#aiball week

  Yusaku rarely enjoyed homework. He struggled through anything which involved the finer things in life, poetry, art, literature, but he didn’t get downright excited, like he was now, over the things which he did understand such as mathematics or most strains of science. It was a shame that Ai was trapped in his little glass prison, as some things never change, and that Yusaku’s back was in the way of whatever little project had captured his passion.

  Ai waited a little bit longer and soon enough his thin patience was rewarded. Yusaku set down his pencils and straightened up. He leaned back in his wooden chair and twisted around and said, “I’m letting you out now. I’m done.”

  Ai grinned an eyeball grin upon hearing that. He watched as Yusaku got up and came to set him free. Yusaku latched his Duel Disc onto his wrist despite Ai pestering him. His Ignis body hanging about and he was begging to know what Yusaku had been doing.

  Yusaku was secretly pleased to have Ai grovel over him. He knew it just meant that Ai was bored and under stimulated, but it strangely meant a lot to Yusaku. He didn’t mind having his wrists assailed by Ai’s tiny hands and his ears assaulted by all the begging which followed.

  Yusaku smiled fondly, as fondly as he could, down at Ai. “I made you something.”

  “You did?” Ai’s yellow eyes bulged hugely at that. “Something? For me? It’s not even my birthday.”

  “You don’t have a birthday.” Yusaku flatly replied.

  “Still, Yusaku, you shouldn’t have buuuuuut as you have, I simply must have it.”

  “Good.” Yusaku’s lips twitched with something of a smile.

  Yusaku sat back down at his desk and he coyly placed his hand over something. Ai was intrigued by the action, but it gave him more grounds on what to expect. It was small, and as Ai scanned the rest of Yusaku’s desk, cut up paper and pencil shavings and other stationary haphazardly skirting where he liked to work, Ai could ascertain that this was an arts and craft project type gift. How adorable.

  “I was thinking about your deck.” Yusaku said, sounding a teensy bit nervous, unsurprising as gift giving, especially creative gift giving was not his forte. “And I was thinking about how your normal summon monsters are all based on your friends. During our duel, I was terrified that you might debut some card based on me.”

  “That’s awfully egotistic of you to have thought.” Ai teased, crossing his arms.

  Yusaku grimaced, unsure how to react to that. So, he didn’t. He moved on.

  “Since I don’t know how long it’ll take to retrieve, let alone revive, the other Ignis so I guess your @Ignister monsters are all we have of them, for now anyway so I made you another card for your deck.” Yusaku explained.

  He lifted his hand off his desk and took a little bit of paper. He held it up and showed it to Ai. Ai gasped and melted.

  “I love it, Yusaku.” Ai said, hands reaching out and Yusaku let him take it with such grabby hands.

  The piece of paper was drawn to resemble a Duel Monsters card. It was rather cute in how scratchy the drawing was. Though, Yusaku had taken care to draw all his rounded lines and coming up with a fair effect, level, attack and defence.

  “Ai-Yu-Yu.” Ai read aloud.

  “The name’s kind of a work in progress.” Yusaku sheepishly admitted.

  “But Ai love it so very much.” Ai said.

  Yusaku’s heart skipped a beat. It meant more to him to hear that than he realised. A scant blush flushed through his sharp cheeks.

  “I’ll turn it into a card right away.” Ai said. “My way, not using Kusanagi’s dinky little device and certainly not with any of those big corporation card printers either. You should be honoured, Yusaku, no human’s seen cards get made like this before.”

  Ai held the card, as flimsy as it was as it was drawn on printer paper, in his fingertips. It looked about as big as his head. Then something from his fingertips misted. The temperature of the room changed. A data storm was summoned. A very small and gentle data storm but a data storm, nonetheless.

  “Man, good thing I ain’t Windy, huh? If I can do this, in the real world, imagine what he can do.” Ai bantered.

  Yusaku then watched as the card that he had drawn Ai in earnest was transformed. The printer paper became sturdier. The pencil smoothened and became similar to ink. The mismatched shading that Yusaku had tried to avoid became solid and brilliant. All whilst Ai’s hand glowed in soft pinks, purples, and whites. It was strangely beautiful as the data cascaded around the card, entrenching it before shattering thus unveiling the brand new @Ignister Cyberse card. Yusaku’s eyes were dazzled.

