'It's cold, it's COOOOLD!'

Ai regrets everything. He wants to go back to the boat now, please. Where there are things like heating and the actual sun outside, warming the rich deck, and making his sensors jangle oh-so-pleasantly in response.

It's strange; Ai cannot die due to a rapid change of temperature, though it can in theory do all sorts of nasty things to the inner working of the SOLtiS body he's in. But it should be even harder on the net, where there are precautions put in place to protect the sensory feedback a human can experience out here. Most of the time people register the temperature as pleasant, regardless of what the outside environment they've teleported themselves to dictates.

But nooooo. Now he senses a chill that bites thorough all his sensors, that even makes the stoic Playmaker beside him grit his teeth and hunker down beside him slightly. Ai squints, at the air and ground, his eyes picking up, or rather reading the lines of code poor Playmaker can't possibly witness. In an instant he understands how wild and unmonitored this area truly is; like an unsettled stew, the codes jumble together, erasing and rewriting the ones meant to keep the temperature at a suitable level.

'Oh-ho.' Ai chuckles to himself darkly. 'Someone fancies themselves as a cowboy – I've never seen such rowdy hack-WAH!'

Snow darts into his mouth, thanks to the blizzard that wraps itself around them and he sputters and coughs, feeling revolted by the sudden wetness that takes over the inside of his mouth. It just feels wrong.

Playmaker of course, does not spare him a word of comfort. Though he does offer him a rather judging side-glance. But then he takes off at a firm and stubborn pace, as though he expects Ai to automatically follow and after a half-hearted grumble Ai does. But it's slow-going. For snow coats the mountain they are crawling up, crunching against their feet as they walk, with only the odd fir tree popping up to spark a welcome brush of colour in their line of sight.

But mostly there is nothing but slippery white, on the ground, over their toes, and battling against their shins. It even flecks the sky, whirling by in a storm so fierce that Ai sputters again and again, whenever he tries to rebuke his partner, the words swallowed up by the unwelcome wet feel of melting snow as it darts into his open mouth.

He gives up, reformats his clothes into a deep lavender set of mountaineering gear, and rapidly writes up as many warmth-simulating fail-safes within his own systems as he can. It barely makes a dent within this environment, practically a spit of defiance against the program here, but he does feel better. So a second later, he re-works the codes that generate his avatar, blending these new fail-safes into their protocols, causing soft gloves to land on his hands, images of interlinked Ignis-form Ai's wrapped round them, with each one sporting woollen hats and scarves of purple over their small Ignis bodies. Ai closes his fists, admiring this new pattern and feeling as though small candles have sputtered to life within his fingers, cradling them with a surly warmth. Or at least a not-cold feeling – which is probably as good as it is going to get.

With another thought, his cape becomes thicker, spreading out into a cloak that is ringed with velvet-black fur. He yanks the hood he adds onto it over his face a moment later.

'Playmaker,' he hisses, stamping over to his partner's side. 'Grant me temporary access to your avatar's customisation! It's not much, but I can stop you shivering with every step!'

Playmaker's eyes travel over him and his new look, but then after a second he nods.

Ai gets to work – away with the skin-tight bodysuit! And hello to bulky green clothing! He's even nice enough to pop an enormous woollen green elf's hat onto Playmaker's head with a friendly winking bobble of Ai's Ignis face dangling at the end. For good measure, he also pops on a set of cute furry earmuffs, more of Ai's faces stuck on them, and gloves with the exact same pattern as his own spread across them. With each new item, he takes care to wrap up codes designed to promote a sense of warmth, miniature firewalls designed to spit back out the numbing sense of coldness that glides through this area.

When he's done Playmaker casts him a rather bored look, even as Ai can't help but giggle from behind his hands.

'Thanks,' Playmaker says stiffly, and moves forward again.

Ai frowns. He expected...some anger, maybe even for Playmaker to protest at some of Ai's decorative choices. But no, just a boring 'thanks,' is what he's granted.

Ai pouts.

'I mean it,' Playmaker says after a moment. He tosses Ai a fond look from between his earmuffs, a small smile present on his face. 'Even with your poor taste in style, I am feeling warmer. It's appreciated.'

He turns and starts climbing again. And Ai trails after him, feeling the jump of his code inside, and the casual re-writing of some strings, the way they always do when inputting new data, or when he as to adjust to a new environment. Apparently Playmaker's smile qualifies as such.

Who is this human, to do such things to him? He's only...

A tool.

Ai frowns at that, disturbed. Even the kiss he had attempted to give Yusaku at the inn had been a calculated ploy to make Yusaku feel more protective of him, to draw him more tightly to the idea of Ai's survival.

