Into the VRAINS

Pale blue eyes would narrow once the words reached Ryoken’s ears — and the question how he had managed to communicate his feelings this badly arose once more in his head. Him struggling with words and emotions was unbeknownst to no one, but still. When had it gotten to this point? 

“You… have your own room, I made sure of it. We also have a kitchen and a… some kind of a living room. It’s not the best, I am aware. This is nothing but a temporary solution. I’ll fix this, all of this.”

Ryoken pulled at Spectre’s arm, trembling fingers digging into the poplin fabric of his grey vest. It was a plea for Spectre to finally step away from the rail — Ryoken himself failed to notice how he was holding onto the younger teen’s arm for dear life, fearing this being the next inevitable tragedy: losing his childhood friend, his one and only.

Ryoken had already lost his father due to his own mistakes and had left Kyoko in prison’s grasp. He couldn’t lose anyone else. Not now and not anytime soon. What exactly was Spectre even thinking? Did he truly believe Ryoken didn’t want him in his life anymore?  

“Come back inside, Spectre. Please. I didn’t… mean it like that, I…”

Ryoken swallowed the lump in his throat, words dissolving on his tongue. He couldn’t say it — could neither explain nor comprehend what he was thinking. All he could was pull on Spectre’s arm again, silently begging him to stay, stay with me, don’t leave. There was nothing but sorrow, fear and guilt tormenting his heart. And Ryoken didn’t want to be weak, either. For his father, he wanted to be stronger than ever, and yet…

Quietly he was listening to the other ones words, eyes out on the ocean, while he still felt the others arms around him. Kinda...grounding. It proved that Ryoken really was here. That this wasn't a dream or a nightmare.

"It's not your responsibility to fix this." he spoke up eventually. Decided not to comment on the rest of the other's words, as it wasn't quiet what had mattered here. Ryoken had told him to leave. Not to leave him alone and maybe it was stupid, but for him, who had been send away, left behind so often it was a rather important difference.

For a moment he stayed silent, even though ocec Ryoken mentioned he hadn't meant it like that, when Ryoken asked him to come back inside. If Spectre was honest to himself than he actually preferred staying out here. With the endless ocean around the space seemed endless too. Free. Royken was right when he was saying their current situation wasn't the best, was only temporary. And they had to work with the little they still had but that boat really was small and small rooms never had been something Spectre could easily deal with.

But Ryoken was asking him...

A sigh left his lips, before he eventually allowed himself to relax slightly, to lean against the body of his friend behind him.

I feel like I'm suffocating down there...

But again, those words didn't leave his lips. Instead he turned his head slightly towards the other one.

"As you wish. But please stop making all of this your responsibility. You need to take care of yourself too. If you'd die..."

Ryoken hadn’t thought twice about his request, neither had he thought about his choice of words. All he wanted was to be left alone with his laptop, really — after all, it was always easier to distract himself when met with a storm of emotions, rather than facing it. Frankly, if Ryoken hadn’t already spent the majority of his life with Spectre, he might have been oblivious to the small change. 

Spectre had wanted to argue. Ryoken could tell, yet his voice seemed to break with the tension. Instead, silence lingered between them. His eyes widened after it seemed to last an eternity, a fresh wave of guilt crashing down on him. Had he unintentionally hurt Spectre, this time? 

Such a realisation prompted him to tear his gaze away from the screen, and his friend was already on the way out — but there was something else in Spectre’s voice. 

Something that left him staring at the door after it was pulled shut, something that worried him greatly. Ryoken wouldn’t be able to tell why, really. It felt different, so very out of place and unusual. He all but jumped from the bed, head spinning with the sudden motion. Time seemed slower whilst Ryoken needed to let the dizziness pass, before he could hurry towards the door.

A search began, then. Despite their significantly smaller residence, Ryoken was unable to find Spectre. His room was empty and so was the kitchen. With every door Ryoken pushed open, only to find nothing but furniture, the beating of his heart increased. Spectre wasn’t there, he had left. 

When the leader stumbled into the Knights’ small conference room, Aso was immediately surprised to see him. Ryoken paid him no mind, wouldn’t even let him utter a single word. There was only one thing echoing through his head:

Spectre isn’t here.

