Chapter 3: To Cray
Disclaimer: I do not own Cardfight! Vanguard.
(Aichi's P.O.V.)
After what much have been an eternity, my senses came rushing back to me, my entire being becoming drenched in pain as everything came back to me at once. Thankfully, it didn't last too long and, realising that the healers had accomplished what they needed to so, I sat up only to feel a pair of hands grasp my shoulders as if to push me back down. My blurring vision clearing, I looked up at the unit before me.
"Hold on! You shouldn't be moving yet!" Stil cried, his eyes filled with concern.
I smiled at him. "I'll be fine, Stil. The healers have done their job and I'm needed out there. I have to go."
Stil, having learned long ago that there was no point in arguing with me, hesitantly let go of my shoulders, allowing me to stand up. Shaking the stiffness from my limbs, I turned towards the battlefield. Surveying it, I spotted Ren amongst the crowd, his eyes lit up as Chris sent him information from the base, no doubt related to what I had sent him when I acted as the Relay.
Within seconds, the glow of PSY Qualia vanished from his eyes and he shouted something over the noise, giving orders to the small amount of troops that surrounded him. Each took off in a different direction, ready to fulfil their Vanguard's orders to the best of their abilities.
My eyes darting around the edge of the battlefield, I attempted to figure out where it would be best to join the fight from. Seeing no obvious entry points, I decided to throw caution to the wind and make an entry point of my own. Picking my sword up from the ground, I hefted it over my shoulder and made my way towards the crowd, setting my sights on a Link Joker unit that I couldn't identify from the back. However, it was locked in combat with Marron who was struggling to fight back against it.
Coming up from behind it, I swung my sword, decapitating the unit where he stood, ignoring the blood that spurted out onto me. The unit slumped to the ground in front of myself and a very bewildered Marron. Spotting me as I lowered my sword, Marron let out a sigh of relief. I couldn't help but notice his pale complexion. He had obviously been out here for quite a while.
"Why don't you sit out for a while, Marron?" I called over the noise. "You're getting a little pale."
Marron didn't even argue. "Thank you, my Vanguard... I've been out here for quite a while... It's exhausting..."
"Not a problem. There's no point in fighting if you're not at your best." I grinned and pointed towards the area that I had been sitting in until a few moments prior. "Go and sit over there. There's no fighting over there."
"Thank you, my Vanguard..." he repeated with a sigh, jogging over to the area that I had indicated.
It wasn't even seconds later that I felt someone rush up behind me. Spinning around, I locked blades with a Link Joker unit that stood around my own height with silver armour with two red crosses on either side of his chest. He held a pair of black swords with cross-shaped hand guards. Red eyes peeked out from behind the slit in his black, red and gold mask, his pale blue hair flying out behind him as a wild grin of satisfaction made its way onto his face.
"Ah! Someone decent!" he chuckled.
"I'm Sendō Aichi!" I told him, introducing myself.
"Believe me, I know who you are!" he laughed. "I'm Photon, although I have to wonder why the great Sendō Aichi is on the battlefield without his armour!"
"Nice to meet you, Photon!" I grinned, shouting over the noise around us, ignoring his jab at me about my lack of armour. "It's too bad that we're on opposite sides of the fence!"
I grunted with effort as Photon, still grinning like a madman, swung one of his swords at me from above, prompting me to raise my sword above my head, the vibration from the impact running down my arm as Photon's sword clashed with the flat of my blade, shocking me slightly. I quickly jumped away, narrowly avoiding a slash from Photon's second blade as it sailed past my abdomen.
Stepping forwards, I slashed, nicking Photon's upper left arm as he dove out of the way. I heard him curse audibly before he lunged at me again. Before I could completely dive out of the way, my eyes widened in shock as I felt one of Photon's swords slice through my left side. Jumping away, I spared a glance at the shallow wound on my side, wincing as it stung when I moved. It was far from fatal, but it could have been game-changing if it slowed me down.
Gritting my teeth, I backed up again, time seeming to slow down as Photon's sword came within centimetres of my face. Without wasting any time, I lunged forwards, swinging my large blade with a cry of effort. Another audible curse escaped from Photon's lips as he raised both of his swords, crossing them over, catching my sword between the two blades, his arms shaking with effort as my heavier sword began to push him back.
"I believe that we've reached an impasse..." I muttered as it became apparent that neither of us were willing to give an inch. Photon seemed to catch what I had said over the noise.
"I believe so... Let me rectify that..." Photon chuckled in a manner that made me doubt his sanity.
Photon seemed to dig his feet into the ground and pushed. I gritted my teeth as my arms began to shake with the effort and began to ponder whether or not it was necessary to activate my PSY Qualia. Before I could decide, however, I realised that my sword was slowly being pushed into a vertical position. The sword out of his way, Photon moved with blinding speed and leaped into the air, his twin blades still holding my massive sword back.
