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sunset-novice-writer · 4 years

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When The Dust Settles |Shigaraki Tomura x Reader|

A lot of things have changed in the world of Heroes and Villains. The rise and decline of power shifted so often between those two forces as it was like a rising tidal wave crashing against one another. One will always end up beating the other which had you hoping for the latter since you supported your lover. All of his achievements lead up to the recognition he worked himself to the born for most times you two had your ups and downs. Yet, where most people who would rationalize dating a villain came to their senses--to be fair that’s a fair point.

Love had no grand design for two people involved. It was crazy, unexplainable, wonderful, and sometimes a bittersweetness that had lessons to be learned from it.You knew that it took rather long time in the beginning to build that trust with him.Where how he found so little trust in others their were precious memories you shared. He knew this fragile thing to experience a foreign closeness with other human beings, even a platonic one. At least patience had been something that was your strong suit coupled with you could actually touch Tomura.

How could you explain your relationship to get to this point with him?

Well, it was literally a rollercoaster ride that sometimes could be so frustrating other times it was with all the risk you endured.

Purely you loved Shigaraki most didn’t know you existed because you didn’t want to be used to trap him against the law. You’d rather risk your freedom to make sure he ensured his own. Everything you did was for him all the sacrifices that balanced between your relationship.You had no intention letting him doubt why you wanted to be with him--his moral compass were choices you respected, his appearance did not affect things for you either.

As much as he dodged and weaved to push you away from him you always stayed with him through the ringer. The occasional pout came on your end when you tried your darndest to beat that unnatural gaming genius that was your lover. He teases you about how his you-player two was almost catching up, but gets creamed. Those times were fun you didn’t win or lose against him, as much as you loved spending more time with him.

There were no missions for the League to fill that Tomura had him calling for meetings soon. The other members took off to enjoy themselves in their own personal adventures outside the hideout. You and Shigaraki had some pleasant time alone for yourselves with a video game marathon. Topic for the game you picked: Soul Calibur, Tekken, Street Fighter, and Shigaraki picked a few of his own as well, which was quite the selection.

You both were playing Street Fighter Chun Li versus Bison which your boyfriend used the muscle antagonist to kick your ass. You sat between his legs with his head rested on your shoulder, biting back a snicker at your determination to win against him. Tomura knew your health was at its crucial point although you slightly got him in the yellow whilst you already dyed from green to red.

“It’s not even a challenge learning the basic movements, Pet.” He teased you with his hands keeping a four finger grip on the controls like usual--curse his teasing and taunting you would win. You shivered when you felt his lips brush against the shell of your ear, as tingles rippled a familiar warmth within your belly.

This is just unfair right now.’ You thought to yourself, eyes went to focus back on the game. All you needed to do was focus on the game, not Shaggy's tempting touches from his mouth.You stammered a little feeling his teeth playfully scrap the edge of your ear.”You may be the best gamer here, Shiggy. I’m going to make a comeback.”

“Oh?”Tomura rose a brow lifting his face to stare into your own to look at your face. You challenged him that moment it made you wonder what sort of thoughts were swirling in his head. It both thrilled you to see what he would come up with, and scared you to see what stirred up in his mind sometimes.

Yet, it usually ended if Tomura was a savant of video games, no wonder he made excellent strategists when coming with the tactical parts of the mission. You knew if he ever accomplished his dreams with villainy, your man would be the wickedest video game creator on the planet.

His carmine ideas brightened you instantly knew he was thinking sort of wager formed in that brain of his. You always like trying to beat him occasionally, you tried to win-- keyword tried. Shigaraki always topped you though.” All right then, [Y/n]. If you beat me in this round, I’ll do something just for you.” He smirked down at you, loving how you gulped nervously, as he explained the terms of the bet.

“Fine, I agree with the bet.” You knew despite his grumpy reaction he secretly was happy with the affection. If anything Tomura loved when you backed your affectionate gestures up with words. You loved the reactions you see come from him in so many expressions that he could show was always new.