A small, rational part of him that barely managed to have a say in his almost panicked state, assured him Spectre couldn’t leave. Hanoi’s base was a mere boat, now, trapped on the ocean. There was only one last place Ryoken’s childhood friend could escape to, one place he hadn’t checked yet. 

Ryoken’s stomach dropped once he stepped outside to be faced with the gentle breeze of the ocean and a view that absolutely terrified him.

His body acted on its own. Ryoken sprinted towards the rail and wrapped not one, but two hands around Spectre’s arm, embracing it with the tightest grip he could muster. His lungs screamed for air that seemed out of reach.

“What are you doing?”

Too close, you’re too close to death’s sharpened claws.

Ryoken’s voice was frail; a result of the anxiety he attempted to keep at bay. However, he was quick to try again again, louder this time: “What are you doing?” 

Time was passing like a blur. Or wasn’t it moving at all? Spectre couldn’t tell. It felt like he just had left Ryoken’s room and yet as if an eternity had passed. Had it been mere minutes? Or had it been hours that he had spend there?  There wasn’t much going on in his head right now, mind empty, trying to push back several thoughts, feelings, memories from a time...a life he had wanted to forget long, long ago. 

Please leave. 

He didn’t noticed how Ryoken joined him in the cold night, didn’t noticed how his friend got closer, not until two arms were wrapped around his body with a force that almost could be described as hurtful. It caused him to blink, but not to turn, eyes soon enough settled on the waves in front of him. In front of them. He wasn’t alone any longer. 

Slowly Ryokens voice reached him, the realization, that Ryoken had followed him here. Why was he here? It wasn’t making any sense, right? Ryoken had send him away, told him to leave, so there was no reason for him to be here right now and yet... 

Certainly, hearing Spectre raise his voice whilst talking to Hanoi’s leader didn’t happen on a daily basis. Ryoken was used to Spectre being more soft-spoken around him, really. Thus, such an unpredictable change surprised him enough to urge him to turn his head and face his childhood friend. He blinked, slowly, letting the words sink in. Still, his facial expression remained completely rid of any and all emotion.

“And I have failed you all as a leader. As a friend, too, and as a son.”

It seemed easy to let such words slip past his lips, yet they hurt almost as much as the passing of his father. There were many things that had gone wrong during the Tower Of Hanoi, a handful of which could have easily been avoided.

“If I were no longer here, you would still chase after the Ignis, I suppose.”

After taking a deep breath to somewhat steady his racing heart, Ryoken raised a hand to insistently pinch the space between his eyes.

“If that is all, I would like you to leave now, Spectre. I appreciate you checking up on me, but there is work I need to get done.”

This path would get himself killed. Ryoken didn’t want that, not really; he wanted to fulfill the mission his father had entrusted him with. He wanted to return to the stage, so to speak, but how would he be able to do any of that? The entire situation seemed completely and utterly hopeless.

Ryoken felt alone and scared, like time was slipping through his fingers. And he felt so, so guilty for his father dying for no reason at all, and for Kyoko withering away in prison. For all he had done wrong, for all the people he had failed. 

His body would start to shake ever so lightly as the feelings came crashing down on him again, yet he refused to yield, and focused on his laptop again instead.

“Please leave, Spectre.”

Ryoken nodded. ‘I guess’ was a relatively decent answer to his question, all things considered. After all, the teen must be just as shaken as Ryoken himself, if not more. 

“That’s … good,” he would mumble, half to himself, shifting a little before properly noticing what else was happening around them. The place was quite central and the explosion had obviously caught an enormous amount of attention from other citizens. It was loud, too loud for Ryoken’s liking, and certainly didn’t help to calm down.

What distracted him was the same question that had been asked before. Ryoken looked at the teen again, observing his face for a moment.  

“I,” Ryoken trailed off, realising it might not be a good idea to explain that now. Lying was not an option, but being honest wouldn’t serve any good, either.

“We need to get you somewhere safe, first.”

The signal of the Ignis had disappeared, however Ryoken would never dare trust such a creature. It could travel through the network at an alarmingly fast pace and return whenever it liked. For all Ryoken knew, another car could be sent after them at any given moment.

His first instinct would have been to take the young teen to Hanoi’s base, as it was safest. 

“Hospital,” Ryoken eventually suggested, “to get you checked out while we’re at it. Make sure you didn’t … break anything.”