Suddenly, a blinding pain blossomed in my abdomen as I felt Photon's armoured boots swiftly connect with my stomach and drive the air from my lungs. I fell backwards as Photon was propelled away from me, cackling like a madman once more as I hit the dirty ground, sending up a pile of dust as I slid across the rocky earth and slowed to a stop.
I gasped for air as I heard Photon coming closer to me, his armoured boots clicking and scraping against the stones below his feet. I slowly at up, raising my sword but, before I could prepare myself, I felt my stomach lurch as the cold metal of the tip of his sword rested against my throat.
My mind kicked into overdrive and I felt a tingling sensation behind my eyes, a rush of power exploding inside of me and manifesting on the outside as Photon was blown away by the large blue Vanguard Circle that materialised in the air above me. My rapid heartbeat began to calm and slow and I stood, my limbs no longer shaking with effort as they once had. I crossed the distance between Photon and I and stared down at him from where he lay on the ground, his mind obviously struggling to comprehend what had happened to him.
"Well, Photon..." I could hold back the smile of satisfaction that made its way onto my face. I raised my sword, levelling the point of the blade at his throat. "It appears as though the tables have turned..."
Meanwhile...
(Kai's P.O.V.)
"Wait... Help...?" I parroted, confused as to why all of this was suddenly happening and still unable to pin down where I was, never mind being able to figure out why Takuto, who I had seen disappear into... well, wherever Void and Link Joker had come from in the first place.
"Yes. Cray is in very grave danger." He saw my confused expression and seemed to frown through the static. "Please allow me to explain. One year ago, after Aichi defeated Void who inhabited my body, Void, from his new vessel, called out to his troops without his vessel's knowledge and declared war on Cray as opposed to Earth. Cray's fate is permanently linked to Earth. The end of Cray would mean the end of Earth, too, and vice versa. Needless to say, I could not allow it to happen, so I called upon the wielders of PSY Qualia for aid."
"So, that's where Aichi went..." I muttered to myself.
Takuto nodded. "The others, too. Surely, you at least noticed that Suzugamori Ren was missing, as well," he responded, his frown deepening.
"Uh..." The necessary words wouldn't form in my mind and, even if they did, I doubted that my now-dry mouth would let me speak.
Takuto sighed. "I see..."
"W-well, sure, I suspected something, but I didn't expect Ren to be in the same place as Aichi..." I suddenly blurted out, desperately trying to dispel any negative thoughts that Takuto had about me. "I mean, it's not unusual for Ren to not answer his phone or leave it off for hours, or even days, on end. I do the same thing. Something was certainly strange in that I haven't heard from him in a year, but it wasn't so strange that I thought that Ren was missing. Neither Tetsu or Asaka had mentioned anything about it to me."
"Well, I think that we know what that means, don't we?" Takuto muttered to himself, crossing his arms and looking away guiltily.
"You mean... they knew...?" I felt my mind go blank. If Ren, Chris and Leon had disappeared without a word, surely they would have come to us about it, but we hadn't heard anything from them since Aichi disappeared. But, if the others trusted their friends to know, why weren't we told? "Why...?"
"I'm afraid that that's something that you'll have to ask him yourself..." Takuto sighed, his form suddenly flickering violently and his voice starting to fade. "I must go, Kai Toshiki. This form won't hold for much longer. I'm transporting you to Cray as we speak."
"But, what am I supposed to do?!" I cried, taking a step towards the static ghost in front of me.
"There isn't enough time!" Takuto called back, his voice barely audible. "Good luck!"
Before I could protest any further, my surroundings turned pitch black and I was bombarded by the sounds of hundreds of voices yelling and screaming in anger, pain, terror and victory all at once. I felt myself falling and, very quickly, hit the hard, dusty ground with an, "Oof!" of pain. I winced in pain as I rolled off a stone that I had called on and pried my eyes open, coming face to face with... a large, sand-coloured rock...
I pulled myself into a sitting position and glanced around, noticing that I was sitting behind a large boulder on a steep slope, the dusty earth imprinted with footprints, hoof prints, paw prints and even some that I couldn't identify. The sun bore down on me from its place high in the sky and tried to figure out exactly where I was.
"Is this... Cray...?" I mumbled, shakily getting to my feet. Remembering my fever, I raised a hand to my forehead, sighing with relief as my temperature felt normal. Perhaps it had been Takuto's prying that caused it... Speaking of Takuto, where was he? How had he even got me there in the first place?
I winced as an explosion went off somewhere behind the boulder, accompanied by a cacophony of screams of terror and anguish. Startled by the sudden noise, I fell to the ground in a panic. Was I in a war zone...?! I scrambled across the dirt, slipping and sliding as the loose, sand-coloured earth gave way beneath my hands and knees, and peeked out from behind the boulder, trying to catch sight of what was going on.
Needless to say, the term 'war zone' was an understatement. I had seen quite a few documentaries about World Wars on TV—usually just something that I left on in the background to have a little noise in my empty apartment while I was eating dinner, usually to give the illusion of company—but this was nothing like what I had seen on TV. Where were the trenches? Where were the guns? Where were the bombs? Where was the barbed wire and the no man's land?