He grunted at you trying not to think about what transpired he scowled at you as he spoke.” Really, I can’t say I disliked it. But distracting me won’t help you win, pet.” This had you rolling your eyes knowing that already, but you kissed him because you wanted to. “Don’t worry, I just wanted to kiss you Tomu.” You grinned, giving a laugh when he called you an idiot, and then you both returned to the game.

Not expecting within those few minutes you knew Tomura had been you without so much effort. You pouted though while giving him your word, waiting for him to see what he wanted you to do. He wanted to just hold you, which were his terms for the beat, not that you minded. A moment you kept just between the two of you besides it made you feel a sense of pride. You were the only person who could ever touch him like this, thanking yourself that your quirk came out to be like this.

These moments of silence became treasured time together as you peppered him with a kiss--much to his grumpy, flustered protest and cuddled him for the rest of that day. “I love you [Y/n]” He whispered, causing you to become flustered with your heart fluttering again, and hugged him tighter.

“Love you too, Tomu.”

Your own fears made you think in the most critical of times while he was out on missions. One’s that he thoroughly planned to put himself on the line to complete his goals, and his subordinates too, though you admitted they all had weird relationships together. In the beginning, a lot of bickering with clashing egos hitting heads leaving you as the peacemaker (mostly, for Tomura when it came to himself and Dabi.)it surprised you how things settled between them now.

When the dust had settled through each trial everyone came out stronger from their journey. You did so as well mostly given most couldn’t handle your choices. While you felt happier now more than in your old life you were grateful to have met Mura.Sometimes you wondered how he thought about you when he was away. Time after time, you noticed those little looks of insecurity, wondering when you’d leave him. Whether he feels elation to be rid of you coupled with those nuisance in emotions he developed.”I love him now more than ever truthfully,” You smiled thinking out loud glancing out the window, noticing the sun beginning to set in array amber-orange with purple tint to the clouds it was beautiful. A picture of what could explain your life and their own making you ponder a bit more.

Tomura wanted you to stay at the home base for this recent mission. What irked you be not being there with him. He’d been stubborn about you getting caught in the crosshairs of this one with much reluctance you agreed to his whims. Sometimes, you wished he knew you had a handle on your skill set not to be babied inside your own head you rationalized it. He never would tell you anything unless he wasn’t damned sure you were capable.

If there was one thing for him, you could say he didn’t sugarcoat shit to cover up facts. You felt anxious sitting there doing nothing until they got back home. You missed him wondering if Toga left any updates on your phone, yet you didn’t receive so much as a ding of a notification. Drifting back to your thoughts for a moment, thinking of your parents who slurred your name about who you loved.

A part of you felt bitter thinking of how they came to be was irony itself. A reformed villain and a hero clashing together into separate sides of the spectrum to lecture you on the news. Now, that shit right there was so laughable you couldn’t contain the hypocrisy of it all. You’d never expected to see through you too well through your mannerism to call you out on the lie.

Why hide behind better yet why give a shit about it. More that those thoughts lingered he did make a good point instead of wholly in stupid state of self you erased them from your mind. It wasn’t good to waste time in the useless memories of the past, and shifted to lay comfortable in the bed.

“He better come back in one damn piece..”You grumbled under your breath huffing in annoyance, as cuddled up in his coat inhaling his scent to seek some sort of comfort. A sandalwood musky scent that carried in his favorite hoodie he always wore around sometimes you’d sleep in it to cuddle with him.

A soft thud of footsteps trailed up the hallway that went noticed by you with little murmurs that left your mouth..At the thought of his latest victory you wondered how the story would be told this time to you. Always eager to hear every feat he accomplished to look like child’s play, as the heroes were left guessing to his true motives. Tomura Shigaraki was a man that laid hidden talents, so the underestimation where he would lead his organization shifted the world.