He wiped at his forehead with his arm, shaking ever so lightly. The entire situation seemed unreal to him, like a bizarre dream he would soon wake from.

Haruto wasn't so sure if there even was anything close to good about this whole situation, but he wasn't even in the right head space to question anything about it. Instead he only nodded, trying to figure out whether or not it was save to stand up at this point, but in the end he decided that it was just a risk to take.  He wasn't so sure what caused that accident right now, but with everything that had happened in the few seconds before - things he still tried to catch up with - the green haired teen was kinda sure that it hadn't been exactly an accident.

What if there were other cars coming towards him? Sitting on the ground would mean no way to jump out of it's way.

In the end the stranger said that they had to go somewhere safe first and if Haruto hadn't suspected that something about this situation was ... well fishy, than he had realized it now.

So he really wasn't safe here, was he?

Still, with his past part of him really wasn't up and about to just go with a stranger, no matter whether or not they seemed close in age, so the following words were kinda reassuring to him.

Hospital , hu?

Well Haru was sure he wasn't hurt that badly but... it certainly sounded like a safe place, right?

Ryoken hadn't quite expected to endanger his own life on that particular day. It started normally and without any disruptions, after all, safe for the fact that he had to go into town to purchase a new cable for his computer. That wasn't something Ryoken would usually do on his own, either. However, he had felt an urge to use this opportunity to leave his new residence on water and set foot on proper ground again.

Perhaps, destiny just wanted Ryoken to be at the right place, at the right time.

After looking through a couple of shops, he was forced to wait at a traffic light that had turned red right before he could cross the street. It frankly annoyed him, much like the loud chatter of the different people waiting along with him.

It wasn't until his duel disk picked up traces of an Ignis that Ryoken's entire day changed for the worse.

Before, he had never been able to receive such a signal outside of Link VRAINS. It worried him greatly. Despite the light turning blue and thus signalising permission to walk, Ryoken remained entirely still. He stared at the screen of his device with wide eyes, before frantically looking around the place.

Where? Where could it be?

It wasn't until the horrific screeching of tires reached his ears that his duel disk emitted a deafening noise, causing Ryoken's heart to all but stop beating.

In hindsight, he couldn't remember much. Ryoken couldn't remember when his feet moved to run towards the only person still standing on the street. He couldn't remember what he did, even less how he did it. But, once he was back in his body and mind, there was a burning car in the distance, which had crashed into a building, and a young teen on the ground next to him.

He had only seen the boy once, whilst uncovering the identities of every Lost Incident victim.

At first, Ryoken was shaken to the core, trying to catch his breath as his heart pounded in his ears. His gaze remained fixated on the car, unable to comprehend what had just occurred. In response to the teen’s question, he likely would have made a snarky comment about people usually thanking someone in such a situation, but he couldn't. He felt sick to the stomach.

Whichever Ignis that was, it had tried to kill its Origin.

Completely ignoring what had been said before, Ryoken asked: "Are you alright?"

It had started as a regular day. That was the first thing that Haruto would recall from the day that had turned out so different from what he had expected. From what he had ever believed to be possible - and that list was rather long ever since he had went throught that incident. He had spend years with being way too paranoid. With expecting to be taken again every time his parents hadn't been close by. With expecting those that had taken him to come back, to finish what they have started.

Moving away had helped. Letting go of everything that had reminded him of that incident had made it easier to pretend it never had happened. It was something his parents had been even better with than he was.

And eventually he had forgotten about his fear. About his paranoia. He had an almost normal life, but obviously it wasn't what he was allowed to have at this point, cause soon enough everything changed again once his mother declared she would move overseas and the news of Playmaker and his fight against Hanoi coming to public.

Suddenly he'd been back to seven years old, scared, confused and constantly afraid of being taken. It had lead to him distancing himself from his friends a bit, staying more quiet and withdrawn most of the time.

And then there had been that strange figure that started to talk to him from various screens behind the window of an television shop. He hadn't even realized his friends had went on without him, just like they probably hadn't noticed he had stopped at all. Still kinda integrued Haruto started to walk once again, missed the people around him. Missed the screams, the yelling, the screeching of tires, the explosion.