  “I quite like the name, so I kept it.” Ai chirruped. “And I cannot wait to use this little baby.”

  “Then let’s have a Duel. My deck against yours; not in the VRAINS.” Yusaku suggested.

  But, as ashes blew into the wind and the wind blew into nothing, there were other reasons why they found it immensely difficult to find pleasure in their win. Its because to win meant to say goodbye and there was nothing that Ai or Yusaku wanted more than to be by the other’s side.

  About a year ago, all of this had been alien to them. Yusaku had been all but a shut in; just letting life pass him by because he had no connections to outside his little world, so dark and damp. Aside from his orphan background, he wasn’t all that unusual. He was good with computers and that was about it. He was pretty average. Ordinary. He certainly didn’t believe in the extraordinary, like magic books and the Demons who owned them and a game of war to declare who would be the next King of the Demon World.

  He certainly didn’t believe in Ai, either. But Ai didn’t believe in himself either. He had been thrown into a big old mess which he wanted no part in. He was too lazy and too fun loving to want to become King and he was too passive to have any part in the game. Were it possible for a Demon to burn their own book, he would have the very first chance that he got. Let Lightning or someone win the damn crown for all he cared but that didn’t exactly become an option because fate was funny like that. Thrown into the Human World, a world he didn’t like or understand but knew to be huge, he wound up exactly where he least wanted to be.

  Ai had been tossed out of his world, landing on his knees, right in front of Yusaku, who was on his way home after another pointless day of school, just as night was coming down on Den City and that fateful, purple book was scattered in front of them both. Piquing Yusaku’s curiosity. And opening it. Reading it. The seeming impossible before him. A script the likes of which he had never seen before, easily decoding itself for his eyes and his eyes alone. The first spell and Yusaku couldn’t help it.

  He read it aloud.

  And Ai scrambled to obey. He couldn’t help it. His power of the dark, of gravity, was unleashed and he found a lie that he wanted to cling to until he could convince Yusaku to set him free. He didn’t want to be King. So, he didn’t want to be a Demon, either. He just kept acting like an amnesiac until too many things happened.

  They encountered more “children”, just like Ai – he was a teenager, really; a young adult, even. Some were Demons Ai had never seen before, therefore easy to deal with, and then there was some whom he did know. His buddy, Earth, for instance.

  Earth had, under his Book Master’s orders, he in turn operating under someone else’s orders, had led Ai away from the house whilst the rest swooped in and talked with Yusaku, completely undoing Ai’s handiwork to get Yusaku to believe the whole amnesiac shtick. By the time that Ai had realised what Earth was doing, he was rather upfrontedly guilty about it as he wasn’t underhanded by nature, it was almost too late.

  But Ai returned and he was met with a Demon whom he had never seen before – Pandor – and a human which Yusaku sheepishly explained was an estranged childhood friend of his. For some reason the scene tore Ai apart; for reasons he couldn’t grapple with. Pandor’s fuschia eyes were unnerving. Yusaku seemed willing to let Ai go and there was a cruel sneer on Ryoken’s mouth. Knowing that Earth had some hand in this situation also hurt.

  “No, Ryoken.” Yusaku had said, breaking the tension Ai had caused. “I don’t want you to burn Ai’s book. I want to make Ai King, by my own will and volition. Even if he doesn’t want to be King, I’m going to aim that high.”

  Ai was thrilled. He didn’t know what had come over Yusaku, but he could certainly endorse it. It made his heart flutter.

  “Even though Demons trick and trick others? You? Are lazy and thoughtless with their powers? Disrupting human life as they do?”

  “Yes.”

  With that, Ryoken took his leave and Pandor bade them a lukewarm farewell. And, from there, Ai came clean to Yusaku in his own words and Yusaku appreciated it. From there, their goals only expanded.

  They continued to meet other Demons and their Book Masters. Some friends, like Flame like Takeru and others were foes, such as Lightning and the Jin whom he controlled like a puppet. And they also continued to build a rapport with Ryoken and Pandor. One which blossomed here. The highest of high stakes: to win it all or to lose it all.

