Aso

*Aso'* (麻生, *Asō*) is a character appearing in the *Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS* anime. In LINK VRAINS, he goes by the alias **Faust** (ファウスト *Fausuto*) and is a member of the The Knights of Hanoi.

## Design

### **Appereance**

In VRAINS, Faust has dark blue hair with light blue hair that spikes. He has gray eyes as on the left eye he has gray with yellow, green and red eye mask. He got white coat with brown trims, white suit and white boots.

In real life, Faust got dark blue hair with light blue hair that spikes and gray eyes. His standard attire consists brown coat, purple shirt, black tie, black pants and black shoes.

Full body of Faust in Link VRAINSFaust full body view
### **Personality**

Like many other Knights of Hanoi, Faust is a ruthless individual who seeks to acquire and destroy the Ignis, even willing to hold hostages or infect duelists with the Another virus to do so. He is fiercely loyal to Revolver and will carry out Dr. Kogami's ambitions to the very end. Despite holding hostages, Faust shows a degree of sympathy and mercy as seen when he and Kyoko expressed remorse watching the victims suffer during the Hanoi Project and when he released Naoki Shima after he lost. He is also a very methodical and diligent person evidenced by the way he duels and during his discussion with the other Knights following the Tower of Hanoi.

## Biography

### **Lost Incident case**

    10 years before, Faust was one of Dr. Kogami's assistants who helped him plan and execute the Hanoi Project. Together with Dr. Kogami, Kyoko and Dr. Genome, he helped create the Ignis - six AI with free will based on the Lost Incident victims and the Duel Monsters attributes. When SOL Technologies infected Dr. Kogami with a computer virus to cover up the Hanoi Project, he helped recreate his consciousness inside the network, faithfully serving as a Knight of Hanoi ever since.

### **Another case**

Faust and Baira then appeared in front of Revolver and stated that the "hoodlums" were tarnishing their reputation and said that it was time to carry out Kogami's wishes. Vyra added that their mission was to kill the Ignis and they gave Doctor Genome the Data Gale. Later, he and Baira defeated Kitamura's AI army.

### **Naoki Shima's kidnapping**

Faust stopped by Naoki Shima asking him about Playmaker. Naoki confirmed that he's Playmaker's best friend. Faust hits Naoki making him pass out and kidnaps him, tying him in one abandon factory. Luring Playmaker into Link VRAINS, Faust used Brave Max as bait in order to duel Playmaker. Playmaker arrived to LINK VRAINS, and assured Brave Max he'd face Faust. Before he did, Brave Max returned "Cyberse Wizard" to Playmake.