Except...back then he suffered a similar spike in his code, had found himself caring more about the look in Yusaku's eyes, feeling thrilled by that yearning he saw in them, yearning for him. He remembers wanting to keep it there, stroke at it, to make it bolder and greener, wondering, no wanting the feel of that mouth, calculating how to make his own warm and hot and wet in response, to make it pliable to Yusaku's, in just the way another human might savour the taste of...

Everything else had flown away. No calculations, just a pressing need that wiggled its way inside, rewriting strings of code into something that chased after Yusaku's expression that wanted more, more, more...

Ai shivers, but not from the cold this time. For in some ways perhaps, out of the whole of humanity, Fujiki Yusaku is the scariest human of them all.


They're halfway up the mountain when they catch sight of a flash of blue that wavers and pulls through the wind like a flag. Like smoke it curls, a strain of colour that flickers like a flame about to go out, and so they pull themselves through the snow after it, their pace instinctively quickening.

The colour grows stronger and stronger as they draw closer, with more colours emerging beneath it, grey, pink, white, all accompanied by the glaring shape of a face above. With one more stumble forward, they're suddenly in a clearing of some sort, no more snow to accost them; no, now's there's just the howl of the gale outside, as it spins round them in a whirling hurricane of white. As though they've reached the eye of the storm.

In front of them stretches an ice-white plateau of snow, the powder of it so crisp and finely dusted that it gleams like millions of tiny crystals.

And across this glittering field, glares a young woman, her left arm folded in front of her as though ready and prepared to hold the branching form of Duel Disk.

'Glad to see you could make it, Playmaker,' she says coolly. Though her frown softens a little as she witnesses the hat that dangles half-way down his back and the way it attempts to stretch over his spikey hair.

Ai frowns as well. Her arms are bare; she wears no protective clothing, nothing that would hide a code to keep her warm. And yet there's a slight shimmer in the air surrounding her, a stabilising force as though someone's devised a shield to keep the bite of the lower temperature away.

Playmaker gazes at her, something warm in his gaze. 'Blue Maiden,' he says in return in place of greeting. Ai is impressed at how steady his partner's voice is however; it's as though he had never spent hours exhausting himself trying to find a clue to her disappearance barely a day ago.

Blue Maiden smiles sadly and then turns to face Ai.

'I'm not sure if I can say if I'm glad to see you or not,' she says pointedly. 'But I suppose I can be content with the fact you're alive. Despite everything you did to me and my brother, I never wanted you dead.'

Ai blinks. 'Thanks?' he offers up uncertainly.

That causes the frown on her face to appear and uh-oh. Ai really doesn't like the fact that Playmaker has so many sharp acquaintances.

'I guess it is true,' she says after a moment. 'You don't remember anything. They really were right...'

'Who was?' Playmaker asks sharply.

And Blue Maiden's sad smile returns. 'You already know who,' she replies. 'You're smart enough to guess.'

Playmaker grimaces. 'You're working for Aniki?' he asks sharply, though there's a hint of concern to it. 'What do they have on you? Their actions with the SOLtiS are a clear threat to Sol Technologies and your brother's reputation; you would never choose to fight against him!'

'You're right,' Blue Maiden says, closing her eyes. 'But regardless of what I think or believe: here we are.' She opens her eyes, and this time there's something in her eyes, something sharp and gleaming and perhaps a little ambitious. 'You can guess what comes next, right? That I won't let you through unless you win a duel against me? Or rather, the program keeping us here won't let us leave until one of us wins.'

Playmaker tenses. 'That's all? No other stakes?'

Blue Maiden smirks. She even raises an arm in a half-formed shrug. 'Sorry; that would make for a nice story, but Aniki has mixed feelings about Ai.' She fixes Ai with a sharp look.

He folds his arms in response. 'Then they can come tell me personally, instead of shoving one of their minions at me.'

Blue Maiden stares at him a moment. Her fist trembles. Then she speaks. 'They get it from you, you know,' she states evenly; perhaps too evenly. There's something ice-cold in her voice, as though she doesn't want any emotion to seep in and give her away. 'Your love for drama, for setting yourself up as the final boss-AHH!'

Blue Maiden jolts mid-sentence, as a crackle of blue electricity dances over her body. She slumps to her knees for a moment, her hand buckling stubbornly against the snow, crushing the powder of it into white puffs of smoke as she pants furiously, hair hanging down over her back like a limp rag.

Playmaker grits his teeth, looking like he wants to march over there and forcibly log her out. But Ai quickly snags him by the wrist as Blue Maiden stubbornly stumbles back to her feet.

'Easy there, Playmaker-sama,' Ai cautions. 'I don't think Aniki likes having their hostage unveiling anything about them.'