You shifted your eyes to the ceiling thinking about a variety of things that sprouted many different thoughts in your mind. “Making me worry like this...darn you Tomu-chibi..”Your scowled deepened, your cheeks puffing out in a noticeable pout.

“It’s a good thing I won huh,Queenie?”

Shigaraki’s raspy voice startled you out of your dampened mood, as you jumped up quickly on the bed to stare at him. A smirk adorned his lip and his carmine eyes were in pure amusement delighted at your pouty expression.Taking in his face, a calm sort of confidence was in the aura he pleased with himself at the success about the mission. You felt relieved he was uninjured moving from the bed to walk over towards Tomura his eyes glanced at your attire noticing it.You’d just be wearing something comfortable if you caught the way his eyes darkened focusing on you. Clearly, pleased with the way his jacket looked too big on you though still cozy with you only in a set of thigh high socks in a tight fitted t-shirt with a pair of lacey panties in his favorite color.

Down to the choker you made yourself that had his initials TS dangling on your neck. It was fact that you in all utterance were his completely, and he thrived on that sheer fact. You could tell your gift made him happy you spent most the time he was out to finish it.

“I see you liked the gift I made.” You smirked, sauntering you away over to him, carmine eyes followed your movements as you approached to stand in front of Tomura.

‘It’s a good thing I told those idiots, not to disturb me.’ He thought to himself, he had collected fully on when you lost to him in your wager, plus he planned to collect his reward. “I do pet, I really do.”His eyes focused on your own trying to drink up the vision of every inch of your body.

You walked over to Tomura to bring yourself closer to him though the growl clear in displeasure.Your visage was coming closer to his own taking the view away from appreciating your outfit in the full glory he wanted to take in. Tomura knew that you’d walk around like this sometimes though by his gaze he wasn’t having you go out like that. Not that you cared, you wonly focused on spending time with him now that he returned safely.

Well, there were hickies all over your neck and collarbone last time he saw you in something was for his eyes only. To be fair, you wanted to make something for him to eat that day still that was a great, great way to start the morning for you both.When he first learn that your quirk allowed him to touch you with all five fingers he shown shocked. the first time it happened, and enjoyed the being touched. Unlikely to admit how touch starved he was to anyone else if teased he’d threaten to disintegrate them.

“I’m glad you made it back, Tomu.”You pull him into an embrace and your face nuzzles into the crook of his neck, as you feel his hands come to wrap around your waist. Both of you alone together you’d seen his vulnerable behind closed doors at this moment he enjoyed how close you were to him.

“Those pathetic Heroes didn’t stand a chance, [y/n]” He scoffed at the notion, he would let himself lose against those unskilled bosses' attempts to capture him. After all, he got a bonus item that would aid his cause even further, not to mention he had his very own princess he needed to come back too.

“I believed you would, Mura.”You lifted your head up to stare in his eyes, as he in turn watched your own look at him liking the way the affection for him always seemed to show on your face.He placed his hands on your hips tugging you closer to him making gasp in surprise at the action. “Besides that, nothing in the world would keep me from my angel.”He smiled at you making you’re heart do flip-flops before it shifted into a wicked smirk, as you noticed something else was excited to see you too..

[a/n:why in the hell I did add that]

“Your Decay Daddy seems to recall you losing our bet last time..”Tomura’s voice dropped lower thick with his lustful intentions that stirred up an all to familiar warmth in your stomach.He chuckled a little at you as he added on,”I need to collect it, princess.” While the thrum sent brief sparks of pleasure to your core as you clenched at the thought of him taking you. They spoke no more words between the both of you. Hiis lips came down to capture your own dominance, making itself known.

You’d stick by his side through the thicket of worse times soon to come for you both. Now, you let all that go, enjoying the feeling of his lips against your own as he kisses you wrapping your arms around his neck, pressing your body closer to his.

