NOTE: Short chapter I know. This was originally going to be longer, but plans do in fact change. College has started for me, so updating will be a lot slower, and I have other stories to update and stuff. I hope you all understand.

Please enjoy and Review.

Chapter 20: Stepping Backwards

Misaki and Shin raced down the steps and rushed through the entrance of the Card Shop. Looking inside they saw Tokoha and Chrono standing at one of the fight tables, the boy's face was filled with shock, while the girl's face showed confidence. What took their attention the most was Tokoha's deck shining a brilliant green light, the cards in her hand mimicked the same glow.

Tokoha took a card from her hand and slammed it down onto the table. "Majestic flower bud, now is the time to blossom! I ride Ranunculus Flower Maiden, Ahsha(G3/11,000)!"

"Chrono!" Misaki called his name. The boy looked over to her, his shock still plastered on his face. Tokoha looked over as well, though a lot less amused at being interrupted.

"M-Misaki!? Shin!?" Chrono didn't expect them to be back so soon.

Shin stepped forward. "Chrono, what's going on-"

"HEY!"

Everyone looked back at Tokoha, the girl's glare still present on her face. "No interrupting a Cardfight in progress!" Tokoha shouted. The girl had just found her momentum and didn't need these people ruining it. "Whatever you gotta talk about can come afterwards!"

"R-Right!" Shin squeaked in response, scooting away from the table.

"You're gonna back down like that?" Misaki sweat dropped. Shaking her head at her uncle's patheticness, Misaki turned her attention to the fight. "Neither of the two seem to be in any harm, but this girl...there's something different about her now," Misaki furrowed her brows.

Seeing as the two were backing down to let the fight continue, Tokoha turned her attention back to her opponent. "Are you ready, Chrono? We're going to hit you full force!" Tokoha declared.

"We? Wait, that card…" Chrono looked down at Tokoha's Vanguard, the woman on the card looking familiar to him. "That's the woman from my vision earlier, then that means...Tokoha...you…" Chrono's gaze turned into one of amazement at the girl in front of him. Then, it turned back into his cocky smirk from earlier. "Bring it on, then! I can take anything you dish out!"

Tokoha's eyes shifted back down to her hand, her entire deck had changed into something else in the blink of an eye. Which brought forth another set of problems for Tokoha. "I don't have any rear guards in the front row, and only two cards in my hand. I've never even seen these cards before, but it feels like I know them," Tokoha realized something at that moment, her eyes looking at the small set of grey cards next to her deck. Brown orbs scanned Chrono's side of the table to see the exact same grey cards on his side. "Maybe, I could do that too? What did Chrono call it, 'Stride'?"

Tokoha felt her heart race faster as an insane amount of energy began to build up within her system. The adrenaline pushed her forth as she took a card from her hand. "GENERATION ZONE… RELEASE!" Tokoha declared. Her drop zone glowed a brilliant rainbow color to signify her success in surpassing her limits.

"WHAT!?" Chrono flinched back from the energy that Tokoha was emitting. He felt his mind shake from the continuous surprises that Tokoha was showing. "She can Stride too? Does that mean she's like me?" Chrono wondered.

Misaki almost fell to the floor from the pure energy that Tokoha was creating, the sole female of Q4 grabbed onto the counter to stabilize herself. This didn't happen to her last time Chrono had performed a Stride. Though, that may have been because he had only done it once, this time there were two people tossing around an insane amount of power.

Shin stood still, unbothered by the force Tokoha created, his mind however was racing. "She can also perform a Stride? But, that would mean…"

"Be careful, Shinemon. That boy's future is ever changing, and his actions will create a chain of events.

Shin gazed at his companion confused. "What do you mean by a chain of events?"

The man leaned back in his seat and lifted up his glass of water. "Time is a very fragile thing. One tiny little action can bring forth a waterfall of events of both good and bad. Especially if Time Travel is thrown into the equation," He poured his water into the empty bowl on the table, then placed the cup down. "If I were to create a time machine and go back in time, then I've already created a change by just going back. Then, if I were to kill a butterfly, something that wasn't supposed to die at that point in time, then I've started a chain of events. A chain of events that could lead to the destruction of the world," He placed his finger in the bowl of water, creating ripples, next he slowly moved his finger to create more ripples. "That is how fragile time is."

"What are you getting at with this discussion of time travel?" Shin asked.

"What I'm saying, Shinemon…" The man leaned in closer to Shin, his dark green orbs glaring directly into Shin's soul.

"Chrono Shindou will bring ruin to this world."

"Chrono…What have you done?" Shin mumbled. He shook the thoughts from his head and gave his attention back to the fight.

Tokoha released a long breath, before bringing a hand to her chest. Her hazel eyes watched as the scenery around her changed from a Card Shop into a more space-like vortex. The rainbow light from before mixed with the stars, in front of her was a bright green gate, waiting for her to open it. "Now, show me my blossoming, brilliant future! STRIDE GENERATION!"

"Flower Princess of Spring, Arborea(G4/15,000)!" Tokoha shouted. She felt as if she was at the top of the world, her heart pounding against her chest like crazy. "Call! Maiden of Gladiolus(G2/9000)!" Tokoha used the last card in her hand. "Activating Asha's skill! When I Stride, I can pay the cost(1)! I can choose a unit with the same name as her and call it to the rear guard circle! Come forth, Blossoming Maiden, Cela(G2/10,000)!" Tokoha called down the rear guard. The wide smile on her face conveyed just how excited she was at this moment.

"With support from the plant Token, Gladiolus attacks!"

"Guard!(21,000)"

"Arborea attacks your Vanguard!" Tokoha felt as if she could see her Vanguard charging at Chronojet Dragon.