Blue Maiden spits out a harsh breath. 'That's right. So for now, all I'll say is this.' She straightens, planting her feet firmly in the snow. 'If I win, you get to go past me; but if I win, you get to come and meet Aniki as their toy.' She grimaces. 'The way I've been their's these past few weeks.' Her eyes meets Ai's. 'And then Ai will have to run away and find another human to hide behind.'


Ai stands to one side. He feels excitement well and bubble up inside him as monsters explode onto the field and cards are set down, the brown backs of them flashing up against the snow like miniature flying carpets.

Yusaku's deck has always felt weird to him; he recognises each monster as it bursts onto the field perhaps on an instinctive level. Their data, as it clashes against the snowy landscape sends up a conflicting response in his own, some old sub-routine of a system attempting to access anything that resembles a memory, and failing.

He feels the same conflict, but to a much lesser extent when Blue Maiden summons her monsters. It's a puzzling sensation and one he's not sure he likes; so he stuffs it down, and tries to enjoy the Duel.

'Come on Playmaker!' he cheers, miming a few punches. 'Get her!'

They promptly ignore him. Oh well. Playmaker's got her on the ropes, which is to be expected; Decode Talker has burst into life oh-so-nicely in his main monster zone and it's co-linked to some other Cyberse monsters to boost its attack points...so it's only a matter of time...

Ai smiles as Decode Talker ruthlessly takes down Blue Maiden's Marincess Marbled Rock monster, savouring the way she flinches as her life points wobble down to an unimpressive 1500. She manages to play a trap card in response though, Marincess Snow, that allows here to summon a lower level link monster from her extra deck.

'Appear! Marincess Coral Anemone!'

Ai cocks his head as the rather vivid yellow and orange coloured creature spins and unfurls its tentacled dress onto the field. 'Ohhh,' he says, eyes flashing, as he watches Blue Maiden stubbornly call out her turn, and draw a new card. 'What other fishies are you going to drop into the pool this time? I hope it looks a bit more cool than Miss Octopus Lady here...'

He flinches a little as the monster seems to give him a snide side-eye. With just one glance he feels a tonne of scorn, disapproval and a heightened urge to flee. It feels strangely familiar.

Blue Maiden meanwhile has frozen, her mouth set in a grim line. She stares down at the card in her hand a moment, and briefly, pain seems to flash in her eyes.

'...You might regret asking that, Ai,' she murmurs softly. 'Though you'd regret it more if you truly remembered anything.'

Ai watches, unsurprised as she uses Marincess Coral Anemone's effect to summon another Marincess monster, Blue Tang, from her Graveyard. What does however, come as a shock, is the fact that she doesn't use these two monsters on her field to summon a stronger Link Monster. Instead she chooses to summon a new monster from her hand:

'I summon Hiyari Ignister!'

And Ai blinks. He blinks again. And misses the way Playmaker suddenly tenses, and the low way he rumbles out, 'where did you get that card?' as though she's gone digging through someone's grave to get it.

Because Ai is busy staring at Hiyari, at its teal-blue body and while it's just a gelatine blob, with no face, something about it makes him want to...he's not sure. Hug it? Laugh at it? Wait for it to scold him? Ai frowns, a small partition of data unfurling in him as a blitzed video file of something, no, someone blue, with a calm voice, one that's spiked with a little worry, attempts to talk to him.

It's a little jarring to be honest, so he shakes it off. Enough to realise Blue Maiden is talking again.

'What makes you think someone couldn't extrapolate the data he used to make the Ignister cards?' she asks quietly.

Playmaker gives her a hard look. 'Nobody human could do that,' he says with utter conviction. 'And what would be their motive?'

Blue Maiden gives a miserable shrug. 'Why don't you try to win and find out?'

Playmaker's fist clenches, and Ai watches, a bored pout forming on his face. All this talking instead of Dueling, is tedious. So he does the only sensible thing he can. He closes his hands round his mouth and yells: 'GET ON WITH IT!' With exasperation clearly colouring his every word.

'Alright,' Blue Maiden says levelly, without so much as sparing him a glance. She raises her hand, fingers splayed toward the sky and the whirling wind around them.

'I activate Hiyari's effect! By tributing another Cyberse monster, I can add one level 5 or higher Cyberse monster to my hand! I choose to tribute Marincess Coral Anemone.' The yellow Marincess disappears, scattering into a graceful swirl of blue particles, and Blue Maiden gives Playmaker a meaningful look. 'Guess who I'm choosing.' She clears her throat. 'And since it was a Link monster I tributed, I can add one 'A.I.'s Ritual' to my hand!'