  And they – Ai and Yusaku – were the ones who won.

  It was unbelievable but it felt all too brief. Yusaku had agreed to make Ai King because he saw potential in him. An importance that went beyond the fact that Ai was a demon and that he was human; Yusaku simply wanted to be with him, to walk beside him but it seemed so impossible now as two different worlds would now separate them.

  Yusaku’s heart broke as he was powerless against the fact Ai had seconds – minutes, if they were lucky – before Ai was returned from whence had come. And Ai was bawling. But at the very least, they could seek comfort from each other in these few moments which they both had left.

  They gravitated closer to each other, before the purple book which burned, and Ai’s very existence thinned. Turned to light and smoke. He was sobbing and Yusaku couldn’t help himself. He grabbed Ai, as nebulous as he now was, and held him tight. Ai held him tighter back in the returning embrace which brought them both to their knees.

  Ryoken shyly looked away. Nursing his own heart, equally devastated as Pandor had already left him.

  “Are you glad I’m home too?” Ai asked amid his dithering, looking up cautiously from Yusaku’s Duel Disc.

  “Yeah, I am.” Yusaku replied with a cough in his voice.

  If Ai had a heart, a real heart and not a soulful heart, then it would have fluttered upon hearing that. It would have pounded. Instead, all he could do was acknowledge the effects that such kind things spoken by Yusaku perhaps could have over him. It was difficult being an eyeball.

  “Let me guess what you’re thinking.” Yusaku said, stilted.  

  “Hm? Oh yes, sure.” Ai replied.

  “You wish you had your body back.” Yusaku said.

  “Correct-a-mundo! Though, I think it would be plain as day to surmise. I’m sure you wouldn’t like to be just an eyeball either.” Ai teased and pouted. “Oh, how I miss my handsome form; that sculpted body, those dashing eyes, and that’s to say nothing of that SOLtiS ‘droid that I took.”

  Yusaku rolled his eyes. “I haven’t been totally unproductive these past few months.”

  “You haven’t?”

  Ai was slightly taken aback by that. From what he could gather, Yusaku had spent the past few months looking for him and only him. Something so obsessive and so Yusaku that Ai found it difficult to admonish Yusaku despite the obvious degradation of both himself and his surroundings. Home was still home but it was so dusty. and the air was stale. Yusaku was still Yusaku but his cheeks were gaunt, he looked more fragile than usual but at least his eyes still had that determined gleam in the green, but Ai was willing to predict such a sheen had only returned to Yusaku upon locating Ai. Not to mention, Yusaku had cut himself off from all his bonds, again, for Ai so that would have hurt him emotionally as well, even if he was difficult to admit it. Thus, it was apparent by all accounts that Yusaku had severely neglected himself in his quest to reunite with Ai.

  Worse still, Ai didn’t know if this was better or worse for Yusaku than those six months from his childhood. Hence why Ai couldn’t truly find it within himself to scold Yusaku for such bad behaviour, but its consequence was him. Reviving him. Bringing him home. So, it was worth it. Ai thinks it was worth it. He thinks that he was worth it. He hopes so, anyway.

  Yusaku walks towards the secret room in his living space. He opens it up and its fresh. That’s the first thing Ai detects about it. Clean, well ventilated, so on and so forth completely unlike the rest of Yusaku’s apartment. Yusaku then tilts his wrist towards the floor so Ai didn’t have to stretch and squeeze himself to glimpse what was on the floor.

  His body.

  His SOLtiS body.

  For some reason, Ai registered that as an ill omen.

  It was impossibly clean, but something was amiss about the way its clothes were crumpled. It was strangely humanlike in how it was propped up and with space by its side for a second body to curl into its space.

  “One of the first things I did was retrieved your alpha SOLtiS droid from the warehouse. From the others, I took a lot of their internal hard drive to store in case something happens to it. The rest were confiscated by Zaizen and locked in a very special prison of their own, a prison which I have a live feed of as insurance that SOL won’t ever touch them and if someone else does, I will know.” Yusaku said.

