Chapter 2: Asuma's first Cardfight!
A/N: Cool too see people reading my little story, hopefully you guys like what you see! It's insane to me that my self-indulgent little project would already have amassed more than 50 views by the time I'm starting to write this chapter, just a few days after the first one was posted! These chapters will likely only be 1-2 thousand words, because I want to keep my upload schedule somewhat consistent. Hope you guys like the story anyway!
Asuma felt a rush as he rode his first ever Vanguard, feeling the power that even a grade 0 brought to his spiritual form, before a tap on his shoulder brought him back to Earth, the card shop he was sitting in, and the opponent he was across from.
"Hello, Earth to space cadet? We're supposed to be having a cardfight here!" Morikawa said, as he drew a card from his deck and grimaced. "Why couldn't it have been a grade 3?" He whined, before placing a card on top of his vanguard. "Alright, I guess I'll ride this one. Embodiment of Armor, Bahr." As Asuma watched, the new unit emerged from Morikawa's vanguard, a fierce warrior in red armor brandishing a huge scimitar. "I'll move Conroe behind Bahr, and attack!" Morikawa shouted, and Asuma stared him down, not sure how to defend.
"Morikawa, you know you can't attack on your first turn! Stop trying to scare a new player by breaking rules he doesn't even know exist yet." Shin scolded, and Morikawa backed down, a sheepish look on his face as he sat back and said "Alright, alright. My turn's over. You're up, newbie."
"Ok Asuma, Morikawa just showed you the basics of a turn. First, you stand your units if any are resting, and draw a card. Then, you can ride a vanguard of a grade equal or one higher than your current vanguard and call rearguards of equal or less grade. Then, you can attack. Go ahead, try it for yourself!"
"I draw, and then I'm gonna ride," Asuma paused, looking at the different units in his hand, until he decided he felt a stronger feeling from one of the cards. "Wonder Boy!" Asuma called, as he rode his grade 1 vanguard, feeling a surge in strength and speed as he powered up with the help of his new unit. "And I'll move Mecha Trainer behind Wonder Boy. Next, I'll attack you with Wonder Boy, boosted by Mecha Trainer." He looked back at Shin as he turned his two cards sideways, indicating his attack. "That is how I do it, right?"
"Yes, you've got it. Just make sure you put the attacking units in the rest position until your next turn when they will stand up again." Shin nodded, satisfied with the young man's question. Asuma turned back to the table and said, "Alright then, I'm still attacking you."
"No guard, so go ahead and check your drive trigger." Morikawa said, and Asuma gave him a blank look. "He means turn the top card of your deck over, and if there is a symbol in the upper right-hand corner, that's a trigger." Shin said as he placed a hand on Asuma's shoulder for a moment.
"Got it." Asuma turned the top card over, but there was no symbol. "No trigger." Asuma could feel his unit charge forward and slam into Morikawa's, dealing his vanguard damage. Morikawa flipped the top card of his deck over. "Checking my damage trigger, but I didn't get one." He placed the card in the section of the mat marked 'Damage Zone'. "Don't think you've won just yet, I still need to take five more damage! And anyway, it's my turn now." Morikawa said gruffly before drawing a card. "Man, another low-grade card? Well, at least I can ride it. I'll ride Dragon Knight Nehalem!"
Asuma could almost sense it as the spiky-haired boy's new unit was revealed on Planet Cray: an imposing knight in black armor riding a huge dragon and carrying a flaming sword. Morikawa smirked and called his attack, which Asuma didn't guard, and he flinched as he felt the dragon knight's sword slam into Wonder Boy. "Damage check" Asuma said as he flipped a card, but there wasn't a trigger there either. "You better be ready for my next turn, because I'm gonna go wild on grade 3!" Morikawa smirked as he taunted Asuma.
"We'll see. First, it's my turn. I stand and draw." Asuma stood his vanguard and rear guard, then he drew for turn, seeing his first grade 3 unit: General Seifried. But this wasn't the turn for grade 3. "I'll ride Dudley Mason, the rising star of Spike Brothers!" Asuma called out as he rode, unsure as to exactly why, but feeling a surge of power as his vanguard changed to the larger, stronger unit. "I think I can do this. I call Dudley Monty and Dudley Phantom to rear guard!" He said as he placed the two cards in the column to the right of his vanguard, then he stared over at his opponent. "Let's do this. Dudley Monty attacks your vanguard, boosted by Dudley Phantom! And with Dudley Phantom's skill, Monty gets an additional 4000 power!"
"I'm going to guard, with Lizard Soldier Ganlu!" Morikawa showed one of the cards from his hand before placing it sideways in the 'G' circle between the two vanguards. "See that number next to the shield on the side of the card? That gets added to the vanguard's power, and each guardian you call adds to that total." Shin said, pointing to the shield value on the unit Morikawa placed. Asuma could already see it, a squat red lizard soldier appearing to shield his vanguard. "Dudley Phantom goes back to my deck, but let's see you stop this one. Dudley Mason, boosted by Mecha Trainer!" The total power was 14000, and Morikawa didn't guard it, so Asuma's vanguard smashed his attack into Nehalem. "Drive check!" Asuma flipped his top card, revealing a blue marker. "I got a trigger!"
"It's a stand trigger. That means you can stand one of your rearguards, and then add 5000 power to any unit of your choice." Shin said. "Alright then, I'll choose Dudley Monty to stand, with an extra 5k power. Then, I'm going to activate Dudley Mason's skill. I can counterblast one, and pick a spike brothers unit in my hand to put into my soul, then call another unit from my deck to rear guard! Uh Shin, what's counterblast, and the soul?" Asuma paused from his confident speech to look sheepishly at the shop manager.