The next thing he realized was that he was down on the ground, a stranger beside him. It took him a few seconds to take in the situation he had found himself into. To realize that if it wouldn't have been for that stranger...he probably would have been dead.  

After all these years... was it finally time for him after all?

The question wasn't making any sense to him at all, for a moment he couldn't do much than stare at the other one, blinking eventually.

"I...I guess? Thank you?" he mumbled eventually. It felt ... strange. There was something he was missing and it was a feeling he didn't like, not at all. His eyes wandered all over the place, noticed people around them, screaming, sirens coming closer. A worried look on a woman running towards them, but eventually his whole attention was on the boy that saved him once again, like he was the only one around here with him.

"Why did you save me?"

His shoulders tensed with the words that were thrown at him. Briefly, Ryoken glanced at Spectre, before his entire focus seemed to belong to the laptop before him again. With the bright screen of the device, the dark set of circles underneath his eyes were even more prominent than usual. Or, perhaps, they had worsened.

This wasn’t the first time someone had pointed out his behaviour. The day prior, Aso had kindly suggested a “much needed break” and Genome had even offered a supposedly calming tea.

Since leaving the mansion behind, which was a few days ago, this occurred more often. It wasn’t all too surprising, not really. Ryoken had just lost the last living part of his family and Hanoi had taken an unimaginably serious blow. His reaction to everything falling apart right before his very eyes was to isolate himself in his new, significantly tinier room, and work until he would pass out, before continuing.

This routine left little time to think about what happened, which was good.

However, all good things must come to an end, and Spectre decided to be the one to threaten his “peace”.

Ryoken needed a long moment before he could voice an answer. At first, it seemed like he was intent on ignoring the question entirely, but suddenly, the rapid typing finally ceased for the first time in hours.

“Does it matter?”

Things certainly hadn't turned out as any of them had planned, that much was obvious. After all...at least Spectre for his part could say, that he hadn't expected to see another day, after the decision for Hanoi's tower had been made. His last thoughts after he had lost to Playmaker were that he had failed Ryoken one time too much. But that Hanoi would succeed anyways.

Turned out he'd been wrong. Because eventually he actually had woken up again, confused and lost and not sure where to go or what to think. Eventually he had found his way to Ryoken. Like always. And like always the older teen was the one to show him his way, to direct the next steps.

Days had passed in a blur. There had been a lot Spectre had to come to terms with too. A place to call home for example. A ship, so far away from the shore, from solid earth beneath his feet and Spectre had to admit, that he was missing his flowers and plants around. Then there was the fact that the boat was smaller than the mansion they had used to live in. Like...a lot smaller. And then there was the fact that someone was missing. Kyoko hadn't managed to escape.  Part of him knew that it wasn't just him that needed to get used to all those changes, to this new situation, but it had taken a while until he reached a point mentally where he actually realized exactly that.

And soon enough he found Ryoken again. Just that Ryoken was buying himself in work and Spectre felt even worse. Because he couldn't help. Because he hadn't been at his friends side up to this point. And it was clearly visible how everything was dragging the older one down.

Which...eventually lead to him to speak up words like this, because Spectre knew one thing. If he would loose Ryoken too... he wouldn't have anything left at all.

"Of course it matters." he replied in the end, voice a bit louder, actually angry. Worried? "You're our leader!" You're my only friend. "What are we supposed to do if you're not here anymore?" I'd be lost without you, please don't leave me too.

Maybe Spectre didn’t mean it rudely, but Jin couldn’t help but bristle. It wasn’t her fault she’d been so out of the loop all this time. Besides—and this was cruel, and she knew it—if you subtracted all that time the Hanoi were doing cybercrime, technically Spectre had been allied with the unofficially named Team Playmaker for even less time than Jin. And she’d never been an active threat, not of her own volition, anyway.

“…Please don’t talk down to me, Spectre-san. I’m not as weak or useless as you’re probably assuming. Sorry if that’s so hard to believe.”

“Oh, don’t missunderstand me. I’m not saying you*’re anything like that.” Spectre replied without missing a second after the other one had finished her sentence, while shrugging in a probably supposed to be innocent gesture. 

“The Light Ignis was based on you. For it to turn out that determined and calculated, there must something powerful be hidden deep down in yourself.” he pointed out eventually, before his expression turned rather cold. 

