As Hibiki woke gradually from his restless sleep of the night before he looked at heard a letter slide under his door. He had applied to one of the local schools as a way to meet new people and hopefully find some useful info on any lost incident victims in the city. He checked his phone for notifications and saw that a group chat he was a part of because of a fellow true blue fan had a few new messages.
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Brave Battler: Heard my school was getting a new student, and that they're a true blue as well. Anyone here have an idea who it could be?
Dryad17 (this is Spectre, I like to think he is a true fan as he says so it makes sense or him to be in the fan club so and his age checks out.): No clue. Good luck to them though whoever they are.
Hibiki began to type his response in the chat.
Lightray is typing...
Lightray: That's me. I hope I can meet everyone over there.
Brave Battler: I'll be waiting, the duel club is after school in the class 3-a. Don't be late, we're all super pumped to meet you.
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He put his phone down and pulled out his new uniform, putting it on and heading out of the door. He took the bus to the school building and walked through the main hall to where he was told his classroom was located. As he walked in he found that most of the students were already there and the teacher called him to stand at the front.
Teacher: Right everyone I'm sure that rumor has informed you all of the new student joining our class as of today. Treat him as one of us and with respect to him as your peer. I'll let you introduce yourself.
Hibiki: Thanks sir. Hello everyone, my name is Hibiki Okida and I am your new classmate. If you're active in Vrains you may know me as Lightray, an up and coming duelist in the semi-pro league but that's all I got to say about that. I hope we can all get along and that I can get to know you all.
Teacher: Very good, you'll be seated next to Yusaku. Yusaku please raise your hand. Thank you.
Hibiki sits down next to the blue haired boy at the back of the class and after the registration the class began to talk among themselves.
Hibiki: Your duel disk, that's an older model isn't it? Most use virtual cards these days.
Yusaku: Yeah, it is a bit old I guess.
Hibiki: I didn't mean anything by it, I mean mine's the same model, see? Yeah it's old but me and this disk have been through a lot. I'd be lost without it.
Yusaku: Lost huh? I know what you mean. Without my disk I don't know what I'd do. Hey you want to exchange codes? To help chat out of school?
Hibiki: Yeah OK, here's mine.
He takes the boy's code and inputs it into his disk, it was a feature of the older disks before the new models had phased it out slowly to reduce the cost of the product.
=Time Skip=
-Hibiki pov-
The end of the day came around quickly and Yusaku also revealed that it was going to be his first session in the duelling club. Inside a larger boy was talking to a cute brown haired girl who seemed only moderately interested in what he had to say. As he noticed the new members he walked up to us and looked me and Yusaku up and down.
Shima: Well, these are definitely them. I've seen Yusaku around so that means you must be the new guy.
Me: Nice to meet you, I'm Hibiki. And you are?
Shima: You're talking to the one and only Naoki Shima, the brave battler.
Me: No way! You're always on the True Blue streams when they go live. I've seen your username everywhere.
Shima: You're a True Blue too!? Aw shucks I'm getting excited. Wait are you that Lightray user?
Me: The very same.
We shake hands as I use my other to put on my angel wing pin from within my blazer pocket. Shima shows me over to where the girl was sitting.
Shima: Time to introduce you to everyone. This is Aoi Zaizen.
I look at him blankly.
Shima: As in sister to Akira Zaizen?
My face doesn't change.
Shima: The head of security at SOL technologies.
Me: And? I know who her brother is and I don't really care. As far as I know she's the one here, not him, so going on about him is kinda irrelevant.
Shima looked at me with a puzzled look before going off to try talk to Yusaku.
Me: It's nice to meet you Aoi. I'm Hibiki Okida.
We shake hands as I sit down.
Aoi: Nice to meet you Hibiki. It's good to hear that someone else isn't fawning over who my brother is.
Me: I don't know what the big deal is really. My cousin works in the R&D at SOL tech and people think no different of me for it so why's it like that with you?
Aoi: Well the R&D doesn't have a big of a public image than Akira so it's a bit hard not to be noticed for it.
Me: As I said, I could care less. All he does is monitor the whole of Vrains for danger and cyber attack, why should I?
Shima: What is that duel disk? That model is ancient.
Me : Excuse me for a minute.
-No pov-
Hibiki stood up and looked at Yusaku's disk and pulled out his own.
