The Wings of an Angel

Hi all! Turns out I was a lot busier than I thought I would be! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish all my replies, but I actually leave for Japan tomorrow and I won’t be back until December 22nd. I’m not taking my laptop with me, but I promise I’ll get back to all the replies I owe as soon as I get back from my trip!

Until then, feel free to message me on Twitter and/or Discord (DM for info! ^^)

Thank you so much for your patience and I’m super sorry for the long wait!

Until then, feel free to message me on Twitter and/or Discord (DM for info! ^^)

A wave of guilt washed over the duelist as she watched as Soulburner took his time to answer the question. What had she been thinking – just blurting something out like that? His answer itself was like someone had twisted the knife that was already stabbed deep into her chest, and light blue eyes shifted their gaze to the ground as she bit her lower lip – an anxious habit she had developed a long time ago whenever she felt she had done something wrong.

She needed to find a way to fix this, especially since the two of them were going to be on the same team now.

“I–… I’m sorry,” Aoi quietly apologized, her hands gripping the ends of her dress nervously. It felt almost… weird being Blue Angel again, but they had just met up after one of her latest decoy Meet ‘n Greets that were used for her to keep up appearances and away from SOL Technologies suspicions of her involvement with Playmaker’s team. Unfortunately, she just hadn’t been given the chance to switch avatars just yet.

“I shouldn’t have asked such a direct question,” she continued, a light sigh leaving her lips. “I just… I found out recently that my only friend from ten years ago was one of the victims. That’s one of the main reasons I’m fighting in the first place – for the Ignis and for her.”

It pained Aoi to admit that Miyu had also been one of the kids subjected to such torture, and that fact was evident in the sadness that lingered in the blue angel’s eyes. It was endlessly cruel to put someone as sweet as her dear friend in that horrible place. It wasn’t fair to Miyu – it wasn’t fair to any of the victims.

“She is someone who is very important to me, and I want nothing more than to help her, but all I know about the Lost Incident is the information that Playmaker gave me. I guess I just wanted to hear it from your point of view as well, so I could try and understand it all a little more.” Aoi finally lifted her gaze up to the duelist standing before her, a hand on her heart as she tried to give a genuine apology.

“Go Onizuka has become consumed by his ambition to win - this win for him was but a small victory,” He clenched his fists, frowning.  “I only hope that someone can find a way to bring him back to his senses.  Or perhaps that is a realization he needs to come to all on his own.” He just wished that person could be him - he already felt a great deal of guilt for involving Go Onizuka into this entire mess of a situation.

“The Water Ignis…?” His face remained as blank as ever but there was a slight note of surprise in his tone.  “I wouldn’t want you to hand her over to us, especially not after what happened with Earth,” He shook his head, solemnly.  “Don’t let her get into the hands of our bounty hunters, especially not Go or Blood Shepherd.  I don’t know if I have that much control of them anymore.” 

“You have a point. I just wish he never felt he had to go to such extremes in the first place,” Aoi sighed, shaking her head sadly at the thought. She knew Go wanted more than anything than to prove himself against Playmaker, but she only hoped that one day Go would realize just how important he was to so many people – especially to the kids in orphanage that supported him.

Aoi felt a wave of relief when Akira assured her that she didn’t have to hand it to the company he worked for. Honestly, she wasn’t surprised at that fact. She knew he had been just as horrified as her with what happened to Earth. It made her feel sick to her stomach to know that SOL would do something like that.

Aoi shrugged her shoulders, letting the hot dog sit on the table in front of the stranger. She had seen him a few times talking to Yusaku, but she didn’t know the truth behind Ryoken’s identity. Perhaps it was safer for her in the long run, considering Aqua remained hidden in her duel disk. She didn’t want to run the risk of losing her.

Closed starter for @yourblueangel​.

“I didn’t know what would end up happening to the Earth Ignis, nor did I expect Go Onizuka to sink to such depths.  Now more than ever, you must find the other Ignis before we can.”

“I still can’t believe Go would do that,” Aoi whispered, horrified by what had happened to the bounty hunter. “He’s completely changed from the Charisma Duelist I knew so long ago… I can only hope that he’ll find the right path again one day.” At the mention of the other Ignis, Aoi let her gaze fall to the ground, holding her small duel disk close to her chest.

“Huh? Oh…!” The young girl gasped lightly as she saw the blue ribbon slowly fall to the ground. How long had her ribbon been so loose for? She hadn’t even noticed her right pigtail had fallen to have her long brown hair rest against her back, while the left side stayed perfectly in place.