  “Thank you, Yusaku. This will make a very fine replacement for me until I get my Ignis body back...” Ai drawled cautiously. “Thank you for your foresight regarding the stockpile of miscellaneous parts. It would be bad, very bad, if something happened to my physical self again.”

  “Yeah.” Yusaku mumbled. “But the stockpile got me thinking and I’ve already touched up that body but there’s second one I’m in the process of fortifying as well.”

  “My, you have been busy.” Ai said. “Let me guess, Roboppy? Where is my little minion?”

  “I haven’t been that productive, but I see no point in fortifying Roboppy after your experiment in doing so failed. I’m sure they’ll come good once I tinker a bit more with them, but I thought this second body was a bit more important to fortify first.” Yusaku said and as his words lingered towards the end of his dialogue, they turned wry with the implication that Ai should be proud of Yusaku for doing these things.

  Ai leaned what was his body to the other side of Yusaku’s Duel Disc. His eye bulged and then flatted when Yusaku obliged him. He smiled as he looked down on his partner.

  “It occurred to me that whilst I want you to live forever or as close to as possible that I didn’t want you to ever be lonely again so I decided that it was the utmost importance that this second body was fortified, stockpiled, and ready for such a tantamount achievement such as near immortality. Though, the shell isn’t quite so solidified yet.” Yusaku continued to explain.

  “Care to, um, enlighten me Yusaku?” Ai asked, tentatively afraid and it did show in the way his eye drooped.

  “Mine.” Yusaku said, simply.

  “I did.” Playmaker replied. “And not only you.”

  Ai blinked again.

  “I love you, Ai.” Playmaker confessed. “And I’m not one for grand gestures or anything but I know you like them, so I have one for you.”

  “You do?!” Ai gasped.

  Playmaker nodded.

 “Oh, yes! Yes, yes, a thousand times yes, Yusaku, you Yankee! Not even waiting until you’re out of high school; by my calculations, that’s not for another twelve months at the most! So bold! I love it!” Ai exclaimed.

  Such prattling declarations stunned Playmaker. It appeared that he and Ai were having two very different conversations. Caught up in the exhilaration, and exhaustion, of having reunited with Ai, his guard was down. As such, a blush spread through his sharp, and honestly rather gaunt, cheeks. The red hue, of course, delighting Ai, in turn.

 “I-I’m not proposing, Ai, I’m trying to be serious.” Playmaker replied, bringing his shoulders in awkwardly as though to protect himself from the faux pas.

  Ai laughed. “I know, it’s just, your so fun to tease, Yusaku-chan.”

  “Ai.” Playmaker scolded him.

  Ai only continued to laugh despite being admonished. Playmaker didn’t want to admit, but he missed having such a raucous personality around him a lot, so he took a little appreciation as he waited for him to stop. Which he did when he had decided the joke was unfunny now.

  Playmaker cleared his throat. “You’re the only one left. You were the hardest to find because you were so certain you would be gone for good. The other Ignis are waiting, Ai.”

  “Th-They are…?”

  Ai sounded genuinely awestruck when he responded to such brilliant news. He couldn’t believe it. His eye widened in Playmaker’s cupped hands. It shone with astonishment and gratitude. Seeing such emotions made Playmaker’s eyes water. The past three months… they truly weren’t in vain, if it meant that he could have Ai once more. If Yusaku was the originator of Ai then Ai was the originator of what Yusaku was tentative and scared to cherish most; connections, bonds.

  “I love you Ai, but I don’t think I could be so selfish as to love you all by myself.” Playmaker explained.

  “Aw, I don’t think that would be so bad.” Ai said, almost singsong.

  “You know better than me, you’re the one who looked into all the timelines.” Playmaker said, he wanted to argue and commiserate but now wasn’t the time.

  Ai chuckled darkly. Maybe he wanted Playmaker to argue with him; to commiserate with him but again, now wasn’t the time so Playmaker simply moved forward once such a curt laugh drew to its close.

  “And so, it dawned on me. If being Ai means to love all, then I had to return the Ignis to their rightful state, separated once more from the Link VRAINS and the remnants of Bohman so that you could love all as well.”

  “Oh, Yusaku, you really are a big softie despite that horrendous scowl of yours.” Ai cooed.