Hibiki: Really? I've always used this model.
Shima: Well look at this. The latest model, I know it's awesome, Vrains access with a full virtual database of cards and built in duel AI.
Yusaku: That looks expensive.
Shima: Yeah, I had to save up for ages. And I waited for hours to get one when they came out but then Aoi's brother got the whole club them the next day, my wallet thanks you Aoi.
Hibiki: Well you win some you lose some Shima.
Aoi walks over.
Aoi: Those disks, they're similar to Playmaker's. Mind if I see your decks?
Both boys hand them over but as she was inspecting Yusaku's Shima took both out of her hands.
Shima: What a lame deck. How do you use this?
Prez: Shima you should know not to judge based on looks. The deck doesn't make the duelist after all.
Shima: Right.
Yusaku: It's alright, I haven't won a match using it yet.
Shima: As for yours Hikubi, I can see it has potential but only in the hands of a skilled duelist.
Hibiki: Like you? By all means, try. I have a spare deck I can use.
He backs down at the offer.
As the meeting starts the club were discussing the new speed duels that Playmaker had introduced to Vrains and as the meeting concluded Hibiki got up as one of the last to leave but caught up to Aoi at the gates to the school.
Hibiki: Hey Aoi, you mind?
Aoi: No, what is it Hibiki?
Hibiki: I saw the way you inspected Yusaku's deck back there and asked about the disk. You think he's Playmaker don't you?
Aoi: I had my suspicions but it seems I was wrong about it. See you tomorrow Hibiki.
The two part ways and when Hibiki entered his apartment he turned on the TV.
Reporter: there has been rumours that the duel between Go Onizuka and Playmaker was initiated by SOL technologies.
Akira: Ask our PR team.
Reporter 2: Is this a new business strategy?
Akira: No comment.
Reporter 3: Will the next match be between Playmaker and Blue Angel?
Akira: No.
As he walked away Hibiki turned the TV off and sat down in his cabinet.
Hibiki: Disk linked. Into the Vrains.
He dropped into the city as Lightray and summoned a duel board that matched his color scheme and surfed the data stream until he saw Blue Angel surfing ahead of him, he increased his speed and caught up with the superstar.
Lightray: Hey there Blue Angel, nice board.
Blue Angel: Oh, you're the duelist from a few days ago. Light Ray right? Thanks, yours looks good as well.
Lightray: So, what's one of the most popular stars doing here at this time?
Blue Angel: You'll see!
She rides off and later as Hibiki was about to start speed dueling he heard the broadcast and heard Blue Angel call out Playmaker.
Lightray: Wow, she just did that.
His opponent was similarly stunned but loaded his board and both jumped on.
=Time Skip=
After the duel Lightray smiled as he dismounted the board and looked over the Vrains skyline but noticed he wasn't alone on the rooftop. He wheeled around to see Revolver, the leader of the knights of Hanoi stood behind him.
Lightray: You! What are you doing here?!
Revolver: Don't worry, I come with a gift. The knights of Hanoi would like to enlist your services as a duelist against a foe of ours.
Lightray: Playmaker. What could you offer me to make me side with you?
Revolver: We have the ability to generate data material, we can share this algorithm with you if you assist us. We also possess information that you would like to know about one of the other lost incident victims.
Lightray: What do I have to do?
Revolver: Good, you listen to reason. I need you to duel and gather information on playmaker and his dueling style with those cyberse cards. You don't have to win, just get him to use his true strength.
Lightray: Is that all? Fine I'll take your little offer, but my name stays out of this. I'll get him to try his best.
Revolver logs out and light Ray received a data package which he filed away rather than open. He logged out and Hibiki woke up in his apartment and loaded up his laptop and in his vrains inbox was a copy of the file. He opened it to find a vrains code inside for a deck and a fake avatar and username for him with a message attached. "Pull through, you're in too deep to back out now Hibiki Okida" he gasped in shock and looked at the message before shutting down the computer when a knock on the door caused him to jump in shock. He opened the door to find a mailman holding a parcel.
Mailman: Are you Hibiki Okida? I have a package for him from Ryouken Kagami.
Hibiki: That's me.
He took the box and found inside a brand new duel disk with the same note. He placed it down and went into the bedroom, falling asleep quickly, his nightmares now filled with Revolver's chilling laughter.