### **Duel against Playmaker**

     placed the card in his Deck, and noted Faust was the final Another mastermind, who stole the data of "Cyberse Wizard" and gave it to Brave Max, to lure him out. Faust did not know what Playmaker was talking about, since he did not do that. Ai assured Playmaker that wasn't important, and only had to defeat Faust. Faust declared his mission was to retrieve Ignis, and used the Data Gale to conjure a stage for their battle. Playmaker noted it was just like during Blue Angel and Go Onizuka's Duel, and Ai noted this prevented them from returning home. Playmaker raced with Faust and jumped on their D-Boards to start their Speed Duel. Faust started the Speed Duel with summoning three "Motor Worm Tokens", and Ai sensed Faust was going all-out from the start. Playmaker went to confront Faust's "Motor Worm Spread Queen", by Link Summoning "Decode Talker". Faust smirked, and protected his queen by destroying the "Motor Worm Token", using "Protection Wormhole". Since the token was destroyed, the queen's ATK fell down, allowing "Cyberse Wizard". Faust was inflicted additional damage, yet revived his queen with "Worm Revive". Playmaker found out Faust wanted him to destroy the queen, as Faust used "Egg Laying Bed" to turn "Cyberse Wizard" into an Insect monster, thus boosting the queen's ATK. Ai wondered if there was nothing they could do, and repeated this to Playmaker when he ended his turn. Faust played "Motor Worm Gate", to allow his queen to attack directly if Playmaker only controlled Insect monsters. Ai pointed out they still had Cyberse "Decode Talker", which his queen destroyed, inflicting 1700 damage to Playmaker. Faust used his Skill, Double Bite, to have the queen attack once more and finish Playmaker off. placed the card in his Deck, and noted Faust was the final Another mastermind, who stole the data of "Cyberse Wizard" and gave it to Brave Max, to lure him out. Faust did not know what Playmaker was talking about, since he did not do that. Ai assured Playmaker that wasn't important, and only had to defeat Faust. Faust declared his mission was to retrieve Ignis, and used the Data Gale to conjure a stage for their battle. Playmaker noted it was just like during Blue Angel and Go Onizuka's Duels, and Ai noted this prevented them from returning home. Playmaker raced with Faust and jumped on their D-Boards to start their Speed Duel. Faust started the Speed Duel with summoning three "Motor Worm Tokens", and Ai sensed Faust was going all-out from the start. Playmaker went to confront Faust's "Motor Worm Spread Queen", by Link Summoning "Decode Talker". Faust smirked, and protected his queen by destroying the "Motor Worm Token", using "Protection Wormhole". Since the token was destroyed, the queen's ATK fell down, allowing "Cyberse Wizard". Faust was inflicted additional damage, yet revived his queen with "Worm Revive". Playmaker found out Faust wanted him to destroy the queen, as Faust used "Egg Laying Bed" to turn "Cyberse Wizard" into an Insect monster, thus boosting the queen's ATK. Ai wondered if there was nothing they could do, and repeated this to Playmaker when he ended his turn. Faust played "Motor Worm Gate", to allow his queen to attack directly if Playmaker only controlled Insect monsters. Ai pointed out they still had Cyberse "Decode Talker", which his queen destroyed, inflicting 1700 damage to Playmaker. Faust used his Skill, Double Bite, to have the queen attack once more and finish Playmaker off. He placed the card in his Deck, and noted Faust was the final Another mastermind, who stole the data of "Cyberse Wizard" and gave it to Brave Max, to lure him out. Faust did not know what Playmaker was talking about, since he did not do that. Ai assured Playmaker that wasn't important, and only had to defeat Faust. Faust declared his mission was to retrieve Ignis, and used the Data Gale to conjure a stage for their battle. Playmaker noted it was just like during Blue Angel and Go Onizuka's Duels, and Ai noted this prevented them from returning home. Playmaker raced with Faust and jumped on their D-Boards to start their Speed Duel. Faust started the Speed Duel with summoning three "Motor Worm Tokens", and Ai sensed Faust was going all-out from the start. Playmaker went to confront Faust's "Motor Worm Spread Queen", by Link Summoning "Decode Talker". Faust smirked, and protected his queen by destroying the "Motor Worm Token", using "Protection Wormhole". Since the token was destroyed, the queen's ATK fell down, allowing "Cyberse Wizard". Faust was inflicted additional damage, yet revived his queen with "Worm Revive". Playmaker found out Faust wanted him to destroy the queen, as Faust used "Egg Laying Bed" to turn "Cyberse Wizard" into an Insect monster, thus boosting the queen's ATK. Ai wondered if there was nothing they could do, and repeated this to Playmaker when he ended his turn. Faust played "Motor Worm Gate", to allow his queen to attack directly if Playmaker only controlled Insect monsters. Ai pointed out they still had Cyberse "Decode Talker", which his queen destroyed, inflicting 1700 damage to Playmaker. Faust used his Skill, Double Bite, to have the queen attack once more and finish Playmaker off.

Playmaker barely survived with 50 LP and crashing into a building, by halving the damage with "Urgent Link". Despite this, Playmaker told Ai it was still enough to battle. He also went to Link Summon, but Faust's "Protection Wormhole" prevented the Insect tokens to be used as Link Material. Faust declared he would obtain Ignis on his next turn, but Playmaker hoped there was still a way to turn things around. He used "Cybersal Cyclone" to Exclude "Decode Talker" to destroy the queen, though Faust had a token destroyed in her stead. Playmaker smiled, since the card he played allowed him to destroy "Protection Wormhole". Faust declared he still wouldn't lose, though Playmaker made him doubt his words when he went into the black Data Storm to use Storm Access skill, and Link Summoned that monster, "Powercode Talker". Reviving his "Space Insulator", Playmaker also negated the queen's effects, thus making her ATK return to 1000. Before Playmaker went to attack, Faust tried to warn him of Ignis being a threat.

