background of Link VRAINS’ city backdrop. A gasp left him before he patted his dragon on the back of his neck after kneeling to a comfortable position to do so.
“Odd-Eyes! Up there!”
Too bad that communicating with your monster was a dead giveaway.
“I won’t let you!!” Playmaker spoke out before running forward as Yuya scaled the building for the Action Card. Firewall Guardian was quick to join Playmaker at his side — running itself into and under him, and picking him up onto his slender back to Playmaker’s gasp and surprise.
The reluctant hero of the virtual world didn’t hesitate to secure his hold on his dragon, racing towards the card he found hidden at the entrance to a cafe as —
“I activate the Action Magic! Miracle!” Z-arc shouted, holding the card up towards Playmaker with a reassured boom in his voice. “The damage I take is halved and Odd-Eyes survives!”
“Action Magic, Buffer!” Playmaker yelled in response, “It negates your spell card and returns it to your hand!!”
Luckily for Z-arc, another action card was only a hop skip and a jump away.
“Action Magic! Overclocked Processing! Miracle is allowed to activate once again this turn!”
“Action Magic!” — Thank you, Firewall Guardian, for taking him straight to that card — “Disrupted Connection! Again, Miracle is negated!”
“Shit—!” Z-arc swore, looking around to find another Action Card — finding one just in the center of the crosswalk. Just as Playmaker had also set his sights on it.
Their dragons dove for the cards — their masters still on their backs as they fell down the side of the skyscrapers of Link VRAINS, hands outstretched as they tried their best to reach for it —
— but a brown, gloved hand took the Action Card in hand, and he gasped — time stopped once again almost as he flipped the card over with a bright smile that Yusaku took a moment to drink in as his dragon flapped it’s bulky wings in order to fly back up to avoid colliding with Odd-Eyes. The brightness of Yuya’s red eyes glistening with hope…
.. Before he whined loudly with a sad expression. “REALLY?!”
— And Yuya went up in smoke.
It was still virtual, but Playmaker coughed all the same as he dismounted his dragon as it dematerialized while Yuya’s Life Point counter appeared only to show itself as it dropped from the 500 Life Points he had before to a simple “0”, the victorious duelist using his hand to try and bat at the smoke surrounding the other duelist as if it was real.
“Yu—Yuya?” Playmaker called in-between coughs, opening his eyes to find Z-arc on his knees, Odd-Eyes lost to the remnants of the duel in their memory as he had dematerialized as well. “Are you alright?”
A dramatic sigh left Z-arc’s lips. “Yep.” He proceeded to also dramatically fall over onto the street, sprawled out as he looked up at the skybox above. “I’m just fine.”
“What in the world was that?” Yusaku asked, brows furrowed in confusion. Just how that duel ended was beyond him; as a newcomer to Action Duels.
“An Action Trap.” His opponent clarified, not budging from the spot he seemed to see as comfortable on the ground. “They’re a little forgotten part of Action Dueling that got removed after a really long debate on if they were fair play or not.”
“Action Trap…?”
“Yep. They were removed ‘cause it took all your effort to get an extra card to save yourself and threw it in the garbage. I didn’t really get why ‘till I was on the receiving end of it.” Yuya grunted in-between his words as he sat upright, sitting with his legs crossed and his back slumped in the middle of the empty crosswalk.
“So I guess, in the end, luck just didn’t like me today.” Z-arc rubbed the back of his head. “Man…”
The victor of their duel remained silent for a moment, his features still marred by his confusion. This didn’t… make any sense to him. “So… you made it so I would win…? Z-arc, that’s not what I—“
“No, no, nononono!! I didn’t make it so that you’d win!” The entertainment duelist was quick to say, waving his hands frantically in the air, “I just—… I wanted to give you a real Action Duel full of everything it had to offer. That’s all. … So that included Action Traps. Even if that meant making it somewhat more likely that I’d lose.”
Playmaker blinked. The weight of Yuya’s words… it made it all make sense. It made something bubble on Playmaker’s chest as all he could think about was the effort Yuya put into their duel, in the duel itself and outside of it — all to make sure Yusaku’s first action duel was one that showed the method of dueling to it’s fullest potential. Even if, just as Yuya said, it ended up biting him back later.
Z-arc once again grumbled as he allowed himself to fall over — once again sprawled against the crosswalk. A pout on his lips that was all too familiar to Yuya’s real pout outside.
… Whatever bubbled within him decided to show itself, as he chuckled. And then chuckled more… only to proceed to break into small, tiny laughs he was quick to hide behind his hand as the laughter continued, having the grey-green-and-red-haired entertainment duelist hum in confusion as he cutely tilted his head.
Playmaker finally stopped his laughter with a sigh, as he lowered himself down and joined Z-arc on the ground. The loser of the night was left lost for what Playmaker’s intentions were now, as red eyes stared out from under green bangs in confusion. Words weren’t needed for Playmaker to understand, and Yusaku was quick to clarify.
“You went through so much effort… all to make sure that this duel would resonate with me, and open my heart to a duel that belonged to you that you wanted me to enjoy. All of it was to reach me with what you couldn’t say with words, and to make me smile.”
It seemed Yuya was all aware that he was successful, as he didn’t seem to look away from the smile that was on Playmaker’s face. It caused Yusaku to feel his heart — beyond his avatar — beat fondly for that wonder in Yuya’s eyes, as he let what he learned of how Yuya felt towards him show in his actions, as he took Z-arc’s hand and entwined their fingers — black and brown held together against gray asphalt.
Playmaker’s smile didn’t fade.
“Don’t worry yourself. Your effort’s appreciated. And your desires have reached me.
Thanks. Yuya. For showing me a duel I can allow myself to smile from.”
And now, Yuya’s avatar showed one of his cutest smiles — bright like a shining star as he laughed gently.
“Yeah! Thank you, Yusaku! For giving Action Dueling a chance!”
“Yeah. It was fun.”
And the two of them — as long as the server remained empty — simply remained on the ground, hand in hand and hearts beating for one another unknowingly, as they shared simple chuckles and laughs, reminiscing on the duel that they just had.
Yusaku understood Yuya’s strength as a duelist now more than ever.
With his kind and passionate heart, Yuya Sakaki could truly make anyone smile.