Aoi quickly bent down and grabbed the ribbon so she could shyly hand it to the boy with blue and pink hair, a tiny smile on her face. “Here. T–… Thank you for helping me.” As the boy started to fix her hair up, Aoi’s voice fell to a shy whisper and her gaze lowered to the ground, because she was quick to realize that this… was the first kid her age she had met in this new city since she… lost her best friend.

“That’s a shame.” Perhaps the boy simply didn’t have an interest in dueling or perhaps it was something else entirely - dueling wasn’t for everyone.  “Maybe he just decided that it wasn’t for him.” As far as the boy’s reasoning, he could only speculate on that - Aoi could inquire about it if she wanted to but he didn’t see how it would make much of a difference either way.  “Or he might always come end up coming back.”

“If he only recently joined the Duel Club then he probably wouldn’t have been around to receive one of SOL Technologies’ newer models that we gave to your club.” The newer Duel Disk wasn’t exactly cheap and he’d heard stories of people waiting in line for hours just for a mere chance to get their hands on one.  He’d really only received his because he’d worked with the company.

“Could be that he’s just starting out,” He noted, his tone thoughtful.  His sister brought up an interesting point about the potential of a decoy deck but for what reason would this boy need to his true deck…? He didn’t appear to be a well known Charisma Duelist such as Go Onizuka or Blue Angel.  “That’s a rather clever idea,” He was impressed at his sister’s cleverness.  “Might be rather troubling if everyone knew that you were Blue Angel - the Trickstars have become quite a recognizable deck because of her.”

"That's quite possible." Aoi hummed lightly, thinking about Akira's reasonings. It was possible that Yusaku had no relation to Playmaker at all. In fact, it was quite likely that it wasn't the case at all. Wouldn't it be too convenient? Playmaker could be absolutely anyone. It wasn't like she had even given him time to talk. The one time they had walked to school together, Aoi had completely shut him down when he asked about her brother, naturally assuming that he was just like everyone else – just wanting to talk to her so he could get the latest dueling technology or get a job with SOL Technologies. It was what she was used to.

She hadn't even given him a chance.

Luckily Akira managed to quickly bring her out of her guilt-ridden thoughts by mentioning her online persona, which only caused the young student to let out a soft sigh, her gazing shifting to the side.

“Kind of.. a friend suggested joining” He looks at her and smiles a little bit before standing straight again, adjusting his glasses silently, taking a glance at the door and then back to her again.

“I’m not the best when it comes to meeting large groups of people” he laughs nervously, rubbing the back of his head a little bit.

“I know what you mean. I’m rather shy myself.” Aoi laughed softly with a shake of her head. Of course, that was completely different when comparing herself to her online persona; Blue Angel couldn't get enough of dueling in a crowd. Maybe that was what made it so easy... Because she could let herself hide behind a mask, pretending to be someone she dreamed she could be outside of Link VRAINS.

... Maybe one day.

“Ah…” He wasn’t expecting anyone to approach him, he assumed he had more time before the club began to contemplate his options on joining, let alone one of link Vrains idols. Blue angel, in the flesh. 

He smiles at her politely and then bows a bit, “Yes I am, Homura takeru!” “And you are…Zaizen san? Please correct me if I am wrong! I am still learning my classmates names”

“You don’t need to worry – you’re correct. It’s nice to meet you.” Aoi gave a very small smile before bowing to return his polite behavior. It was nice to see that even though he knew her name, he didn’t seem to take her status for granted like most of her other classmates.

“I didn’t know that he was in the Duel Club with you.  He never made any mention of that.” At first glance he hadn’t seemed like someone who would even be interested in dueling, though perhaps he was wrong.  Their encounter had been fleeting and in the midst of panic and chaos - he hadn’t really had the time to actually ponder the boy’s words.

“Ah, one of the older models.” He nodded his head in understanding.  “That is rather unusual,” He noted.  “Perhaps he can’t afford one of the newer models or prefers physical cards.” He didn’t really understand the sentimental attachment some duelists had for their cards but that could be one reason.

“Did he show you his deck…?” He couldn’t even begin to imagine just what sort of deck a boy like that might utilize.

“Mm, it was only one time,” Aoi explained as she lifted a hand up to tuck a strand of her auburn hair behind her ear. “We’ve had a few meetings since then and he hasn’t shown up. I haven’t really had a chance to ask him why.” The only reason Aoi hadn’t brought the issue up with her fellow classmate yet was because they hadn’t seen each other all that much since Aoi came back to school. With her time dedicated to catching up on what she had missed, the two had only really seen each other in passing when walking to school or in class.

“That’s true… “ Aoi noted, thinking back on some of her other classmates. They were rather rare, but she had noted a few who preferred having physical cards over their digital counterparts. Her thoughts were soon distracted, however, when her step-brother brought up Yusaku’s deck.