Chapter 2 - My name is Akira, and this is my Vanguard!
The rain comes down hard outside. Their weight turned them into bombshells. Clashes of thunder awaken in the clouds, as the calling of a dark unit has been completed. Akira rides his grade 3, "Disaster Zero, Unluck". It stands taller on the board; rallied by 2 rearguards. Ryujiro still remains confident in his plays, his 'Dark Dictator' vanguard and two rearguard guardians should protect him. "Imagine Gift, Force 2. I give it to my vanguard. His base critical becomes 2. Next, I call, Maked Wolf, and Mysteroid, Holmes CC." Akira calls his units to the rearguard; a grade 1 supporter, and a grade 3 to attack.
"With a boost from Masked Wolf, Pomad will attack your rearguard Blaster Axe, on the left." They choose not to guard, the rearguard is taken out, leaving one less source of protection for Ryujiro. "With a boost from Masked Wolf, Unluck will attack your vanguard." The demon unit attacks the dark king; Ryujiro can't risk this attack hitting. "I guard. Howl Owl, and then intercept with Blaster Axe." The combined shield comes to a total of 28000. The attacking vanguard is 21000. Just one trigger is enough to push this game.
"Twin Drive. First check." He turns over another copy of Disaster Zero. "Second check." Akira turns over the next card of their deck, revealing a Critical Trigger. "I give all the effects to my vanguard. The attack goes through, and you take 3 damage." The demon unit breaks through the knights guard, and strikes the king. Ryujiro goes to start his damage check. "Vanguard skill." Everyone, watchers and opponents are surprised by a skill at this stage in the game. "By reducing my vanguards Critical by 1, for this battle, all your trigger effects are nullified." They break into a cold sweet. Ryujiro slowly turns over their deck, hoping for a miracle that would ultimately go to waste. As the last damage turns, Ryujiro is left with 6 damage, he has lost.
There is a minute of unbroken silence between the two players. Akira, holding their cards to their chest, eyes looking down on the defeated Ryujiro. They lay their hand flat on the ground, shaking in rage. Kenichi walks over. A smile on their face as their game problem may have finally been solved. "And the winner is..." before he could finish his sentence, Ryujiro slams his fist into the table. "No! This is not over!". Grabbing his deck, storms out into the rain, his two flackies stumbling behind him.
The rain starts to lighten up as they leave. Rays of sunlight make appearances as they dull grey clouds part. "Well then. That was something." Kenichi says with a hint of joy, and sorrow. "Maybe some people can't take losing." Akira remains speechless, as they gather up their cards, and put it back into their shirt pocket. "I should get going. Wouldn't want to cause a scene." Akira steps away from the table, and slowly walks to the door. "Come back anytime. Wouldn't want you to give up on the game because of players like him." Akira looks back at the manager and smiles. "Thank you for the water. I'll think about it." with that, he walks out of the door into the fine rain, walking home under the rays of sun.
It's a much more calmer spring day. Akira decides to return to Lake Saucer to try and give the game another go, as well as learn more about his deck. He arrives on the doorstep of the shop, but it looks like there's no one inside. Before thinking about coming back another day, the doors open for him. Akira takes a step inside, and looks around. "Hello?" he calls out into the seemingly empty shop. He takes a few more steps inside. "Anyone here?". Before he decides to leave, he hears some rusling coming from the back room. "Just a second!" a deep voice calls out from the back room. The door to the back room bursts open as someone walks out with two boxes in their arms. "Need a hand with that Kenichi?" Akira asks, thinking they're struggling.
"Nah, this is easy. And, I'm not Kenichi." They put the boxes down on the counter, revealing themself. A towering man, with dark skin, bald head, and a light blonde goatee beard. They looked built like a pro boxer, and had the presence of someone that can take control. "Um, hi. I'm looking for..." Akira gets cut off. "Kenichi?" the tall bloke bursts laughing in their deep voice. "You wouldn't happen to be Akira, would you?" Feeling awkward, he nods his head. They just smile and laugh some more, extending a hand out. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. Name's James. But everyone calls me Jimmy." Akira extends their hand too, shaking, feeling their tight grip. "I wanted to thank you. Last night, Kenichi came home looking happy. Since that punk came to the store, he's been feeling down."
Akira feels a little more at ease. "Oh right. Well, you're welcome. I just hope I didn't make things worse for him." James shrugs his shoulders. "Nah, nothing to worry about. I'm just glad I didn't get involved. I have no tolerance for bullies." James starts to unbox the boxes he brought into the front. "So why are you here so early?" he asks, curious. "Well the sign says this place opens at 10, so I thought I'd come by." he answers. "Well, most players are usually at school. Come to think of it. Why aren't you?" James stands up, looking at Akira with a inspectory glare. "I'm homeschooled. I have tutors that teach me, but they had to call in sick today. I thought I'd come here and have a game."
James grins, like Akira just said the magic word. "Well, I'm up for taking a break, and Kenichi won't be back from the stores for another few minutes. So, if you want a game." James pulls out a deck box from behind the counter. "I'm your man." Akira thinks on it, before looking back with a smile, pulling his deck out of his pocket. "Okay, I should warn you. I'm so far undefeated."
After getting a drink to refresh himself, the pair set up a board close to the counter, both sitting down. Even sitting down, James towers over Akira. "Ready?" James asks. Akira nods his head read. "Stand up, Vanguard!", "Men in the Shadow", "Amber Dragon Dawn". Akira is playing with the same unit as last time. James is playing with a Kagero deck.
Their game goes on for a few turns before getting into the meat of the game. James stands at 2 damage, as for Akira, who has only 1. It's the end of Akira's turn. His board has "Highgate the Transformation Selfishness" as his vanguard, with "Split Mouth Pomad" and "Masked Wolf" as his rear guard. James has "Amber Dragon Daylight" as his vanguard, with "Lizard Soldier, Raopia" as a rearguard.
