Chapter 10: Enemy Encounter

Morning came and all were up and ready to begin their respective days, but with a slight change in their routines. They were now fighters chosen for a mission to save another world, and by extension, their world as well. Miwa sent out a group text, way too early in the morning for some, to have their first official meeting on where to start. So at around nine in the morning, the gang all met up at a café of Misaki's choosing. After everyone ordered, Kamui spoke up first.

Kamui: " All right! The first meeting to save the world!"

Misaki: "Calm down, Kamui."

Kamui: "Sorry. So, what's the plan today?"

Miwa: "The first thing we need to think about is where exactly the pendant is. We can't really do much in the way of moving forward until we find it."

Aichi: "Right. So, anyone have any ideas on where to start?"
The table fell into silence for a few seconds.

Naoki: "No idea."

Kamui: "Not a clue."

Miwa: "You got me."

Misaki: *sigh* "That's why we need to gather together and plan, remember?"

Miwa: "Yeah."

Aichi: "Well, at least we're trying."

Shingo: "Very true, Sendou-kun."

At that moment everyone's drink orders had come, and then they were all contemplating where to start while sipping away

Shingo: *hmm* "Oh! I've got it! It's a piece of jewelry right?"

Misaki: "Yes, and?"

Shingo: "Well, since it is jewelry, why not try looking at jewelry stores!"

Kamui: "Good thinking!"

Miwa: "But there are a lot of stores in just this city alone. That may take a while."

Kai: "True, but it's a place to begin looking."

Misaki: "I agree."

Aichi: "Right! Oh hey, does anyone know what the pendant looks like?"

Again, silence from the party at the table, aside from the periodic sip noises. Aichi looked around and then at his drink.

Aichi: "I see."

Miwa: "Yeah, we might've forgotten that part."

Shingo: "But that's such an important detail. How did you forget that."

Naoki: "Well, I don't think the old man actually told us what it looked like."

Shingo: *sigh* "This is why you never trust a delinquent with important matters."

Naoki: "Hey, it's not my fault, granny glasses!"

Misaki: "Quiet down, you two."

Shingo/Naoki: "Sorry."

Aichi: "Maybe it's something that looks so out of the ordinary, we'd recognize it immediately?"

Misaki: "It could be."

Kamui: "Yeah!"

Miwa was thinking with his arms crossed, trying to think of anything that could be useful. Then, he remembered the conversation he'd had with Naoki, Kai, and Aichi the night before.

Miwa: *hmmm* "Maybe the key to finding it is Aichi over here."

Aichi: "W-What?"

Naoki: "Oh yeah, I get it!"

Shingo: "What do you get?"

Miwa: "We had a little conversation yesterday about a certain something that could help us out potentially. Well, after getting away from those murder birds anyway."

Kamui: "What?!"

Naoki and Miwa briefly told the other three about the events from the day before.

Misaki: "What is even happening nowadays?"

Shingo: "That's just not possible. Cards can't come to life."

Kamui: "I can't say it's not too out of the ordinary, but I get what you mean."

Naoki: "I guess you'll just have to see it for yourselves. Hey Kai, you mind showing them-"

Kai: "No. This isn't something to mess around with."

Naoki: *sweat drop* "Eh, he, he, sorry."

Miwa: "Anyway, what I was getting to, is that we may be able to use Aichi to detect things from Cray."

Kamui: *hmmm* "I guess you've got a point. Aichi-nisan seems to be pretty sensible to this stuff."

Misaki: "I think you mean sensitive."

Kamui: "Right."

Misaki: "This is all well and good, but this idea all depends on if Aichi wants to do it. So Aichi, are you okay with this?"

Aichi looked at the others, then at Kai who just gave a quiet nod. Aichi then looked back at the others to voice his opinion.

Aichi: "I'll do it."

Naoki: "Really? You sure about that?"

Aichi: "I want to do this. If this can help us take a closer step to saving Cray, then I want to do it."

Kamui: "Awesome!"

Shingo: "That's great, Sendou-san. Now we can narrow down our jewelry search."

Misaki: "If this is what you want. I just don't want to be on the receiving end of an overprotective Kai."

Kai turned his face slightly to the left and made a slight hmph noise in response. Misaki just grinned slightly.

Miwa: "Well then, if we're all done here, let's begin our first day as the saviors of Cray."
Naoki/Kamui/Shingo: "YEAH!"

Misaki: "Be quiet!"

Naoki/Kamui/Shingo: "Sorry."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The group set out to begin their first day of the mission. A decision was made to split up and look around for any nearby jewelry stores, and see if the pendant may be there. Naoki had made a comment that, if Aichi can sense things from Cray, then potentially something also from Cray could be used to locate it as well. The groups without Aichi decided to see if their decks could locate the necklace too. So with some help from their friends from Cray, the three groups set off. Aichi, Kai, and Shingo went right, Misaki and Miwa went left, and Naoki and Kamui checked out uptown.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Misaki and Miwa looked through any store they could find, asking employees if anything odd had turned up at their shop. They all told them that nothing strange had turned up or happened, so Miwa and Misaki just moved on and kept searching.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Naoki and Kamui looked through as many jewelry stores and even pawn shops as possible, holding up their decks to see if they could get any sort of potential readings. Although, the two of them vigorously swinging their decks around like baby metal detectors did get the attention of one store, and they were promptly chased away.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Kai kept close to Aichi as they strolled down the sidewalk, while Shingo enthusiastically looked for any store he could find. They stopped at any shop they saw, and Kai would trun to Aichi to see if he felt anything. Aichi just looked back and shook his head and they moved on, with Shingo strutting ever onwards.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Finally, after a few hours of searching, the crew decided to call a break and convened at a small park close to where the group of Kai, Aichi, and Shingo were. As soon as everyone arrived, they all slumped down on whatever they could find.

