Datastormshipping

Datastormshipping is the slash ship between Ryoken Kogami and Yusaku Fujiki from the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom.

Pre-canon
Ryoken and Yusaku first met each other when they were 8 and 6 years old, respectively. They met when Ryoken ran into Yusaku, making him drop his deck. They picked up the cards together, leading to Ryoken inviting Yusaku over to his house to play Duel Monsters. However, this turned out to be a trap to get Yusaku kidnapped set up by Ryoken's father, Dr. Kiyoshi Kogami. Kogami planned to conduct an experiment with a company called SOL Technologies to create AI programs. He wanted to create AI with free will known as Ignis by studying the problem-solving skills of humans so that the AI could become the successors to humanity. To accomplish this, he kidnapped young children and forced them to duel for survival. Yusaku was forced to participate in this experiment, nearly dying due to malnourishment. Ryoken, out of guilt for his involvement in Yusaku's kidnapping, spoke to Yusaku during the experiment, telling Yusaku to think of 3 reasons to keep on living. This act gave Yusaku hope and pushed him to keep persevering despite the situation. However, he never learned that it was Ryoken who saved him. After 6 months, the children were rescued due to an anonymous call left by Ryoken, but they never knew who called the police. They all returned to society, but had to undergo severe psychological treatment because of their kidnapping.

Season 1
During season 1, Yusaku, now 16, planned to take down an organisation called the Knights of Hanoi, a terrorist organization out to kill the Ignis out of fear they will destroy humanity as predicted by Dr. Kogami. He created himself an alias named Playmaker to go into the VRAINS, a virtual reality system, in order to defeat them and get revenge. Yusaku stated that he never forgot what happened to him and that even the treatment couldn't fix all the trauma he had to endure while being captured. He also believed that the kid whose voice he heard is still captured somewhere and is determined to save them as they had saved him all those years ago.

During this time, he finally encounters the leader of the Hanoi, who unbeknownst to Yusaku, is Ryoken now under the alias of Revolver, and they duel. During their first Master duel, he states 3 reasons why he will take down Hanoi, causing Ryoken to realize that Playmaker is actually the boy he spoke to all those years ago. Yusaku wins the duel, still unaware Revolver is actually the person who saved him.

At the climax of season 1, Yusaku and Ryoken duel again. Yusaku, upon figuring out Ryoken's location in real life, learns Ryoken is the son of Dr. Kogami and the one who called the police during the incident. This leads to Yusaku finally putting the pieces together and realizing Ryoken was the one who gave him hope all those years ago. As the duel goes on, he speaks of Ryoken as his first friend and the person he wanted to save, encouraging Ryoken to stop his plans to kill the Ignis that could potentially also kill millions of humans in the process. However, Ryoken refuses Yusaku's offer of friendship, still determined to fulfill the mission left by his father. After Yusaku defeats him once again, he leaves, though Yusaku is certain he will return.

Fanon
Datastormshipping is the most popular ship in the Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS fandom and the most popular ship for both Ryoken and Yusaku. A major reason for this is due to interest in their past history together, with Ryoken having helped Yusaku during a traumatizing experience when they were kids. Many people point to the fact that Yusaku considered him his friend before anyone else. Yusaku is also anxious to find the person who saved his life for most of the first season, and does not waver in his conviction even upon realizing that that person was also the one he thought was his enemy up to that point, continuing to try to reach out to Ryoken at different parts of the show.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

Trivia

 * Ryoken was Yusaku's reason to keep on living during the Lost Incident.
 * Yusaku states that he saw Ryoken as his first friend, even when he didn't know it was him who saved Yusaku.
 * They team up in later seasons and it is shown that Ryoken slowly starts to open up to Yusaku.