This is it... the last chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V or Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS.

Day 30: Tomorrow

"You know, sometimes I really hate Link Monsters."

Kusanagi Shoichi stared in surprise at the woman in front of him.

She struck him as unique immediately – she was wearing casual clothes, boyish in a way, but somehow still professional, and she had this presence. She had an imposing and perhaps even grandiose air without even trying – like she was naturally that much better.

Shoichi was not normally the kind of person to have these thoughts or notice this sort of thing, but something about her just made him stop for a moment and just take it in.

Of course, despite the powerful first impression, the woman did not have any special business with him. She was here for a hotdog and a coffee, just like everyone else who came by Café Nagi.

Many customers would make small talk with him but this… was not a usual topic.

"How so? I'm not much of a duelist, but they're pretty useful."

She let a soft sigh. "With the current rules."

Wait, what?

"The current rules?" Duelist or not, Shoichi's interest was naturally picked.

A new and familiar voice sounded. "It means that Link monsters are necessary for overcoming the limitations of the Extra Monster Zone."

"Yusaku! You're done with school already?"

"One of the instructors had an emergency" he offered as a way of explanation. "Still, that is an odd reason to dislike Link Monsters."

The woman had an odd look in her face, like she was uncertain about the topic herself. "Like you said, Link Monsters are necessary for unlocking the power of the Extra Deck. However, the whole process slows the players and the duels down, and prevents them from revealing their full power all at once, even if they do have the means."

Yusaku nodded. "That is true… Summoning a powerful monsters requires a lot of resources and previous summonings to achieve… You need to summons more Link Monsters gradually…"

Shoichi was confused. "I still don't see the point…"

"With the Extra Monster Zone, if you want to summon, let's say… a Fusion, Synchro and Xyz monster all in the same turn, and have them simultaneously on the field… Well, it's impossible."

Both hackers just stared at her incredulously. Shoichi tried to picture it in his mind – the sight of Clock Dragon, Quantum Dragon and eXceed Dragon on the field, all at once.

Yusaku, in a rare moment in which he showed his expressions, was completely taken aback. "What kind of situation would require going to such lengths?"

Shoichi idly thought that coming from Yusaku, this was pretty rich.

She shrugged. "Facing down three opponents at once, for instance."

Shoichi almost chocked at that.

"That's impossible" said Yusaku in a perfectly flat voice. It was true. With the way Link monsters and the Extra Monster Zone worked, both sides of the field had to have the same number of players.

"With the current rules."

Now, Shoichi had a very hard time pinning down her age, but she did not look that old.

"Why, have you ever fought with an old rule set or something?"

She nodded. "When I was a kid, all duels were like that. Summoning everything your Extra Deck had to offer all at once was pretty much standard practice. Well, obviously not for everyone, but it certainly was for me."

She was gazing at nothing, with a flat expression and an empty look in her eyes as she said that. Shoichi tried to imagine it. A little girl, fighting many people at once, with all sorts of powerful monsters on the field…

He flipped the sausages. "Sounds like dueling was kinda broken back then."

That startled a laugh out of her. "You could say that… You should see people's reactions when my big brother dueled."

If her big brother had the same air she had, Shoichi could believe it. "The grandiose type?"

She snorted. "You have no idea. Sometimes I feel like Link Monsters were only created to bring him down to the same level as the other mortals. He was not happy when they were announced. Nor were my friends…"

"It sounds like it put a hamper to your own deck too" said Yusaku.

She nodded. "Yes. Many of us prefer to finish duels as fast as possible, so to suddenly limit the Extra Deck like that…"

"However, Link Monsters are powerful in their own right."

Both of them turned to Yusaku.

"They may be slower, but with their connection through the Link Arrows they build a great power that can overwhelm all enemies, regardless of how weak the individual monsters are. The same format also means that regardless of the opponent, you are never faced with impossible odds, and you have more time to cultivate your strategies."

Shoichi was stunned. Yusaku never spoke this openly about dueling, especially in the real world. Most definitely not with complete strangers. In fact, he barely spoke about dueling at all.

The woman smiled a little. It was a soft and sincere thing that made look younger and older at the same time. "I guess you're right. With everything that happened, maybe it's better this way… There are some cards that must never see the light of day again."

Shoichi thought back to those duels against Bowman, and everything that came with it. "Yeah… I can think of a card like that."

"What kind?"

"A spell. You?"

"A Dragon." He could swear she capitalized that.

They were silent for a few moments. The sausages were finally done, so Shoichi moved on to finish the hotdog. The woman took a sip from her coffee.

"There you go."

"Thank you" she replied, handing him the money. "Oh, and something else."

"What is it?"

"I've been hearing a lot of strange things about Link VRAINS lately…" Both hackers stiffened. "Since you two are in this square, if anything strange happens in Link VRAINS, you see it through those screens, right?"

She was obviously pointing to the plaza's monitors. Soichi was a little relieved. She was not onto them. Probably. "Yeah, right."

She took a business card from her pocket. "I have a favour to ask you. If you ever hear anything extremely unusual about dueling, call this number, alright?"

"Extremely unusual"…? "Will do…"

"Then, I'll take my leave. Thank you."

The two of them watched leave, munching on her hotdog like they did not just have an utterly bizarre conversation.

Ai chose that moment to finally show up. "What a weirdo. Link monsters are the best! They're the very core of the network! Seriously, what was she even talking about?"

"Kusanagi-san, what does the card say?"

"Huh? Oh yeah…"

Shoichi picked it up. It was a plain white card with a simple gold logo on it, the number and name in plain black ink. "Leo Corporation… Akaba… Layra."

Author notes:

I... can't believe it's over. I had been writing this challenge since 2015. Even if it's a series of one-shots... this is the very first multi-chapter story I ever completed.

So, Tomorrow. VRAINS. Because if you think about it, the people who are hit the worst by the Extra Deck Zone are Yuya, the Akabas and Zarc - a.k.a. the biggest players in the interdimensional war.

So perhaps that is the whole point of them. Perhaps the whole point is that nobody would pull an Intergration Summon ever again. So there would be no more out of control Battle Royals. Perhaps the whole point of Link VRAINS is that nobody would get hurt by Real Solid Vision ever again.

But the fight never ends; it only changes.

So, this is the end of 2015. There'll be more years and more one-shots to come.

I had fun writing this. A lot.

So please, Read and Review.