The dust of chaos that consumed both your lips you’d been there for Tomura without a doubt. When the world was sculpted with the ruins, be cleared to a fresh hope you’d be by his side. A feeling of love that couldn’t be justified to one who didn’t understand it, and your love for this man was something you never regretted.

He pulled away from your mouth causing you to let out a disappointed whine, as you both knew none of the members would get sleep thanks to their leader. But, hey, it’s not like they didn’t know who was dickin’ you down so well, anyway.

“Don’t get distracted now, Angel.” He chastised in a teasing voice, as his hands grabbed your chin gently, you noticed the tempted twitch of his fingers to disintegrate your clothes. “I’m all you needed to focus on now.”

Hell, you agreed with whoever said bad boys needed love were not wrong whatsoever. “Yes, sir.” You replied giving a peck to his lips, yes, this was your happiness now with someone you loved.Nothing was better than enjoying this moment with your lover while you prepared to show your actions all afternoon long..

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I can’t believe that I finished this today, so happy about this!!

Taglist : @mrsreina @blackgirlanimes @koiibito @tomurasprincess @fairylucynamipiece @shigaraki-is-my-master

Hope you all will give some feed back and comment. Still, I feel like this is came out so well. Let me know if you want to get tagged on this.

#Shigaraki Tomura x Reader #bnha #anime #tomura #LoV Leader #shigaraki x reader #tomura x reader

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flydotnet · 5 years

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Nemesis In Cerberus's Jaws

VRAINS Rarepair Weeks 2018 - Day 9: Favorite Card/Win or Lose

Summary: Ghost Girl goes to Queen's palace-like headquarters for two reasons: stop SOL from interfering in the Ignis Warfare and to avenge a fallen comrade now caught inside the monarch's claws. She knows this may very well be a trap, but may as well try saving the situation and stop a sociopath while she's at it.

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS Ships: Hireshipping (Ema/Akira)

Wordcount: 3.6K words

Notes: Happy New Year, I wish you get nice things in life for 2019 while I beg for VRAINS to give us an Akira VS Queen duel. Or just Akira winning a duel with his "Eldritch abominations meet geometry" deck. Please.

This is the last fic of 2019, a year as such filled with way too many sickfics and a lot of fandoms suffering because of your truly's! Can't say I expcted to finish the year on a VRAINS fanfiction of all things, but I'm actually proud of this one. I took a weird approach at this prompt, because I'm a dumbass who doesn't know how words work, but I hope this stays in the theme enough. Anyway, Ema VS Queen would be very nice in canon with actual duel wriitng skills instead of this pathetic excuse of that lmao. I also hope Queen fans don't kill me for this lmao.

Y'all know tomorrow is gonna be Hanahaki AU, don't you? I am, in fact, very predictable.

Event hosted by @vrainsrarepairweeks

AO3 version available here.

Link VRAINS’s SOL Headquarters, approximately time-has-stopped-ticking past I-forgot-what-time-it-was-anyway in the after-morning-noon. There is nobody around, footsteps resonating inside the empty white buildings filled with data diamonds and other unknown fancy digital effects. While the Ignis Warfare is taking place outside, Ema, or rather Ghost Girl, has her own side-mission to accomplish. This is why she is here and not by Aoi, or rather, Blue Maiden’s side. She trusts this girl and her partners, the ever-so-victorious Playmaker and Soulburner along with their pro-humanity Ignes, to win against the hardships waiting for them. She cannot really help them win against Lighting anyway.

She may not be able to do that, but she can do other things to shift the balance around. She has to do something to reverse the tide in the right direction.

Ghost Girl finds herself anxiously walking around the premise, the echo of her footsteps being the only noise around her, white walls and ceiling almost blinding her by their sheer purity that just hides how shady SOL Technologies truly are. There is exactly one sane man in that building and she’s here to prevent his conversion to data by some lunatics with too much incompetence and free time on their hands. Converting him into data won’t be useful for any of them: is she throwing herself into the jaws of that company? Most certainly.