The disappointment was clearly visible on young Kogami’s features - his shoulders slumped down in defeat before a pout grazed his lips. Finding his father seemed to be more difficult than he initially thought.

“O..kay,” Ryoken nervously glanced to the side, forcing a smile onto his lips. Something about this ridiculously tall and frankly weirdly dressed man gave him a bit of the creeps. 

“That’s fine! He’ll be back in a bit. I was just wondering.”

Who was standing next to him might as well be the kind of person his father had warned him about - the kinds of people that steal children away. Thus, Ryoken would take a few steps back, still smiling.

“But thank you, anyways!”

Revolver certainly was not allowed to look that cute, Ai decided as soon as that disappointed expression appeared on the little ones face. No really. It wasn’t fair and the Ignis had to use all of his willpower not to pout because of it. 

In the end it didn’t take that long for the child to back away from him. Not that surprising, It seemed like not matter what age, Revolver didn’t seem to trust him. 

Maybe he was right with that...

"Oh, you’re welcome” he replied eventually, before looking around slowly. 

“Where did your father went of to anyways? Isn’t nice to leave little ones like you all alone in a place like this.”

“He tried to get past our firewall,” Ryoken stated matter-of-factly, not feeling the need to provide further details on the matter. Nail wouldn’t succeed, considering Hanoi’s level of security, yet his attempt might foretell trouble.

A rare, humorous grin of his own would tug on Ryoken’s lips thereafter. Whilst Spectre hadn’t given him the reply he was looking for, it momentarily lessened the tension within him.

“As you wish, Spectre.”

Still, hearing about there not being many differences between Nail and Ryoken’s younger self was quick to make him frown. It was what worried him most and what he thought about speaking up on, lest it’d tear his brain apart. Sighing, Ryoken leaned his cheek against the palm of his hand.

“… It’s to prevent such an incident from happening again, too. And Soulburner wants me to make up for it, not the other three. He wants me to never forget and always carry those feelings.”

The words clotted on his tongue.

“No, I don’t think my father is involved in this,” Ryoken was quick to clarify, gaze fixated on Spectre. “It’s like you’ve said before. Nail is similar to what I was like, back then. So, I ask myself, why? I can’t think of a reason why he would need to know how to code. He…”

Ultimately, he trailed off, unsure of the racing thoughts in his head. To resurrect his father in the network, Ryoken had learned how to code. It was the one and only reason he had done so at such an early age. But, perhaps, Ryoken was overthinking this?

“This probably sounds entirely unreasonable, I’m aware. I can’t explain it.”

Well from all the ways Nail could have caused some kind of problems in Ryokens eyes, that actually hadn't been on the list Spectre had thought to be possible. The kid tried to do what?

"How does he even know how to do that?" slipped past his lips, before his expression went back to the normal more emotionless one. Well at least he now could understand why Ryoken was bothered about it. A child in that age knowing stuff like that? It certainly ran some alarm bells.

And yet it was another similarity between the two.

The short agreement caused him to smile shortly, before the topic changed again and Spectre let out yet another sigh. "And you ever stopped and asked what the rest of us wants for you? I mean you know my position and probably the one from Playmaker but there are three other victims of your father, right?"

And if Spectre was honest than even he thought it were rather the three commanders that should take responsibility for the Incident and not Ryoken. The other one had been a child, how could he even be hold responsible for any of that?

In the end he only listened to Ryokens words. When even the older one didn't think that his father was involved in this, than it probably was true, but still Spectre could understand where the other one was coming from .There had to be a reason for Nail being so similar to Ryoken after all.

“Uuh…”

Shifting from one foot to the other, young Kogami stared, baby blue eyes glistening with uncertainty. His mind was blank, terrifyingly so, and he was unsure where he was.

“… ‘xcuse me, I don’t …”

Turning his head to check his surroundings once more, Ryoken felt he knew this place, yet it was different in his memory than it was before his eyes.

“… know where my father is. Have you seen him? He’s,” he’d raise his arm above his head, “a lot taller than me and his hair is… purple and,” he’d point at his eyes, “he’s got yellow eyes.”

Honestly, Ai had no real reason to come to this place at this point of time. Not really. He was avoiding Yusaku for quiet some time now and coming to a place that his partner spend so much time around.  But maybe that exactly was the reason why he was here now. To let his memories of a better time consume him. To sink down in a picture of a past instead of being confronted with the presence as it currently was.