"My turn." James draws from his deck. "I ride, Amber Dragon Dusk. I then call Amber Dragon Daylight. With the skill of Daylight, I look at the top 5 of my deck. I add, Amber Dragon Eclipse to my hand, and put the rest at the bottom of my deck." James then calls "Berserk Dragon" to another rearguard. "With the skill of Berserk Dragon, I counter blaster, and soul blast to retire Masked Wolf." Akira puts his back row rearguard into the dropzone. "Now, for the fun part. Daylight gains 3000 when a rearguard is retired. Raopia gains 5000. And my vanguard. He gains 5000 and an extra critical."
With his formation powered up by his units skills, James moves onto the battle phase. "Berserk dragon will attack Pomad." Choosing not to guard, Akira removes his last rearguard. "With support from Raopia, Dusk will attack the vanguard." The power of the vanguard comes to 28000. Hard to stop in some cases. "I perfect guard that, discarding Holmes from my hand. I negate your attack." James goes onto his drive. "Drive check, critical trigger. I give all effects to Daylight." "No guard." Daylight hits the vanguard, forcing Akira to take 2 damage.
"My turn, stand and draw." Akira looks at his hand with confidence, seeing his ace in the hole, he's ready to attack. "Turn salvation into despair. Tune the world into your chaos. I ride Disaster Zero, Unluck!" Akira rides his deck's main unit. "Imaginary Gift Force 1. I give the power to my vanguard. Then, I call Mysteroid, Holmes CC, and another Unluck." With only one card in their hand, they go onto the offensive. "Rearguard Unluck will attack the vanguard." "Intercept with Berserk Dragon." "My vanguard will attack next." "No guard." "Twin Drive. First check, nothing. Second check, Draw trigger. Power to Holmes, and I draw." The attack hits. "Vanguard skill, I reduce my critical, to negate your trigger effects." James reveals no trigger. "Seems like you wasted the skill." "Holmes gains 10k when my vanguard has a critical other than 1. So, it's more of a preference." Holmes attacks next, hitting the vanguard with another blow. This time, James gets a draw trigger, which he can use.
With 4 damage, James starts his turn, restanding his units. "Dark out the skies with your burning fire! I ride, Amber Dragon Eclipse! Imaginary Gift Force 2. I put the critcal to Daylight for now. I move Daylight back, and call Dusk and Bahr. With Bahrs skill, I counter blast, and soul blast to retire Unluck." Akira is now down to having only 1 reaguard. "Eclipse, Dusk, Daylight, Raopia, and Bahr gain power from the retire. Dusk gains an extra crit." James isn't done with his plan. "I call Dual Axe Archdragon. Now, with my vanguards skill, I counter blast, to retire a column. I retire from Holmns. My vanguard gains 5000 and plus 1 crit. My units power up again."
"My vanguard will attack yours." "I perfect guard the attack again. I also use my vanguard's skill. I reduce the crit, to negate your triggers." James laughs it off, revealing both triggers to be critical triggers. "I'm safe." "Are you thou?" Akira looks at the board again, and sees that earlier in the turn, James stacked Dusk with the force 2 marker, and another critical from its skill. "With support from Daylight, Dusk will attack your vanguard." Akira lets the attack go through. Desperate for triggers, Akira turns over the 3 cards. The first was a critical trigger, all the effects go to Unluck. The second was Pomad again. The third trigger was his third copy of Unluck. The sixth card in his damage means he lost.
"Don't feel bad for losing. I was playing in the pro league before you even knew of the game." Akira sits back in his chair, looking at the board. "Oh really? So that means you've played against a lot of tough decks, right? Have you ever seen my clan before?" James shakes his head, stretching his arms out to relax. "No sir. First time today. It's a strange case. Most players have one of a kind clans like this. Once heard rumours of this clan called Gear Chronicle. Probably just a myth." Akira looks at the time on his phone. "How long do you think Kenichi will be?" James looks at his watch. "Don't know, another 5-10 minutes?" Akira smirks. "Got time for another?" Without needing to answer with his words, James begins resetting his side of the board. Both players prepare for game two. "Stand up, Vanguard!"
Elsewhere in the city, in an alleyway connected to a quiet neighbourhood, leads to a court of broken fences. Within the walls made of these rusted fences, a group of players from all walks of life and status crowd around in an almost circle, with another sitting in the shadows on a throne of tires and chair parts. In the centre of the court, Ryujiro kneels before the one in the shadows. "I need help. I heard you're someone to come to for, acquiring rare items. As the king of the underground, you know people that can help, right?" Ryujiro looks to be shaking, not out of rage this time. "I need a stronger deck. To beat him and..." the one in the shadows cuts him open by striking the ground with a metal chain. "Sounds to me is, you need a stronger fighter than a deck."
They step out of the shadows, revealing their face. They have the impression of a pretty boy emo, with grey hair and metal in his ears. He turns to someone laying on a children's playground slide, possible asleep. "Oi, Kazuki. Wake up!" The one sleeping on the slide slowly sits up, rubbing their eye. They wear an unkept school uniform, with long purple hair that covers one eye, but is spiked up on the other side. "Yes king?" they answer with a low energy tone. "Find out what you can about this, Akira. But do you engage directly. Understood?". Kazuki gets off the slide, and stretches. "Whatever you want Jun." They leave the court, yawning, scratching their back as they leave the area. Once out of ear shot, Ryujiro turns to the king again, and this time questions them. "With respect, king. Are you sure they can handle it?"
Jun starts laughing, sitting back on their throne, back into the shadows. "Of course. They don't call him the sleeping assassin for nothing."
End of Chapter 2...