The question would rather be: why does she throw herself into said jaws? She knows they’re a trap waiting to vanquish her. On that the question changes: is it worth knowingly risking herself in an obvious trap? To that she would usually hesitate to answer, but there she was with a bold and confident “yes” to throw at it.

Ghost Girl eventually meets a regal corridor leading to what she can only assume to be a throne room. The fancy palace aspects are quickly wearing down on her: the person waiting at the end, the one who caught her main hirer and ex-teammate, has to have an ego bigger than hers. In a way, that’s better: she’s always preferred crushing pretentious people than winning against fellas with a low self-esteem.

Instead of knocking on the wooden door with golden decorations she eventually finds herself meeting, the huntress kicks it wide open, emergency programs ready to be used against the eventual menace in case it’d get too dangerous. She, however, doesn’t plan on backing down until she has won: if she leaves, it’s to get backup, technical or human.

Plus, Akira would have preferred her to have these with her.

The quite literal queen is sitting in her throne with a smug look Ghost Girl has an unforgettable need to remove from her face. Dressed like a business woman in a regal palace, she matches what little about his boss Akira would tell her: short blue-and-green hair, proud, cunning, fierce and merciless. If she wasn’t meant to smash Queen’s face onto the floor for being a terrible human being, she would have commented on her beauty. Instead, she gets mentally ready to duel her.

“If it isn’t Ghost Girl, Zaizen’s favourite bounty huntress…” Her voice resonates in the empty room as an eerie smile makes her onto her face.

“I’m sure I don’t have to tell you why I’m here,” she simply and drily replies. She doesn’t wait to ask her main question. “What did you do to Zaizen?”

“Perhaps I should tell you would you win over me in a Master Duel, Ms Bessho.”

Goddammit. She still prepares out her Duel Disk and her spirit. This a duel she cannot lose.

“Then Duel it is.”

This may just be the duel of her life.

Queen has a royal-themed deck, because of course she would have one. The issue is to judge what level she is at Duel Monsters: it’s safe to assume she isn’t the first newbie one ca come across in Link VRAINS. It relies on Spell and Trap cards to summon monsters, only to Link Summon what Ema assumes to be her aces. There doesn’t seem to be another summoning method to her deck, but that’s to be seen. Skills are out of the question: this is already something she can put on the side and not worry about. She is willing to trade not being able to use Secret Cure for taking off one factor to take in account.

Ema has to keep it at least a bit safe. Her Altergeists aren’t known for being the safest monsters to play on the field despite how easy her Hexstia and Dragvirion combo feels like to pull off. She needs to be careful and not waste a single opportunity. This may be a Duel with vital stakes at play: she cannot let herself get panicked or else it’ll end terribly for everyone involved, not just her. SOL needs to be slowed down if not stopped if they’re as unreasonable as that woman’s ends and ways to get there: there is always a point where one needs to stop throwing everyone under the bus.

They don’t speak to each other during the duel. Queen seems to do so out of spite and a want not to leak anything out. Ema is doing so as to keep her focus: if she can win this, then she will have a chance at getting her answers and freeing Akira from wherever he’s kept in their real world. If he’s trapped here, then that’s even more of an opportunity not to mess up.

She doesn’t let the questions she could wonder about prevent her from summoning the right monsters and playing the right cards at the right time against the right targets. The situation is too risky and too narrow between them to allow her to do so, to taunt or to show too much pride. She sets her own ego on the side for once: if she wins this Duel, then she will pride herself in it and tease Akira about it for about forever.

Ema gains a momentum by bypassing Queen’s ace Monster, a Link-4 luminous queen thing (doesn’t have the luxury to compliment that one either) and inflecting direct damage to her opponent. Queen herself is a mighty force to reckon with, of course, but she has watched Akira lose to her with all the frustration she could have felt from it. She has, technically, seen how her deck worked, but every duel is different for everyone, thus why she prefers to make sure she doesn’t forget about the cards she could have changed or the optional strategies she may have in store.

