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

S2-20✩ Hunting Hound

*Short Author's Note: Happy Revolver/Varis release day in Duel Links! (26th of January 2023). This chapter is dedicated to him~

High up in the virtual sky, a lone boy sat on one foot on his hovering D-Board while silently overseeing the entirety of the new LINK VRAINS. Ever since LINK VRAINS was reopened, he had been spending his days stealthy patrolling the various updated areas within it. He did that not because he was making sure that everything was fine there, but it was because he was searching for any signs of the Ignis. Yes, that boy was Revolver; the leader of the Knights of Hanoi, appearing with an avatar he created for the sake of mingling, nicknamed Hound. That avatar of his had the same face and hairstyle as him in the real world, minus his blue eyes, which now were colored bright red. He wore a partly unzipped white rolled up sleeve hooded jacket and black sweatpants over a black bodysuits with soft purple stripes going across his body. With that harmless getup, no one suspected he was the one responsible for the crisis in LINK VRAINS three months ago.

Hound peered over his shoulder when he heard the voice of a running D-Board engine approaching from behind him. A certain boy soon arrived on a D-Board next to him; he was Spectre, his right hand man, who unlike him didn't bother to create a new avatar or alias despite being widely known as the duelist who mercilessly defeated Blue Angel. He gave him one of his less-intimidating smiles. "Good work for today, Hound-sama."

"You too," Hound replied with a small expressionless nod. "I'm guessing you also found nothing on your side?"

"I'm afraid so," Spectre ceased his smile as he nodded. "We've finally found the Cyberse World, but it's devastated and there were no Ignis there... could the DARK Ignis turn against his own kind?"

Hound shook his head in disagreement. "That's very unlikely because: one, when we raided that world five years ago, he was the one who sealed it and hid its coordinate to protect it; two, he admitted that he teamed up with Playmaker only so he could get rid of Hanoi and safely return there; and three is the most important reason: he's a coward that wouldn't even think of fighting the other Ignis."

"You're right, the culprit must be someone else," Spectre noted. "...still, it bothers me to discover that just after our struggle with Playmaker."

"True. Since we don't know what their true goal is, whoever did that could turn out to be a powerful ally or a dangerous foe. That's why we have to find them as soon as possible," Hound stood up and turned to properly face the other boy, putting his hand on his hips. "Anyway, how's the preparation for that?"

"Ah, that. Our two knights just need to tweak it for a bit more and we soon will be able to bring back Dr. Taki with us."

This time, Hound managed a satisfied smile at Spectre's report. Dr. Taki was a talented knight of Hanoi who currently was imprisoned in the most heavily-guarded prison because of causing the Another Incident. Hound still regretted having to implant her own computer virus into her brain and caused her to become one of the Anothers herself, despite doing it to protect both Hanoi and herself, so he intended to redeem himself by writing a powerful cracking program to get her out with the help of his remaining faithful knights. That was his main reason, truly, but he had to admit that there was an ulterior motive behind it: he had a strong feeling that they would soon encounter a huge challenge that would require Hanoi's full power in order to settle, and thus Dr. Taki was needed.

"That's good to hear. Well then, I plan to continue searching in Area A737, so do you have anything more to report before I go?"

"No. But..." Spectre paused for a moment. Hound raised one of his eyebrows in curiosity when he saw a small smile sprawling across Spectre's lips, "Hound-sama, what would you like for lunch?"