I ducked back behind the boulder again as a blast of some kind of bright green energy hit my stone shield, leaving a few cracks in the surface. Pleased that the barrier between myself and the battle further down the hill was still standing, I let out a sigh of relief and peered out from behind the boulder once more, taking in the carnage with what felt like the innocence of a child.
Energy blasts similar to the one that I had seen before whizzed to and fro across the battlefield, hissing and crackling over the deafening noise of the warring forces. Blood flew up into the air as swords impaled their opponents' bodies, slicing through their flesh like a hot knife through butter.
Trying to push what was going on into the recesses of my mind, my eyes scanned the crowd, searching for any sign of blue or red amongst the throng of units, but there was no sign of any blue and the red that I saw certainly wasn't the red that I was looking for and filled the air with a sickening, metallic smell. Nevertheless, I continued to look for Aichi and Ren, peeking through any openings that popped up between the units.
It was then, however, that my eyes were drawn to a break in the crowd to my far left as a Link Joker unit fell, opening up a space that the other units dared not walk on lest they stand on a body. I peered through the new opening, as my eyes caught a glimpse of blue. Another unit stepped out of the way and, for the briefest second, I saw an image that made my blood run cold.
Aichi, in a long white and blue coat, stood over someone that I didn't recognise, the unit's face twisted into an expression of frustration as a large blade was levelled at his throat. PSY Qualia blazed in Aichi's wide, cold-looking eyes as he stared down at his opponent, his face eerily expressionless. Then, just as soon as I caught sight of them, they were gone as another unit stepped in front of them.
I swallowed heavily, unable to comprehend what it looked like Aichi was going to do. Was he about to kill that guy?! I began to think that it was perhaps for the best. If I ran out there and attempted to stop him, I would most likely be killed. If, by some miracle, I managed to stop Aichi, that unit would retaliate and we'd probably both be killed. Not only that, but Link Joker and Void were the enemy, weren't they? As Takuto said, if Aichi and the others lost, both Earth and Cray would be destroyed. I was shaking my head frantically, trying to forget what I had seen, when a familiar voice cut through the din.
"Nehalem! Flogal! Don't fight units with a higher grade or power! Leave them to the others! Don't give up, everyone! Fight them back!" a somewhat feminine, yet very forceful, voice yelled, attracting my attention, never mind the units who stood beside him.
My eyes scanned the crowd for the source of the voice, finally falling on a shock of bright red hair that had been tied up in a ponytail, standing out against pale skin and a black coat. I felt a sick feeling in my stomach as the man—Ren—breached the wall of soldiers and came out into the open, his black coat fluttering in the breeze, coated by a thin layer of dust, something red trailing down his right cheek.
Alerted by the sight of blood, I craned to see whether it was his own or not, breaking out in a cold sweat as I saw that he most likely hadn't been cut if the round splatter at the top of the trail as opposed to a wound indicated anything. I let out a shaky sigh, unsure if I was relieved of unnerved by the fact that someone else's blood covered the face of one of my best friends.
I leaned out further, contemplating running to him or calling out to him as Ren's eyes darted around the battlefield as if he was searching for something, but I soon found that I didn't need to make myself known. Ren took a step backwards, turning his head. For the briefest of seconds, our eyes met before Ren turned away.
Almost as soon as he saw me, his body froze as his mind seemed to register what he had potentially seen. Slowly, he turned again, our eyes meeting for the second time. Ren went pale, almost as if he had seen a ghost, his eyes scanning me from top to bottom, no doubt trying to make sure that I was real. His mouth moved, his voice drowned out by an explosion of green energy that lit up the battlefield with an eerie green light.
"Ren..."
(Aichi's P.O.V.)
"Heh... Would the Lead Vanguard really kill an unarmed man...?" Photon chuckled nervously.
"Unfortunately, we have no room for prisoners," I responded bluntly, thrusting my sword forwards slightly, drawing blood from Photon's throat and earning a grunt of pain.
"Photon-taichou!" a male voice cried out, footsteps pounding against the ground as Demon Claw Star-vader, Lathanum charged towards us from our right, his white armour glinting in the light of the fire that blazed from his helmet and knees. Two rings of fire around either arm began to glow harshly, the large red claws on either hand both following suit.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Photon open his mouth as if to shout, but I didn't give him the chance. I quickly swung my sword in Lathanum's direction, watching expectantly as green eyes widened and blood spurted, showering Photon and I as Lathanum's head separated from his body.
"DON'T COME OVER HERE, YOU IDIOT!" he screamed, far too late to make a difference. The deed had, quite obviously, already been done. Before Photon could make a move, my sword was at his throat again, Photon's body trembling with fear and rage, my PSY Qualia-filled eyes no doubt staring back blankly.
"Now... Where were we...?"
SHIIIING!