Altergeists have to win where Tindangles have lost.

The sudden eerie smile on Queen’s face doesn’t reassure her in the slightest. There is a cold sweat running down her back as she waits in anticipation what is to come. A Flip card gets turned on by her own gestures, as an attempt to destroy it with Hexstia when the monstrous queen on the field can’t be attacked, and there comes the worst. Ema cannot decide herself whether or not this is humiliating or sadistic towards Akira, but in all cases, she doesn’t want to face that monster now.

She doesn’t want to be facing Tindangle Hound here and now.

It’s like fighting against Akira when he isn’t here to control the beast. How much has this “queen” stole from him, to use one of his cards like that?!

“Is… Is this a sick joke of some sort…?” her voice is hesitant but asks anyway.

“I simply took the spolia opima that were to come back to me after my previous victory.”

“You have to know this monster is… This is twisted!”

Ema feels rage boiling in her entire body. This isn’t like her to get upset over a monster in a deck, but this can’t be all there is to it. The smile on Queen’s face, Akira’s unknown whereabouts after his defeat against her and the use of that stupid Latin term all make her rage beyond reason.

Okay, she has to admit, Akira may be more than an ex-teammate for dirty jobs online and her main employer. There is quite obviously something more to it, more to her determination to win than to punish some asshole who put in so much danger someone as young and mentally fragile as Go Onizuka for fucking money, who vivisected and put inside a chip a living being made out of data but with a digital soul, who now uses a card of one of her subordinates to play a duel against someone who came here to, theoretically, save said subordinate.

What it is, she doesn’t have many words to put on, but these feelings are here, they are intense, and she isn’t backing down to determine what they are exactly. She owes him salary, potential blackmail material and maybe other stuff. She came too far to lose, she has her own side-mission and it’s just become uncomfortably personal between that pseudo-monarch corrupted by money and her.

Ema switches perspectives for this duel. There isn’t time to screw around and try to predict what is going to happen next. She has to be careful about Tindangle Hound’s effect to lower her own Monsters’ ATK if they’re Link. A good thing Dragvirion isn’t affected, she thinks, because her methods are about to become stomp-down when her deck isn’t even made for that. She has to destroy that hellish dog before Queen can summon Tindangle Angel and rub salt into the wound on-top of enforcing these two’s lines of defense.

These feelings are very personal, and she won’t let them spill onto the floor for that very reason. She will win against that Queen without a shred of mercy, extract all the information from her even if she has to use her own non-log-out virus against her and then reunite with her fallen partner in crime. She won’t back down. She presses a button on her Duel Disk, hoping its stealthy sides will allow it to go unnoticed, and resumes her turn.

This ends now.

Her plan somewhat works. Queen’s deck has never been made for the Tindangle archetype: her pride will be the loss of her, what an ironic turn of events she cannot not love witnessing. Bypassing a Trap card through Monster effects, using a Spell to break through another barrier, she manages to beat Tindangle Hound without meaning to. She quickly consoles herself by thinking Akira wouldn’t have wanted to see his Monster that way, in that deck, before finishing the duel off by destroying the light monarch on the field.

The palace starts to worsen as the holograms disappear and Ema walks to the fallen queen on the floor, her throne having been destroyed by Hexstia’s final strike. Her virus hasn’t worked, sadly, since all she gets from Queen is a glare and an instant logging-out. Oh well. There is, however, an ironically stereotypical character to how her prison seems to be the room whose door was hidden by the throne. Ema’s instincts never mistake her, but before she goes through the door, she must pick up the Tindangle Hound card which fell to the ground. There are Monsters who don’t deserve to be left behind in a graveyard, and this palace is already becoming one.

Strangely enough, she doesn’t find Acute Cerberus or Tindangle Angel near the Hound. This was, indeed, a twisted joke: separating the siblings figuratively was also rubbing salt into the wound.