Ai told Playmaker to ignore Faust - "Powercode Talker", who doubled its ATK by tributing "Space Insulator", destroyed "Motor Worm Spread Queen", and defeated Faust.

Before vanishing, Faust tried to warn Playmaker he may have just doomed the humanity's future. After the duel, he goes into a coma alongside his comrades.

### **Saving Baira and the return of Knights of Hanoi**

    In LINK VRAINS, Spectre was told of the "new Playmaker", Soulburner, and his corresponding Ignis, Flame. Spectre was surprised to hear that during the Tower of Hanoi's construction, someone destroyed Cyberse World. Faust, believed the Ignis have fled, and Dr. Genome commented how troublesome that was. Spectre believed Soulburner was also a Lost Incident victim. Revolver walked to the group, who bowed to him, confirming that Soulburner's real name was Takeru Homura. Spectre pointed out no Ignis came to him, but was reminded that the Ignis won't come to him if he was to hunt them down and exterminate them. Faust explained they know the location of Yusaku and Takeru, proposing an action

    towards them. Varis refused, stating such problems should be resolved through LINK VRAINS, declaring they should be left out in the real world. Since Playmaker was a tough foe, Revolver proposed to simply observe the situation. He believed if the Ignis were to roam free, they'd eventually meet up with the others of their kind, as well as to pursue Bohman, the new foe Playmaker was fighting against. The Knights of Hanoi analyzed Bohman, pointing out this new foe of Playmaker's used the Link Spell. Revolver denied that was a SOL Technologies mercenary, unlike Go, who was just looking for a battle while searching for Ignis. Spectre reminded Soulburner was also a dangerous target, who went with Playmaker through the gate. He did ridicule SOL Technologies for not doing anything about the gate, but did reopen LINK VRAINS. Revolver pointed out the public would not know of such things, and swore to defeat SOL Technologies one day to avenge his father. Revolver stated the gate was opened by an Ignis, thus eliminating SOL Technologies as a suspect. Spectre was nevertheless interested in Blood Shepherd, whom Faust believed to even have some knowledge of Ignis. Revolver denied that, for only he, his father and Ignis themselves know of that. Due to the cyberspace the Ignis created, Revolver feared they were developing much faster, and would become a bigger threat. He felt Playmaker, who was helping Ignis, was also growing, with his Fusion and Ritual Summoning techniques incorporated. Before they went to deal with Playmaker, Revolver asked everyone to come with him.
With everyone logged out and regrouped, the group went to prison. Genome sensed the security system was flawed, and was nothing to the code of Tower of Hanoi, even added a virus so they would go undetected. Faust explained the

     system was set for them to walk unnoticed, for a time, which pleased Ryoken. Ryoken opened a cell, greeting Kyoko, who was imprisoned. Kyoko expressed her gratitude, sensing there was a fight incoming for her to participate in, which Ryoken confirmed. As the guards noticed Kyoko was gone, Revolver and his crew walked out of the prison, as he declared the return of The Knights of Hanoi.

### **Windy and Lightning's objective**

    Faust and the rest of Revolver's subordinates marched through the fake Cyberse World destroying it with "Cracking Dragon"

### **Windy vs Revolver**

Following his comrades, Faust destroyed Echo programs. After he finished with them, Faust along with Dr. Genome and Baira rushed to Revolver watching his

    duel with Windy. They reported to Revolver that they finished their job and watched the rest of the duel. After the duel was over, Faust, Dr. Genome and Baira activate the anti Ignis program and were about to kill Windy, but before Windy dies, he was saved by Lightning who declared war against humanity.

## Deck

Faust plays a "Motor Worm"Deck**.** His strategy focuses on distrupting the opponent's strategies by changing their monsters to Insect-Types. While his opponent's monsters are Insects, he can utilise his Continuous Spells to minimise his opponent's ability to utilise their monsters, while providing himself benefits. His skill is Double Bite. Choose 1 Insect-type monster the user control; It can attack twice during each Battle Phase this turn.

* Motor Worm Gate
* Protection Wormhole
* Worm Revive
* Motor Worm Spread Queen

## References

1. ↑ Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 22:"The Pitch-Black Sun"
2. ↑ Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 22:"The Pitch-Black Sun"
3. ↑ Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 24:"The Fate Shouldered by the Dark Mask"