Lol someone beat me to it :") How about them with 25? Thanks!
25. “What the hell were you thinking?!”(Aoi/Yusaku)
This was a concept. Set post-series.
Aoi breathed a sigh of relief as she spotted Playmaker - Yusaku - off in the distance, out in the expanse of junk data.
Then she summoned the whip attached to her account, sending it out to wrap around him and pull him in even faster. As he was brought closer, she put a scowl on her face as he avoided eye contact.
“What the hell were you thinking?!” She berated. He continued to avoid eye contact, shrugging at her question, so she continued. “You could have been severely hurt, or even died out there! I know you want to find the trace of Ai that you can feel, but you need to put your own safety first. You’re worrying all of us, me included.”
Yusaku nodded lightly, but then responded. “You’re right. Sorry. But you’re mistaken. I didn’t go out to look for Ai this time. There was another reason I went out there.”
“Why?” She asked, confused. “The only reason you’ve been going out there is to look for Ai, why else would you go out there?”
He gave a small smile, then quickly wiped it from his face. “I saw something else out there last time I went out, so I went to check it out instead.”
Aoi nodded, accepting the explanation but not calming down. “What was it?”
Yusaku hesitated, then shook his head. “I can’t tell you yet. Maybe in a few days. It’s a surprise.”
“Will you be going back out there again?” She asked, a hint of concern creeping through her anger. It was enough to destabilise her entire facade, and her shoulders dropped. “I don’t want to lose you to a stupid mistake.”
He laid a hand on hers. “Don’t worry, I won’t be going back out there for a while. I just can’t tell you what I found yet.”
“Good.” She snorted, turning away from him. “If you were planning to go out there again I was going to go with you. You’re too stubborn. Stop worrying us by going on your own.”
He smiled at her. “Sorry. And, thanks. For putting up with this. I promise you can come along whenever you want after this. I haven’t been fair to you.”
Yusaku glanced at his duel disk, and then logged out before she could turn back to see the small light glowing within it.
Aoi’s phone vibrated in the middle of class, and she discreetly checked it. A rare message from Yusaku, asking her to meet up online as soon as she was free.
She resisted an urge to send a snarky text back saying that he should be at school. He would ignore it anyway.
The message set her brain into motion, thinking about why he could possibly want to meet up.
It caused her to completely crash when asked a question by the teacher, but she was well ahead of the rest of the class anyway. She only attended because she had to.
The end of class couldn’t come fast enough, and when the bell rang she was gone, heading straight home while sending Yusaku a message saying she would be on soon.
Her phone vibrated, and she checked it before ignoring the new message. It was nothing important. Just the club president questioning where she was. She’d forgotten there was a club tournament today.
She currently had better things to do. She always won, anyway.
It didn’t take her long to arrive home, racing past the maid robot as it greeted her and heading straight for her room, locking the door behind her.
Finally ready, she fished her duel disk from her bag, putting it on and sitting down on a chair.
Before she could even spend a second to get her bearings, a message came from Yusaku, surprising her. He was never this fast.
It didn’t even have any words, just a set of coordinates for her to locate him with. A spot close to the edge of the world.
Summoning her D-Board, she set off in that direction in a hurry. He seemed to be in a rush to meet with her, so she might as well get over there quickly.
After over half an hour, she finally began to approach the place, grumbling. If he wanted to meet so badly, did he have to choose somewhere so far away?
She could see him waiting, and as she came in for a landing, he turned his head to face her, giving a small smile and an uncharacteristic wave.
She landed a few metres away, then walked up next to him.
Yusaku smiled at her again, though this time there was a wisp of sadness in his expression. He looked out at the expanse of junk data, and she followed his gaze.
“I’m not going to spend as much time looking for Ai anymore.”
Her eyes widened, but before she could say anything, he continued.
“He doesn’t want to be found. Every time I think I’m getting close, he just goes further away. Usually into more dangerous areas. He knows I’m looking for him, and doesn’t want me to find him. So I won’t.”
She glanced at him, and blinked when she saw the traces of tears forming at his eyes before he raised a hand to wipe them away.
She didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just nodded her head. But there was still a question burning at her. “Did you call me out here just to tell me that?”
“No,” he said. “I could have told you when I tell everyone else, but..” He lifted his arm, showing her his duel disk. “I found something else out there.”
She stared at the disk, confused.
An eye blinked. Then a small head popped out of it and she froze.
“Aqua?” She whispered, stretching out a hand.
The Water Ignis nodded at her. “Aoi.” Aqua climbed out of Yusaku’s duel disk, and flew off to land on her hand.
“I’ve missed you.” Aoi said to her, then looked up at Yusaku. “How did you…”
“I found her the other day… she wasn’t in good shape, so I didn’t want to tell you when you confronted me. She’s still recovering, but,” He gave her a sad smile again. “Even though you didn’t know her for long, I know how much she meant to you.”
“You brought her back… for me?” Her voice was quiet. “Thank you.”
He flinched. “Don't… say that. I-” He sighed. “I said it the other day. I haven’t been fair to you. Not just recently, though. Ever since-” He looked down at the ground. “Since I met Ai. You were always there.”
“Blue Maiden.” He paused. “No… Aoi. You were always there. Even when we weren’t on the same side, you weren’t malicious. You had the least reason of all of us to do anything, and yet, you always came along, for your own reasons. Even when you had no idea who anyone was, save that we were all connected.”
“I should have told you who I was a long time ago. But I was stubborn. Even still… you tried to be friends with me. Without even knowing I was Playmaker.”
He finally turned to face her fully, and her eyes widened as he hugged her.
