Boxes

In which Team TRY3 opens fanmail


Disclaimer: Cardfight! Vanguard belongs to Bushiroad, not me.


"It's all for us?"

"Yep."

"And it's all from the G Quests?"

"They've been piling up since your first G Quest. Apparently, they went from Dragon Empire Branch to United Sanctuary Branch for whatever reason. Then they went back to Dragon Empire and got lost until they somehow found them a few days ago. And so, Mamoru had them sent here."

The three members of TRY3 turned their gaze from Card Capital 2's manager to the five very large, beat-up cardboard boxes on the counter. They were scratched up, the seams were ripping apart, and the top flaps had layers of old tape piling up.

All five of them had "TRY3" scribbled on the sides in thick black marker.

"So, you mean to say," Chrono began slowly, finally breaking the silence, "that we actually get fanmail?"

"Yep, and tons of it!"


Two hours later, the store was a chaotic mess.

Cardboard and plastic was strewn all over the ground, plushies and wilting flowers decorated empty tables, and a few stacks of snacks sat on the counter. Letters and envelopes were scattered on every surface of the store

Amidst it all sat three teenagers around a table, box cutters in hand and rapidly sliding the blades into every envelope or package in sight.

Thank goodness the manager had waited until the store closed to give them the boxes.

With a thump, Chrono slammed his head into the large pile of empty envelopes and handwritten letters in front of him. For the first time in the last 40 minutes, his friends looked up.

"I can't take this anymore," he said, voice muffled by enough paper to papier mâché a life-size model of Dragonic Overlord, "why is there so much?!"

"I guess we're popular," replied Shion, reaching over for another envelope.

"Oh, by the way Shion," Tokoha started, leaning over to get a look at Shion's pile of letters, "I've been wondering for some time now, but why is your entire pile of letters either baby blue or sickeningly pink?"

Shion slid a sheet of pink paper out from the envelope he just opened, barely scanned it over, then tossed it onto the pile.

"Who knows."

With a smirk, Tokoha snatched the letter off the stack and unfolded it. Immediately, she burst into a fit of laughter.

"Shion," she wheezed, "are all your letters like this?"

"Pretty much," he replied, grabbing another letter with his name on it, "and that's one of the better ones."

Tokoha abruptly stopped laughing, "Better ones?!"

Out of curiosity, Chrono got up and walked behind Tokoha.

Dear Shion-kun,

Shion-kun, words cannot describe what you mean to me. Your sapphire eyes are so dreamy that they transport me to a different world. Your golden hair is so beautiful that I'm sure it is a gift from God himself. Your melodic voice, your perfect smile, and your irresistible laughter all pierce my heart like Cupid's arrow.

Shion-kun, you're my Prince Charming. Every time you look at me through the screen separating us I feel a spark. I cannot live without you. Destiny has bound us together and I long for the day we meet.

With all my love,

Mizuki-chan

Chrono turned away as fast as possible. Oh spare him, the cringe was too much.

What was with that choice of adjectives?

"So, uh, Shion," he said, wondering where the nearest bottle of bleach was, "do you happen to know this Mizuki person at all?"

"Nope, never even heard of her."

"And this- this doesn't bother you at all?"

"Chrono, I got over it years ago. It comes with being the Kiba heir. I'm practically numb. And like I said, that's one of the better ones."

"Do I even want to - "

"No. No, you don't. Be thankful you haven't read the poetry or the fanfiction. Be especially thankful that you haven't seen the fanart."

"…I will."

"So, Shion," Tokoha interjected, "is there anything more, uh, kid-friendly that you received?"

"Well," he said, finally putting down his letters, "you're welcome to take any of that chocolate. I usually give it to the workers at home, but this is a bit much. There are a couple of letters from little kids that were pretty cute and there's always the plushies."

Chrono blanched at the small mountain of chocolate Shion indicated.

"How many - "

"124. Like I said, too much, even for me."

"How did you even keep track?"

"Experience."

"…I won't ask."

Tokoha and Chrono stared in silence at the chocolates for a second more before Shion turned around and asked, "What about you, Tokoha? What type of stuff did you get?"

"Well, there were a bunch of flowers," she said, indicating at the colourful flowers wilting in various degrees scattered around the shop, "which makes sense I guess."

"You do play Neo Nectar," Chrono pointed out.

"But you don't see Shion with a bunch of swords, do you?"

"Actually," Shion corrected, turning around to dig in a pile, "there were a few - there we go."

He turned around with a mini replica of Altmile's sword, made of chocolate.

Tokoha threw him a playful glare.

"Anyway," she said, going back to her seat to grab some of her gifts, "besides the plushies and letters, I now own a lifetime supply of flower crowns and enough flower leis to throw a Hawaiian themed beach party."