Miwa: *sigh* "I'm done."

Naoki: "Me too, I'm spent."

Kamui: "Ugh, my feet hurt."

Aichi: "Anyone have any luck?"

Misaki: "No. We looked at all the shops we could find, and no one's had anything weird occur recently."

Shingo: "This is a lot harder than I thought."

Naoki: "No kidding. I guess it's gonna be pretty hard to find a necklace in a place this big."

Kai: "You okay Aichi? Tired at all?"

Aichi: "I'm pretty okay. I have good walking shoes."

Misaki: "At least one of us thought to wear good shoes. Ouch."

Miwa: "What's wrong?"

Kai: "You okay, Tokura?"

Misaki: "Yeah, just a bit of pain in my left foot. It's fine though."

Miwa looked at Misaki and then at her foot. He could see a bit of redness near where her small brown boots ended at her ankle.

Miwa: "Doesn't look fine to me."

Misaki: "Trust me, it's fine. I just need a bit more of a break, that's all."

Kamui: "You should keep it up. My mom always told me to keep an injured foot elevatored."

Shingo: "Elevated."
Kamui: "Yeah, that."

Misaki: "Don't worry about it, really."

Miwa then looked Misaki right in the eyes.

Miwa: "You should elevate that ankle, nee-san."

Misaki: "Miwa…"

Miwa: "You wouldn't want it to get any worse, and plus if it does get any worse, I'll feel bad that I didn't stop you."

Misaki let a small blush go across her face. Miwa lifted her right hand to his lips, and gave the top of her hand a small kiss.

Miwa: "Now come on, do it for me?"

Misaki looked at Miwa, then at all the others who either looked away or turned around. She instantly turned red and embarrassed.

Misaki: "Fine! B-But no more of that, got it?!"

Miwa: "Alrighty then. Mission success!"

Kai: "You done yet?"

Miwa: "Yep!"

Shingo: *ahem* "A-Anyway, we still don't have any clues yet. Where in Japan could it be?"

Suddenly a chill ran down Aichi's back, and he felt the urge to look down an alley way towards his right. There in the alley was a person in a hooded jacket and what looked like sweatpants. Kai looked down at Aichi, who had noticed him look over from the corner of his eye. Aichi's head began to ache slightly again.

Kai: "What's wrong?"

Aichi: "There. There's a person over there."

The others turned to look.
Shingo: "There are lots of people around, surely one in the alley isn't that odd."

Aichi: "But he-"

?: "I heard you were looking for a special piece of jewelry. I think I can help you there."

The man was suddenly right next to them, almost as if he simply appeared there. He was rather tall, average build, and all they could see of his face from under his hood was a thin smile.

Kai: "Who are you exactly?"

Naoki: "Yeah, and what's your deal, hood guy?"

?: "That's of no concern right now. I can tell you where you can find a hidden shop with many strange and otherworldly pieces of jewelry."

Misaki: "Are you serious? You expect us to believe a person we've never met, won't tell us who he is, or even explain how in the world he'd know about us looking for jewelry?"

Misaki's questioning seemed to make the man falter slightly. He shuffled around a little bit with his head down, and then he tried to regain his total composure.

?: "Come on, you can trust me. I'm just trying to help out my fellow man."

Shingo: "This is quite suspicious. How did you know we were looking for jewelry?"

?: "Uh-I-I overheard you as I passed by. Simple as that. Now come on, I'll show you to that shop where the necklace is."

Aichi: "How did you know we were looking for a necklace?"

Miwa: "Yeah, we never specified what we were looking for during our conversation here."

?: "Well-I-um…"

Kai: "Who are you?"
Misaki: "Why won't you tell us?"

?: "Umm…"

Kamui: "Come one, man! Spit it out!"

?: "I…"

Miwa: "Who are you?"

?: "AAAARRRRRRGGGGHHH!"

All of a sudden the man made a beastly yell and began emitting a black fog-like substance. Then the sky began to swirl and turn pinkish purple around them, and all the other people around them disappeared. The man began to shift and change.

Kamui: "W-What's going on?!"

Naoki: "What's up with that guy?!"

Shingo: "What happened to the sky?! And the other people?!"

Kai pulled Aichi in closer to him, and Miwa positioned himself in front of Misaki who still had her foot up. Naoki, Kamui, and Shingo, grouped together ready to defend themselves. The man now wore pitch black armor, a black helmet with curved horns towards the front, and had black/silver wings on his back. Aichi then remembered back when they were opening their card packs and gasped.

Aichi: "It's a Phantom Shadow unit! Chaos Blader!"

Naoki: "Oh yeah, I remember! I pulled that one too! No wonder I got the feeling like I'd seen him before just now."

Chaos Blader then spoke in a low, warped voice.

Chaos Blader: "Now that I have you here, you will never escape! In this space only we exist, and I shall now be the one to stop you in your foolish endeavor! You will never defeat the great Shadow Queen!"

The group exchanged looks of confusion and worry.
Shingo: "What do we do?"

Aichi: "The only thing we can do. We fight."