"Grrr! No guard!"

"Triple Drive Check(No Trigger/No trigger/Critical Trigger)! All power to Arborea!" Tokoha declared.

"GAH!" Chrono flinched back from the attack that his Vanguard had taken. He was shocked by how real that attack felt, only ever experiencing headaches whenever his Vanguard took a direct attack. Tokoha paid it no mind, her body still hyped on adrenaline.

"With support from Daniel, Cela will attack your Vanguard!"

"Perfect Guard!" Chrono didn't care if he wasted it or not. He just wanted to protect himself from any chances of 6th damage.

Tokoha stood there in stunned belief that her attack didn't get through. With each slow breath she took she could feel the adrenaline wearing off. Her body wobbled as her eyes blinked repeatedly. "W-What's happening...Why do I feel so tired?"

"I'm sorry, Tokoha."

"Huh?"

"You just weren't ready. Not yet."

"What do you mea-"

SLAM

"TOKOHA!"

Tokoha's body dropped onto the floor, her body too exhausted to keep standing. Chrono and the others rushed to her side immediately. Misaki moved Chrono out of the way and examined Tokoha. "She's unconscious, but we should get her head checked out." Misaki picked Tokoha up off of the floor. "Chrono, grab her things and meet us up stairs!" Misaki commanded and rushed out of the store with the unconscious Tokoha.

Shin was about to follow, but he turned around to see Chrono staring at the floor intensely. "Chrono…"

"Is it my fault?" He asked softly.

"What?"

"Is it my fault that Tokoha collapsed?" He looked up at Shin, tears brimming in his eyes. It felt like it was his fault, if he hadn't listened to that mysterious woman or had just kept to himself then Tokoha wouldn't have gotten hurt.

Shin knelt down and embraced Chrono into a hug. "No, no this isn't your fault, Chrono. Don't ever feel like you've caused her pain. You guys were just having fun is all, ok?" Shin told him. Chrono didn't say anything, but Shin felt the boy nodding his head on his shoulder. "Good, come on. Let's go make sure your friend is ok," Shin took a hold of Chrono's hand and walked out of the store.

As they walked outside, Shin felt the memory from before resurface in his mind. The ugly dark feeling returned, he gazed back down at the boy and frowned. Chrono's eyes looked a lot less colorful, almost returning back to the dull lifeless color that he had before.

"Chrono Shindou will bring ruin to this world."

"Misaki! What happened!?" Emi and Rekka watched as Misaki placed Tokoha onto the couch. Misaki looked over at them, brushing some strains of hair out of her face.

"She collapsed during her fight with Chrono. I-I have an idea of what happened," Misaki said. Though, she felt hesitant to say anything.

"What is it, Misaki? Does it have to do with that strange feeling coming from Chrono?" Emi asked.

"I-I think so. I believe that Chrono may have awakened something inside of Tokoha, something that she couldn't handle. That power overloaded her system, causing her to pass out," Misaki explained.

"So, it was my fault…"

The girls all turned to see Shin and Chrono standing at the entrance. Chrono had tears running down his face, any form of life that had existed in his eyes before was now gone. His dull green eyes trailed over Tokoha's unconscious body, slowly he took a step backwards.

Misaki took a step forward. "Wait, Chrono! I didn't-" She wasn't given a chance to explain before the boy took off running down the stairs.

"CHRONO!" Shin and Misaki bolted down the stairs once more, with Emi and Rekka tailing them as well. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they didn't see him anywhere. Misaki ran inside of the store to search for him, however there were no traces of the boy anywhere.

"He's not in the shop!" Misaki yelled. She dropped to her knees, feeling hot tears brimming in her eyes. "It's all my fault, I shouldn't have said anything at all!"

"Misaki, it's not your-" Emi began.

"IT IS! I hurt him, even if it was unintentional it was still my words that hurt him," Misaki cried. She felt Shin's arms wrap around her, her crying slowed down, and she returned the embrace.

"We'll find him, Misaki. Chrono couldn't have gotten far, we'll find him and fix this, ok?" Shin told her.

"R-Right, we'll find him. I don't want him to be alone, especially after he began opening up," Misaki wiped away her tears and got to her feet.

"Don't worry, Misaki! We'll find Chrono in no time at all!" Emi encouraged, bringing a smile to Misaki's face. The lilac beauty nodded her head, agreeing with the smaller girl.

"Good, then we'll split up and look for him. I'll take the van and drive around the city, you girls search around here on foot. Someone needs to stay and watch over Tokoha," Shin instructed.

Rekka raised her hand. "I'll stay and watch her. I can also take her home once she wakes up," The idol said.

"Good! With that settled, let's get searching!" Shin pumped his fist and headed towards the van. Emi gave Misaki and Rekka both a quick hug before running down the street to find Chrono. Rekka headed back inside of the apartment to watch over Tokoha, leaving Misaki to stand alone in front of the shop.

"I'm coming, Chrono," Misaki whispered to herself.

RRRIIIIINNNNGGGG

"What?" Misaki took out her phone and looked at the ID of the person who was calling her. Her sadness and worry was quickly replaced with an untold amount of rage as she glared down at the name that appeared on her screen.

Toshiki Kai

Chapter End

NOTE: Misaki's anger is justified, especially when you remember everything that has happened up to this point. Kai is in for a not calm Misaki.

I did originally plan to write out an entire fight between an awakened Tokoha and Chrono, but I just couldn't figure out how to end it. So, I went for the fight not finishing due to Tokoha not being able to handle all of the Stride energy flowing into her body. I'm really looking forward to this part of the story, we're heading towards something that I've been sitting on for months.

Please review and have a nice day!