Under the Rain [Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS]

S1-12✩ Overflowing Memories, Emerging Truth

There was once a very sickly girl, who dreamt of making as many friends as possible. She and her friends would play in a flower garden that her dear mother lovingly nurtured, laughing and singing like there was no tomorrow. Her kind older brother was also there with them, sometimes showing them one or two magic tricks or reading them a fantasy story from the west. Before the night fell, her friends would return to their homes and the little girl would wait eagerly in her bed for tomorrow to come, for she couldn't wait to play with her friends again. But alas, when tomorrow came, the girl's condition took a turn for the worse and thus her reality and dream gradually began to mix.

✩

BANG! BANG! BANG!
✩FINAL SCORE: 12050✩
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU MADE A NEW HIGH SCORE!

Yusaku's emerald-green eyes peered over to his left side, unnerved by his partner. He was currently playing a tag team first person shooting arcade game located in a game center near Den City plaza. The sky was already dark when he arrived there and thirty minutes had passed since then. This was their third round and also the third time his partner set a new high score while not letting him score more than two thousand, effectively carrying the game.

"I didn't know you're good at this, Tsubaki."

He noted when his gaming partner, Tsubaki, finally set down her toy gun. Tsubaki made a small triumphant smile while watching endless winning tickets bursting out of the machine, shaking her head. "No, no. Once, I saw people in a movie doing something similar to this to blow off some steam. It made me want to try it out myself, but I never expected it to be this refreshing. Before I knew it, I've let my emotions took control... wait, now that I think about it, taking pleasure in things like this makes me quite the sadistic type, huh?"

"And? It's just a game. There are people out there who actually enjoy hurting real people, and you're nothing like them," Yusaku nonchalantly reassured her while setting down his toy gun. "Anyway, glad to see you've calmed down. You really worried me back then, and Kusanagi-san, too."

Yusaku didn't exaggerate. After Tsubaki's return from her small reunion with her big brother, he felt it wouldn't be right to just leave her alone. She looked very pale, like a thin paper that would crumple at any moment if no one was by her side. She at first refused when he offered to escort her home, but with a little coaxing from Kusanagi, she finally gave in. Then after that, instead of going straight home she took Yusaku to this game center.

Tsubaki sheepishly scratched her cheek. "Sorry for dragging you here, Fujiki-kun. A-And, thank you for playing with me."

"Don't mention it. But we probably should go now, or your mom will worry."

"Right," she murmured, quietly. "I bet she'll be furious after finding out that I've met my big brother at the Stardust Road."

"Why would she get angry for that?" Yusaku furrowed his eyebrows a bit in confusion. "It's been ten years since you two last saw each other, hasn't it? If any, it should've been you who's angry at her for not letting you two meet, or at him for pretending like he didn't recognize you back then and there."

"Don't say that!" Tsubaki chided, taking Yusaku by surprise with her sudden outburst. "My mother... worries that my big brother might hate us. Even now, she still feels guilty for leaving him in father's custody. He might not have her blood, but he's still her son, after all... and he must have his own reason for how he was acting back then."

There was a brief moment of silence between them. Yusaku glanced at her, watching as she clenched her fists on her chest. Even though he never wished to meddle with her family matter out of respect for her privacy, now he couldn't help but feeling a bit uneasy after what happened that noon. And although he suddenly felt an urgency within his heart, he needed to clear up something with her first, no matter what. Carefully, he assembled words in his mind, so that he could get as much information from her as possible without alarming her.