It was a quit, rather young sounding voice that eventually pulled Ai out of his thoughts, caused him to open his eyes once again - he hadn't even realized he had closed them in the first place - and he was promptly met with a little child that looked way too familiar.

Honestly, when he had planned to get lost in his memories of a time long gone, he hadn't meant that long.

But there he was. The little boy that never realized what part he had played in Ai's very own creation. The one, that eventually had become his worse enemy and now was...

Damn why was Revolver looking so innocent like that?

What kind of simulation had he ended up in this time?

“I am very much aware of that, but apart from the boy possibly being a troublemaker, there is nothing I have discovered about him.” 

Not that he had tried. Whilst Ryoken hadn’t even figured out what he was supposed to do with the child in the first place, he thought it a waste of time to attempt to build some kind of a connection. 

Now, Ryoken was more eager to hear Spectre’s response to his question, tugging on the hem of his pink t-shirt as he watched him intently. 

Once the words reached his ears, Ryoken blinked, dumbfounded.  A moment of silence would stretch between them. He was visibly at a loss for words, lips parted and eyes fixated on Spectre - staring at him as if awaiting an explanation.

“Meaning I am but an eleven-year-old child to you, still?”  

Handle him, handle the boy - what was any of that supposed to mean? Huffing, Ryoken promptly turned to face the screen of his laptop again, typing away on the keyboard.

“I suppose it should be relieving to hear you being so confident about keeping Nail. Yet, I find myself struggling to see how I would be able to manage the Knights of Hanoi, my promise to Soulburner and a child. Besides…”

The rapid clicking noise of the keys came to an abrupt halt as Ryoken let his thoughts run wild for a brief moment.

“…I don’t like Nail seemingly being experienced with coding. He is too young. It’s… strange.”

Ryoken’s voice was barely above a whisper as he spoke, despite wanting to ignore this crucial detail. It reminded him of something, someone, and it left him feeling unwell.

"Possibly being a troublemaker?" Spectre found himself asking after the other's reply. After all it wasn't making much sense for him. Besides the fact that Nail seemed to be missing the same sense of self care that Ryoken was lacking, the boy usually stayed inside of his room the whole day, not really trying to interact much with those around.

The fact that Ryoken almost started to pout afterwards caused him to chuckle slightly, even more so when there had been a huff coming from the other one.

"Well I kinda want to believe you grew up since then and that you take better care of yourself by now so be so kind and let me live in that illusion a little bit longer, Ryoken-sama." he replied in the end, an almost mocking smirk on his face, even though it was softer than the one he would show his enemies.

"But him compared to yourself seven years ago? Not many differences to find there."

But still... Spectre could understand that all of this maybe was just a little bit too much responsibility placed on his friends shoulder. Or at least Ryoken had realized so for the first time in probably ten years. Under differnt circumstanes he would have been proud of him.

Instead a sigh left his lips. "You don't have to do all of that alone you know? You're promise to Soulburner was made as some kind of making up for what your father did, right? Well the other three were involved as well. Don't they have to make up even more than you do?"

A shrug followed, before he slightly narrowed his eyes once the last words from Ryoken reached his ears. A quiet whisper, something, Ryoken seemed not to want to admit aloud to begin with.  So Nail knew how to code hu? It would make some things easier, probably. But he also could understand where Ryoken's struggle was comming from.

“ Yeah, I can’t sense anything unusual either. Whoever created this area, they certainly made sure they covered their bases when it came to concealing their source codes. That much is certain. ”

Playmaker wouldn’t admit it so openly, but the fact that nothing felt out of place here – despite knowing the area they’d both found themselves in was constructed just to keep the two of them inside its wall – made him beyond uneasy. Just what were the people behind something like this planning? And what if either him or Ai actually needed help? Could he even ping Kusanagi or Takeru from here?

Better yet, could the two of them even get anyone’s attention from inside here at all?

“ But it doesn’t matter how strong a source code is, there’s always a backdoor. There has to be a way for us to get some kind of information out of this, Ai. Nothing in Link VRAINS is that impermeable. ”

Playmaker would keep his steps brisk, but hopefully not too quick for the still somber sounding A.I behind him to keep up. He was definitely as aware of Ai’s place behind him as he was his surroundings.