The prison part of the palace is as dark as one would expect it to be: the sharp change from overwhelming white to almost complete darkness with neon blue lines hurts her eyes, maybe in a last attempt to blind her and make her go back home, but Ghost Girl doesn’t back down. She never does. She’s so close to freeing her fallen partner in crime, if she was to walk back, she would hold a grudge against herself for the next eternity to come.

All the other “cages”, which look more like cocoons composed of geometrical pieces of metal, are empty. She would have at least expected there to be fallen bounty hunters or previous lovers with dirty on Queen to reveal to the world to be there, but there seems to only be one person and she exactly knows who because, as it stands, he is right in front of her, on the other side of the drawn-out corridor, stuck in a transparent cage. Humiliation really seems to be something Queen is into.

As she arrives in front of it, she brushes her hand against the shell. There has to be a way to open it up, she thinks as she goes past it. It has to be remote-controlled just like everything else in Link VRAINS, probably by a program in Queen’s possession. Nothing she cannot hack: it seems to be less complex than Hanoi’s programming, so she proceeds to open a control panel on her own disk and checks the beast out.

The programming of this thing is far weaker than she could have expected: in minutes, she finds a fatal flaw in the code that allows her to break it from the inside by causing a fatal error, making it vanish in digital fairy powder and its prisoner fall to the ground with a noticeable lack of grace. If they weren’t in a virtual world, he’d have surely scratched his knees on the floor.

Before she knows it Ema has knelt right next to him, deciding whether or not it’s time to truly be earnest and honest or if she should just be smug and mischievous as usual. Her heart, whom she always trusts, tells her not to be such a jackass. Her hands around his shoulders, he feels strangely fragile: he always been slender, perhaps because he has been used to eating little to survive before, but never has she had the feeling he was fragile, as though he was made of glass, before. Maybe it’s not about his frame, then, but if that’s the case, why does it feel that way?

He’s unconscious at first, when she picks him in her arms. She is at first tempted to get him out of that pseudo-palace, hack her avatar some strength to carry him like a bride (and then tease him about it), but she doesn’t have the time to do that: the building threatens to fall on them, breaking a breach at a time, and they need to get out of here fast. Wrapping his arm around her shoulder, an arm of hers around his torso right under the armpits and her other hand sustaining his arm in place where it should be. He’s a deadweight, but she’s not going to lose now.

Walking Akira around on her shoulders when he isn’t able to walk is terribly slowing her down and she truly wishes she would have had the time to make herself stronger. On another hand, she can still wish for him to wake up and help himself up. If she isn’t wrong, his own avatar hasn’t been injured in any way: he’ll be fine when he’s going to log off too.

Remind her again why their relationship is “professional”?

The blinding white of the ceilings and walls is slowly fading into an ugly brown, mud covering the walls, moss climbing in every corner, rotting starting to infect the premise. They needed to make it out fast, before anything could break and block their way. Quick, Ghost Girl, run at the speed of sound and don’t look back!

It’s breathless but immensely relieved for herself that Ema eventually makes it out of that place one room at a time, the one she just exited never failing to break right after she’s through with it. When the light of outside virtual sky finally appears in front of her eyes, through a door which isn’t technically far but feel too distant to her own tastes and pace, she secretly hopes very much to make it out alive at that point.

And she actually does: she wins against the clock, manages to get them both out of here with no scratch on their limbs and goes back on her D-Board, sitting on it still out of breath with a man on her lap, trying to recover from the sudden anxiety and pressure to find a safe spot. In theory, she would better off log out and try finding Akira in Den City instead, but she has no idea if he’s even able to log out. She hasn’t detected any external program that could make it so he couldn’t, but with an unconscious avatar, she can’t tell for sure.