Ai perks up at the name of the spell, and when she plays it, he can't help but clap his hands together excitedly and let out an 'ahhhh' of appreciation as a picture of him wearing a witch's hat flashes into view.

'Appear!' Blue Maiden roars, lifting her arm to the sky as she tributes a card; Ai's quick eyes catches sight of a long blue serpentine body emblazoned on its side as it's sent to the graveyard.

'Lithe, long, the Leviathan that sails through dreams in remembrance of those we've lost!' Still, there's something truly wretched in her expression as she directs her hand down towards the field. 'Water Leviathan Ignister!'

And then an exact copy of the other Ignister monster that was just tributed sails out, to arch its neck against the backdrop of snow.

And Ai stares at it, at the scales that line its belly, at the feathered crests that arc from its sides like dragonfly wings. There's something pretty about it, but harsh and fierce too, and he's on the edge of understanding something about it, he is...

But the Duel doesn't wait for him to organise his thoughts and with a few curt words, Blue Maiden declares Water Leviathan's effect; to return all of Playmaker's monsters with less than 2300 attack to the hand. And in one fell swoop, suddenly Decode Talker is not looking so mighty at all, all its attack points dribbling away and each monster co-linked to it is ripped away from the field...and now it gets even worse.

Ai starts cringing, covering his face with his hand and peering out between the gaps in his fingers, as Blue Maiden activates another effect, reducing Decode Talker's attack to zero AND returning every single Link Monster in her graveyard back to the extra deck.

'AI CAN'T WATCH!' he wails, eyes glued to the widening spaces between each digit.

'Be quiet,' Playmaker tells him tensely.

And with a smile, Blue Maiden declares battle.

Ai immediately draws his hands from his face and starts idly counting his fingers. '2300 attack points from that big snake, plus 400 from that little blue jelly-pudding there, and 1500 from Miss human-looking Dory over there and...oh no, that's it? That's way too much!'

Playmaker stands still, snow flying past in the background, unruffled and far, far too calm. If this were a scene from an anime he'd be hopelessly cool. As it stands it's not, and so Ai snarls at him to: 'DO SOMETHING! SHOW ME WHY I WASN'T WRONG TO PUT MY FAITH IN YOU!'

He's not entirely lost his senses; there's a set card there by Playmaker's feet, lying unobtrusively on the field, a card that maybe...

Playmaker doesn't smile. He doesn't smirk. He simply pushes his hand out, arm stretched, and fingers spread.

'I play my trap card, Diamond Dust! It destroys as many water monsters on the field as possible, then inflicts 500 damage to my opponent for each water monster destroyed and sent to the Graveyard by this effect!'

Ai's eyes widen. His hands drop to his sides. And he watches dumbly, as that card, the card he gave to Yusaku back on the boat as a joke, promptly creates a small silver blizzard that roars across the field. It pelts Blue Maiden's monsters with razor-sharp snowflakes, each segregated edge glinting in a jewel-like fashion as the monsters burst into bright blue particles and disintegrate and Blue Maiden goes sprawling across the field with a scream, her life-points rattling down to zero.

Ai stares at Playmaker. 'You used my card,' he says. He's stunned, stunned, that Playmaker, the legendary hero placed such a card in his deck on a whim. It may have made sense to keep it in there if he had known for sure that Blue Maiden and her water monsters would be out here waiting for him but...he didn't.

Playmaker stares straight past him. 'Yes,' he says simply, and then stalks forward to try and raise Blue Maiden back on her feet.

Ai stares at his back, as his partner, as he asks Blue Maiden how they can help her and where her body is in real life. And then, after a moment, Ai blushes.


Picture this: a space in the network, erupting into colour. Giant structures, ones designed primarily for fun, rise from the data. And someone giggles, spins on their heel, and claps their hands in excitement. Before working hard to create more wonders.

'How childish,' says their partner.

The miracle-worker frowns. 'You're just jealous,' they declare stoutly. 'Because you're boring, like all humans are!'

Their partner scoffs. And then they practically dissolve, their body aflutter, particles of themselves seeking to escape their form. They grunt. Maybe squeal in pain.

'Well,' says the AI by their side, watching as they finally manage to transport themselves away. 'I guess you're not like all of them. Not anymore.'

But they don't sound happy about it. Not in the slightest.


Note: I CAN'T WRITE DUELS. At least not full ones. But I kinda of understand how a Marincess deck works and how it might, might fuction with Water Leviathan and the cards needed to summon it.

And I love Diamond Dust. Love it. And not just because Rio from Zexal used it once. It's actually fairly useful in the right situation.

...Everyone knows what a Yuki-onna is, right?