“ Can you tell if anyone else is around at least? As peaceful as all this is, I highly doubt that we’ve got this entire side of Link VRAINS all to ourselves. ”

With Playmaker not being able to feel something either, it meant that whoever was behind this certainly knew what he was doing. Or he had disappeared already after showing them this horrible simulation that Ai honestly never had wanted to even think about ever again.

On the other side they still weren't able to leave. Ai had checked out all over again, but they were still stuck. Trapped in whatever this was and he wasn't sure if they could contact anyone from the outside world. If Playmaker acutally would want that, risking whoever they would involve would be dragged into this mess as well before figuring out what this mess exactly was to begin with.

"I'm trying." he replied quietly. And he really was. But his thoughts betrayed him, lead him to places he really didn't want to think about at this point, distracting him from what he was supposed to do. It was frustrating. And at the same point it was getting harder and harder for the A.I. to keep his eyes from Playmaker, afraid his partner would either disappear or simply drop dead the moment he would look away.

Were they alone here? Part of him was rather sure that whoever was responsible for looking them in, also had made the effort to lock other's out, but of course he couldn't know for sure. On the other side...if he could find someone else around it probably would mean one of three possibilities.

One. Their opponent wasn't as good as he presented himself to be.

Two. It was their opponent himself.

Three. Some other poor soul had been trapped inside this mess.

... too late he realized it seemed like he had adapted to his origins way of putting things into three, but well he could worry about that later, as something else sparked his attention shortly after the realization had crossed his mind.

"You are asking a question I cannot answer."

Pinching the space between his eyes, Ryoken leaned back in his chair. He had wanted to drown in work, rather than think of a way to deal with the issue. Yet, his mind had plagued him with the additional responsibility, thus Ryoken started to conduct research on the matter.

"Considering he has a room, food and water, I dare claim he is doing well."

Closing his recently opened tab, Ryoken was unafraid to reveal his search history - 'how to interact with a child? how to take care of an eleven-year-old?'

"It might not be fair to ask you this," he turned to better face Spectre, half-lidded eyes a telltale of how little rest he had gotten, "but if this happened to you, would you . . . what would you do?"

Mid-sentence, Ryoken had trailed off to change the question. Initially, he wanted to ask if Spectre would rather abandon Nail, yet he was unable to admit the thought had crossed his mind before.

In all honesty, it was an answer Spectre wasn't even surprised of. Part of him had been aware of it already. Difficult not to be, after he had witnessed how both involved had decided to ignore each other and rather get lost in whatever they were doing on their computers.

Well Spectre knew rather well what Ryoken was doing. But when it came to their newest addition of this strange family, he was at a loss. He knew the boy knew how to handle computers and that he was well known with some of the coding languages, but he hadn't figured out why yet. The brief conversations he had with Nail always ended rather abruptly whenever he approached the topic of the childs past.

"I don't think that's saying anything at all." he commented almost with a dryly undertone once he heard the others comment. Sure, room, food and water were the essential things but... after growing up the way he did and then coming to live with Ryoken and the other three he had come to realize that there was something he had missed growing up. Someone around. Someone  actually to talk to.

In the end Spectre was rather well aware of the fact, that the question asked wasn't the one the other one had originally come up with, but he decided to let it pass for now and instead focuse on the one he was met with instead.

What would he do? Well probably praying for the best that neither of them would die.

On the other side though...

‘Yeah. Neither can I, Ai.’ 

But Playmaker’s words would go unspoken for now, falling out as nothing more than a quiet sigh as he took a step ahead; to be the leader. Ai could probably tell that his huff wasn’t as cold or as distant as what he was trying to make it seem, though – soft and supportive just weren’t Playmaker’s strong suits. Being comforting was an awkward feeling to him still, no matter how much the image they’d both seen had rattled him, too. 

He’d support Ai in solidarity though; keeping close without leaving the A.I too far behind despite his step forward. Maybe that’d be sign enough that he wasn’t about to leave Ai to fight off those feelings of shock alone.

