Aiballshipping

Aiballshipping is the slash ship between Ai and Yusaku Fujiki from the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom.

Pre-show
Ai was first created as a result of an experiment known as the Lost Incident that was designed to create AI with free will known as the Ignis by studying the problem-solving skills of young kids, with Ai being the Dark Ignis. Yusaku was one of those kids, having been kidnapped at age 6 and forced to duel for his survival for 6 months until the incident finally ended. Because of this, Ai was aware of Yusaku's existence but Yusaku was not aware of his. Five years later, Ai's home world in the network is attacked by a terrorist organization called the Knights of Hanoi, so he seals it away and ends up on the run to protect the rest of his kind. During this time, he seeks out Yusaku, pushing him to seek revenge on the Hanoi and become a cyber vigilante known as Playmaker from the shadows so Ai has someone to protect him.

Knights of Hanoi (arc)
Five more years later, at the start of the show, Ai set things up so he ended up "captured" by Yusaku, who realized the Ignis could be useful to his mission and held him hostage, leading to them officially meeting for the first time. All the while, Ai pretends to have amnesia due to an attack from the Hanoi five years prior. Ai and Yusaku have a bitter relationship at first, though Ai warms up to the other rather quickly and grows to genuinely care for him, wanting to have a closer bond even while Yusaku acts deadpan and cold towards him, often telling Ai to shut up. He even grows to love the name "Ai", which Yusaku had offhandedly named him out of convenience, and soon demands everyone call him by that. However, during their time working together fighting the Hanoi, their bond started to grow as they built trust in one another.

Near the end of the season when it is revealed Ai lied to Yusaku about having amnesia, Yusaku is hurt, denying there being any positive relationship between the two. In order to atone, Ai sacrifices himself to help Yusaku get the card he needs to fight the Hanoi at a pivotal moment in the duel, though he manages to return soon after. By the end of the season once the Hanoi are defeated, Yusaku releases Ai, and the two part on friendly terms.

Ignis (arc)
Three months later, Ai finds his home world, Cyberse World, destroyed, leading to him and Yusaku teaming up once again to fight a common enemy. Over time, the two become even closer, with Yusaku finally being willing to acknowledge Ai as his partner. Later, the destruction of the Cyberse World is revealed to have been an inside job started by one of the other Ignis, the Light Ignis Lightning, and he and the Wind Ignis offer Ai a chance to join them in ruling over humanity in order to prevent their destruction. However, it becomes clear to them Ai is now attached to humans through his bond with Yusaku and he suggests that he and Yusaku will find a way for AI and humans to coexist instead. This decision is what ultimately leads to the beginning of a war between the Ignis who see themselves as better than humans and the Ignis who wish to coexist.

At the end of the arc, Ai and Yusaku end up having to fight against Bohman, an AI created by Lightning designed to be the ultimate Ignis that will merge all of them together, in order to save the network once again. Ai ends up sacrificing himself again to defeat the enemy, devastating Yusaku who becomes determined to defeat Bohman for Ai's sake. By the next episode, Ai returns thanks to a back-up he had saved, but the two are unable to save the rest of the Ignis, who end up destroyed along with Bohman. This causes Ai to fall into a depression and he disappears into the network.

After the fight is over, most of the rest of the human cast has moved on, sans Yusaku, who clearly misses Ai. However, he believes that they will never see each other again, as now that Ai is no longer his hostage, he has no reason to return to him.

Ai (arc)
When Ai became the antagonist, Yusaku still wanted to believe in him despite his crimes. Yusaku still believed he could save Ai and ask him to go into hiding so he won't die, as Yusaku as admitted he wouldn't like the thought of Ai dying. During Ai's Duel with Pandora Ai states he wants to share his feelings to a special person. Ai and Playmaker/Yusaku dueled in the finale as Ai was defeated,he revealed he just wanted to protect Yusaku from death as In the simulations he saw Yusaku would perish if Ai stayed in society.A nice thing to know is that Yusaku's/Playmaker's Accesscodetalker is a symbolization of his bond with Ai and Dark templar is quite similar to Accesscodetalker. Yusaku states while crying how Ai's name meant love and Ai states that he liked the name Yusaku gave him ,along with stating he knows what it means now while staring at yusaku with a smile.As Ai disappears He states he loves Yusaku as Yusaku goes to the real world and holds Ai's Soltis body,screaming Ai's Name in sadness and sorrow.

With Ai possibly being alive in the internet, Yusaku sets out to find Ai and bring him back.

Fanon
This ship raised in popularity with their Contrasting Dynamic in comparison to other protagonists. It eventually grew as one of the most popular ships in the VRAINS fandom, especially with Ai's confession and Yusaku's heavily hinted to have reciprocate feelings.

There's even blogs pointing out the romantic undertones/feelings they had for one another within the series.

On AO3, Alballshipping is the most written ship for Ai, and the second most written for Yusaku. It is also the second most written ship in the Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS tag.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Yusaku/Ai tag on FanFiction.Net

TUMBLR
 * post on Tumblr
 * on Tumblr
 * post on Tumblr
 * on Tumblr

Trivia

 * Ai is apart of Yusaku in a similar way to Yuma and Astral from Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.