They eventually arrive in what she knows to be an empty, desert and hidden spot in New Link VRAINS. That’s only then than Akira chooses to wake up (hah, took him long enough), groggily sitting back up correctly even if his back was already sat against the wall courtesy of his saviour herself. He seems lost for a few minutes as she goes to sit next to him. She doesn’t feel like staying up and he looks too tired to do that. Maybe she can ask him a few questions while they’re here, alone together and sitting on the same level.

“Ema…? Where are we…?” He starts the interrogation station by looking around.

“In a discreet spot in Link VRAINS.”

“Ah, I… I think I see. I don’t remember much from before waking up, but I know I was in SOL’s headquarters and lost a duel against Queen. Wait,” he looks to her with astonishment all over his features but a slight smile nearing, “that means you’ve won against her, right?”

“You called it! I had to escape that crumbling place with your deadweight on my shoulders. You owe me a lot, Akira Zaizen!”

“Oh… I’m sorry for that, then. I’m not sure of what happened, but I’ll make sure to pay you back for this.”

“I trust you on that.”

She then remembers something, and another cheeky smile appears on her lips as she gets it out of her Extra Deck space.

“Ah, right, I almost forgot about that,” she tells him as she gets it out of her disk.

His eyes land on the card in her hands.

“Tindangle Hound?” he wonders out loud as he picks it up again. “What was it doing in your deck?”

“Queen had stolen it from you after your defeat against her, I simply took it back when winning.” She never mentions how Queen also happened to have summoned it against her, maybe another day. “Thought I’d give it back to its rightful owner!”

“Why did she have it in her deck, though? That doesn’t make sense with the archetype and deck type she plays…”

“Well, huh… It really didn’t match her deck to begin with. That’s what caused her defeat against me in a duel where either could have won. I think it was to… intimidate me, or to remind everyone that you had lost against her. That’s pretty messed up if you ask me.”

“I owe you this too now… Thank you very much, Ema.”

Usually, she’d have prided herself in her victory, teased him further, but they’re both tired of fighting for today. Maybe she can allow herself to be honest, just this once…

“I’m sure Aoi and the other two are fighting well as we’re speaking. You don’t have to worry for them.”

“You’re right.”

“By the way… would you happen to be free at some point in the following weeks? I know how you could repay me, and I need to tell you in person.”

“Oh, sure. I’ll make sure to have a free spot for this in my schedule.”

“You’re usually too busy to even tell me that, aren’t you?”

“Well, to be exact… With how damaging this will be to SOL, I don’t expect it to be for a few weeks. I can, however, promise you I’ll think it out, if this is any better.”

“I appreciate the consideration, Akira.”

This doesn’t prevent her from muttering under her breath, “that’s why we never have dates…”; which in turn leads him to abruptly turn his head to her with zero subtlety and an awkward red flashing on his face.

“You said what I heard, right?”

“Yes…” Well, there goes her complete win over today.

“I… suppose we should consider that one day, if you think this is how I can repay you. You’ve done a lot for me these past months. I do, however, not really understand how this could be retribution…”

“…You owe me a date then.”

She cannot tell if he’s either too embarrassed to tell her this is a stupid idea (and it, frankly, would be to her if she hadn’t realized that during her duel) or if he is too awkward to tell her he’s on board. All she’s basing herself from is the timid smile she sees creeping on his face and his suddenly very nervous gestures towards her. It’s as it he forgot he could look at her directly.

“Then so be it…” he eventually spits out, looking in the distance, both of them slipping into a silence which progressively becomes comfortable.

After all, as opposed to him, he has always been more of a thinker than a rusher (except when his sister is involved: in which case, he becomes a furious beast). He needs his time to think this through, to cool down, when she’s always on her feet. Oh wait, so be it. The Blue Oni he represents to her Red is a nice combination too.

As such, she can consider this timid “and so be it” a win, right? This ends in a complete victory for the bounty huntress Ghost Girl, of course: it, however, goes far past this and duels. This is a personal win and nobody can take that back from her.

#vrains #hireshipping #vrainsrarepairweeks #my writing

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