“ Can you pinpoint exactly who would’ve pulled us into something like this? If they were able to project something like that toward us, then we should at least be able to trace their connection from here somehow. ”

There was no verbal reply besides that sigh from his partner, but Ai knew the other one long enough by know to know, that it wasn’t meant as an offense. Playmaker just didn’t know how to response in any way in this kind of situation.  At this point the Ignis was rather well aware of the fact, that it wasn’t so easy for the other one to show his feelings as open as he had done during their fateful duel that had been supposed to be his certain end. The fact alone that he was alive, that he was here with the other one right now showed how much Playmaker actually cared about him and it was enough for him to know that Yusaku was there for him, even though he didn’t know the right words or gestures to show that much. 

Following the other one with slightly shaking, yet determined steps, Ai kept his eyes steadily on the other’s back, as if he had to make sure that Playmaker wouldn’t disappear right in front of him. That he wouldn’t slip that easily out of his grasp again. 

He couldn’t go to lose Yusaku just another time. He simply could not. 

The question though, it was a welcomed distraction, something different to focus on and Ai let his eyes wander around their surroundings. “There aren’t many that would be able to create something like this without getting a level of attention that we would have heard of.” he replied in the end. Creating an illusion like that, preparing a trap like this certainly would have caught the attention of those looking over the network, so the fact that it hadn’t happened on a scale that would have gotten them a warning ahead only left two possible suspects at this point, if they would rule out newcomers they hadn’t heard about at all. 

SOL and Hanoi.  

For one reason or another Ai was leaning towards ruling Hanoi out even considering their shared past, but even if Zaizen was in charge of SOL right now... it left a bad taste to him. 

And yet...closing his eyes Ai tried to focus on finding the traces of the simulation that just had been thrown at them again in an attempt to follow it back without seeing their it again, thank you very much. 

Normally, a comment like that would’ve been something easily brushed off. Ai could be a jokester at heart and Playmaker was anything but – but he’d seen it, too. That flash of VR that’d had him left for dead and Ai the lone survivor between the two. To call it ‘unnerving’ was probably an understatement-

But Playmaker wouldn’t falter. Instead, he’d just shoot Ai a stern glare with an even more rigid, “ Stay focused. ”

“ You and I both know that whoever showed us that will do anything to distract us. And we can’t afford to be that inattentive here. ”

Ai didn’t so much but flinch at the others stern reply. It wasn’t that easy though, was it? Stay focus his partner was saying, but all Ai could focus on right now was Yusaku, covered in blood again. Because of him. Again. Of course he was aware of the fact that of course this had been nothing more than an attempt to distract them. To make them act reckless and fall right for their trap. 

And yet... 

“Ai can’t go through that again.” he mumbled quietly, tilting his head to the side. Sometimes he wished he could simply turn back time right now. Undo the fact that he ever had fallen for Lightning and watched those simulations. Without them things certainly would have been better for sure.. 

“ Heh, ” Zack would give an excited, almost cocky, huff at the remark as he’d smiled. Protecting those that couldn’t protect themselves from monsters that wanted nothing more than to be a burden? Ryoken obviously had no idea who he was dealing with if he’d actually had to ask Zack something like that!  

Just like the SOLDIER wouldn’t even hesitate in swinging his attention toward the outskirts as he’d pulled a hand up to grip onto the hilt of the sword still firmly attached to his back. Was he eager? Maybe just a little.

“ No problem! Protecting the people of Midgar is what SOLDIER’s here for, right? So I’ll have these monsters all corralled up and dealt with before anyone else even realizes what’s happening. It’ll be a piece of cake! ”  

Zack would be the first to take a step away to start following a trail that seemed to lead off into the scrap toward the outside wall. If he knew right from experience, monsters usually loved hiding in the junk piles that hugged the city’s outer wall most, but just so Ryoken and him were on the same page-  

“ They’re probably this way, right? ”

Well it seemed like Zack didn’t think he was something better than the people down here. At least he wasn’t backing out of their plan. Well then. Guess he would figure out how it was to work with SOLDIER, hu? 

The other’s words caused him to frown slightly though. He wasn’t about to start that argument right now, but honestly, Ryoken wasn’t so sure if SOLDIER actually was here to protect the people of Midgar. In his opinion they are rather supposed to protect the company. It wasn’t any secret, that ShinRa didn’t really care about the people down here after all. 

So instead of saying anything, the white haired teen only shrugged, before following the direction the other one had taken a step towards to. IN the end he only nodded again.