Playmaker

Yusaku Fujiki, known as Playmaker in LINK VRAINS, is a victim of the Lost Incident who battles against the Knights of Hanoi in order to avenge his past with the aid of his friend Cal Kolter and the Ignis that he has captured, Ai. Yusaku became entangled in the kidnapping of Jin Kolter's soul and the hunt for the people who destroyed the Cyberse, teaming up with fellow Hanoi Project victim Theodore Hamilton (codename Soulburner) and Theodore's own Ignis, Flame. Due to the trauma of the Lost Incident, he generally tries to avoid contact with others and only seems to trust Kolter. Yusaku is calm and collected most of the time. Outside of Duels he is shown to be intelligent and clever, but also calculating, standoffish, reserved, and somewhat anti-social. He prefers to distance himself from others and doesn't usually interact with people, not even remembering his classmates' names after a month in school. In public, Yusaku comes off as rather awkward and often doesn't know how to answer questions. Despite his aloof and calm demeanor, Yusaku can be quite sullen when it comes to dealing with Ai's antics. Despite his introverted and cold nature, Yusaku is both noble and golden-hearted deep down. He is on well terms with his best friend, Kolter and shows sympathy or care for others' situations, but he refuses to let others get close to him and join his fight against the Hanoi out of concern that they may get hurt. As Playmaker he is shown to have a cold and serious demeanor, but at the same time he displays some noble traits to his personality. Because of the Hanoi Project from ten years ago, Yusaku hates the Knights of Hanoi and swears revenge against them. He didn't hesitate to capture Ai and threatened to delete him in order to challenge the Hanoi, though he shows more restraint with Akira Zaizen, stating that he didn't hate him for torturing him and later refusing to attack Spectre during their Duel out of fear for Zaizen's safety. As pointed out by both Varis and Spectre he has a sense of justice and will help those hurt by the Hanoi. He is also very confident and has lot of faith in his abilities. Yusaku sees Dueling as a tool to eliminate those who are getting in his way. Yusaku doesn't really enjoy Dueling either, as such he tends to reject challenges from other Duelists, Though he did take joy in the game when he was little. That said, when he is either forced to accept a Duel or willingly does so, he will not abandon it. Furthermore, Yusaku is not above complimenting his opponents. Yusaku also has a philosophy of listing three reasons for his observations, something he learned from Roken Kogami (AKA Varis, who is the leader of the Knights of Hanoi) while he was in captivity during the Hanoi Project. Yusaku does this to order his thoughts better and clear his mind when confused or feeling discouraged. Yusaku's cold anti-social nature was a result of the intense torture he went through during the Hanoi Project. Despite having undergone years of therapy, Yusaku still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from that incident. Yusaku believes his life is already cut short due to the incident and as such he doesn't need friends or a future. Recently, Yusaku slowly began to change, and this is largely due to his interactions with Ai and Varis, who he discovered to be the Ignis based on him and the very person who kept up his spirits respectively. He and Ai gradually build up a rocky, but trusting relationship with both having fun on some occasions, especially during duels. After learning Varis's true identity, Yusaku casts aside his desire for revenge and attempts to save Varis from himself, expressing a desire to have a friend for the first time. Yusaku has come to believe that his allies expanded his views and that there are experiences one can only learn by accepting one's friends. Though still quiet and anti-social, he becomes far more willing to work with other people; teaming up with Theodore Hamilton and Flame. Ai is one of the six Ignis, representing the DARK Attribute, and he was created from Yusaku Fujiki. His name was given to him by Yusaku and Cal Kolter. As an Ignis, he has free will and is sought by SOL Technologies and the Knights of Hanoi. He was captured and imprisoned inside Yusaku's Duel Disk. Yusaku released him after they stopped the Tower of Hanoi, but Ai was forced to return after he found the Cyberse destroyed. Ai is a mischievous, cocky, playful, energetic, often self-centered, arrogant, and snarky A.I. who gets carried away easily and likes to joke around. He is completely motivated by his own enjoyment and primarily considers situations based on how they would benefit him. According to his own words, he is very disliked by his own people. Ai struggles to understand humans' way of thinking that often seem completely illogical compared to his algorithm based way of thinking. However, he is helpful and can be more serious at times such as making observations both in and outside of Duels. He also has a tendency to panic when Playmaker is about to lose. Ai frequently tries to interact with other A.I.s, showing a more social side but is always left disappointed because they're not as capable of free thinking as himself. He also enjoys insulting and taunting Playmaker's opponents, as well as trying to manipulate them into falling for Playmaker's strategies, though these attempts of his to help are more often detrimental than not. Ai frequently gets distracted by non-sequiturs and is forgetful of his current status. He tends to curse using the word "glitch" and occasionally refers to humans as "meatbags". Despite his comedic attitude, Ai is incredibly manipulative. He arranged for Yusaku and Kolter to meet and constantly misled Yusaku about his involvement in both the Lost Incident and guiding him to meet Kolter, even after they had become friends.