With an almost devious grin she grabbed two flower crowns out of the stack and slapped them on top of her friends' heads.

Chrono looked over at Shion. The blue roses barely looked out of place.

Shion looked perplexed as he stared back at Chrono, who knew that whatever crown Tokoha chose would clash horribly with his red hair.

"Smile, guys!" Tokoha's voice rang out somewhere to Chrono's left.

Chrono barely had a chance to turn his head before Tokoha's phone screen flashed. Shion and Tokoha then studied Tokoha's phone.

"You know, Shion, you should keep this crown! It really goes with your eyes."

"Please don't remind me about my eyes, Tokoha. The poems are too much."

"I shiver just thinking about it. With all those 'your eyes are bluer than any ocean' lines, how are you resisting the urge to burn all those letters?"

"Well, actually, from prior experience, I can attest to the fact that they make great kindling."

Tuning out Shion and Tokoha's conversation, Chrono pulled the flower crown off his head. It had large green leaves and flowers ranging from yellow to orange to purple.

His head probably looked like the perfect stage for a Bermuda Triangle concert.

"Hey, Chrono, is there any particular reason that you have enough pastries to feed a small village?"

Chrono looked up. Tokoha and Shion were staring at the large pile of pastel-coloured pastry boxes behind his seat.

"Well, people sent them to me?"

"No duh, Chrono."

Tokoha picked up a box and flipped the lid open. She promptly started snickering.

"Are you serious, Chrono?" she laughed, "how many boxes of these do you have?"

"Too many," Chrono grumbled as Shion peered inside the box.

"Well, I don't know what I expected," the blond sighed, picking up one of the pastries, "but it sure wasn't something so fitting."

Shion held it up and looked from it to Chrono.

"Yep, it's a splitting image," he solemnly declared.

"Seconded!"

Chrono sat down and buried his head in his hands.

People just had to send him cinnamon buns, didn't they? And no, they couldn't just be regular cinnamon buns, because clearly that wasn't special nor swirly enough.

No, they just had to draw a huge red and pink swirl on them. How incredibly extra.

What type of bakery would agree to make such abominations?

"Think about it! Chrono is all sensitive like a soft cinnamon bun, and then there's the swirl, so it's actually perfect!"

"Well, cinnamon buns are pretty sweet, too. On the other hand, Chrono…"

"That's true."

Chrono heard some rummaging sounds. He looked up to see his friends scanning through more pastry boxes.

"Not bad. Gear shaped cookies, complete with the emblem? Not bad at all. Actually, that's pretty classy," commented Shion.

"And tiny Chrono Dran cookies, too! They're so cute!" Tokoha exclaimed about another box.

Shion looked over at her box.

"That's some level of detail. Someone sure put a lot of effort into these."

"I wish that these weren't expired, I really wanted to try one!"

"What, bite off the head of Chrono's avatar? That's symbolic."

Chrono was about to retort when a loud ringing sound suddenly filled his eardrums.

Tokoha covered her ears.

"What is that?" she half-shouted over the sound.

Chrono sighed. Then, very slowly and deliberately, he reached for a bag underneath the table, set it on to his lap, and began pulling items out.

Tokoha and Shion stared as he set a clock with a gear-shaped second hand onto the table.

Then, a wall clock with a picture of Chronojet Dragon as the background.

Next, a small, pink and red wristwatch.

And finally, a twin-bell alarm clock featuring many versions of Chronojet Dragon pasted all over the rim, currently ringing obnoxiously.

Chrono carefully clicked the off switch.

Both the clock and the three friends were silent.

Shion cleared his throat.

"So, how many - "

"23."

"Ah."

Tokoha walked over to another pile of Chrono's gifts. Chrono gave her a small wave of his hand as permission as she began to dig through the items.

She pulled out swirl lollipops of various sizes, a few pinwheels, many Chrono Dran plushies, and a small Poliwag plushie.

"Well, at least people only send me Neo Nectar related stuff," she said, playing with a pinwheel, "but then again, not all of us are blessed with fans who would tailor gifts to our unique hairstyles."

Chrono rolled his eyes.

"Well," he remarked, throwing his clocks back into his bag, "if show-and-tell is over, I'd say we try and clean up. Some of us have been able to keep track of time very well and would like to get home before midnight, thank you very much."

"True."


After a good half hour of clearing each plastic wrapper, piece of cardboard, and scrap of paper off the ground, Chrono suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Shion and Tokoha looked at him inquisitively.

"Hey guys," he wondered, voice shaking a bit, "we don't have to write thank-you letters for all of these, do we?"


So, basically, I decided to put my 30-something Team TRY3 fic ideas to good use.

Also, I stopped caring about quality.

But anyway, have a great day!