"Counterblast means you flip cards in your damage zone face down, equal to the number listed in the skill. The soul is the stack of cards under your vanguard, and soulblast means taking cards from there to the drop zone, where retired rearguards and guardians go too." Shin pointed to each of the zones as he spoke about them, and Asuma nodded once he understood.
"Hello, I still need to damage check over here!" Morikawa called, before checking no trigger again. "Hmph, I'm still not going to lose to you." He pouted after taking his second damage.
Soon after however, the teen had taken one more damage from Asuma's rear guard attack, leaving him at three damage to Asuma's one. He had, however, revealed a heal trigger on the second check, and Shin explained the rest of the trigger types to Asuma: draw, heal, and critical.
"Ok, my turn's done now. Go ahead, Morikawa." Asuma said as he looked over the cards in his hand, unsure of how well he could defend against the next turn of attacks. However, his opponent seemed to be unsure of himself as well. "Hey Shin, this isn't my usual deck! Where are all my grade 3s?"
"Oh, don't worry about that, I just slipped you a Kagero trial deck so Asuma here could play against an actual deck, instead of your unbalanced mess." Shin smiled, but the gleam of his glasses even gave Asuma pause, and he felt bad for the noisy teen Shin's gaze was fixed on. "Fine, but I want my deck back after this game, and if I lose it's your fault!" Morikawa whined, before looking over his hand cards intensely. "Hmm, I think I'll ride this one. Dragon Knight Jaral!" His vanguard transformed again, into another knight riding an even larger dragon, and he called rearguards to fill his left column. Morikawa managed to swing in and deal a damage with his rearguard, then he readied his vanguard to attack. "Boosted by Conroe, Jaral attacks for 15000!"
Asuma quickly looked over the cards in his hand, finding a way to guard with his trigger units. "I'll guard with Kungfu Kicker." He said before placing the unit on the field, summoning a small but feisty kicker to protect him. Morikawa looked at his deck "Twin drive don't fail me now! That's why my grade 3s are the best!" He looked over at Shin angrily. "I can do two drive check when my vanguard is a grade 3." He flipped the first card. "Alright! A critical trigger! Plus, Jaral's skill activates. He gains 2000 power whenever his drive check reveals a Kagero unit, so that's 7000 power! My second check," he paused before flipping the card. "Yes! It's another critical trigger! I'll give both effects to Jaral, and he's coming at ya!" Asuma grunted in pain when his vanguard was hit, like he could actually feel Dudley Mason taking the hit from Jaral. "That's fine, I've got three damage checks." He said, but neither of them ended up being triggers, meaning Asuma was pushed to five damage.
"Aw man, I didn't finish you off, even with double critical triggers? Well you just wait, next turn I'm going to end this." Morikawa smirked and leaned back in his chair. "Guess I just have to beat you this turn then, right?" Asuma said, a fire lighting inside him that he hadn't felt since he was playing from behind in the final period of a tense game. "I stand and draw." He knew what he had to do, just not quite how to do it. "Rise up and lead your forces to victory! The greatest strategist of the spike brothers! General Seifreid!" He said as he rode the imposing grade 3. "Now I activate Mecha Trainer's skill. I retire it and counterblast one to search for a grade 1 or lower Spike Brothers unit and put it in my hand. I choose Dudley Dan, and then I call him to my rear guard." Asuma placed Dan behind Seifried, a strategy forming in his mind. "Next, I'll call Dudley Phantom behind Dudley Monty again." Now, Asuma had two columns again, and he hoped his gamble with Dan would pay off. "Alright, first up is Monty, boosted by Phantom, for a total power of 20,000!" "Ugh, no guard." Morikawa said as he checked for a damage trigger but didn't find one.
"Ok, next up is Seifried, with Dan's support! With Seifried's skill, their total power is 17k, and with Dan's skill, I counterblast 2 and put my last hand card into the soul to search for any Spike Brothers and call it to rear guard. I choose one more Dudley Phantom, and place it in the back row on the left column." The play was risky, but if he pulled it off, Asuma would deal four damage in one turn, and win the fight.
"I'll guard for ten thousand!" Morikawa said, placing two grade 2 units on the guardian circle. "Alright then, twin drive." Asuma said calmly, placing his hand on top of his deck. These next two checks needed to go perfectly, but if he didn't trust his team like he used to on the field, who could he trust? Asuma slowly turned the first card over. "It's another Seifried! All right! Using my vanguard's skill, I call this Seifried to the left column." Asuma took a deep breath, then flipped the next card. His eyes widened when he saw what it was. "It's Sonic Breaker, a critical trigger! My attack goes through, and that means two more damage for you!" Asuma nearly shouted as he smiled, which turned into a grin when Morikawa didn't get a trigger on either check.
"It all comes down to this. My rearguard Seifried, boosted by Dudley Phantom. With the power of both of their skills, the total power is 23 thousand!" Asuma proclaimed confidently. Morikawa nervously looked over his hand cards, seeing that he only had ten thousand shield left. "Aw man, no guard. I have to bet it all on a heal trigger." Morikawa reached for his deck, but when the card was revealed, it was a stand trigger. "Oh, come on! I can't believe I just lost to a total noob! This must be your fault, Shin. Play me again, but this time with my real deck!" Morikawa demanded, leaning over the table as Asuma just cleaned his cards up. "I'm good, thanks. My mom will be expecting me back soon, so maybe tomorrow. I had a lot of fun though, more than I expected from a card game." Asuma said with a calm but happy smile.
"Good to hear, but you'll have to pay for any more cards you want here, ok?" Shin said, heading back behind the counter. "There are a lot more players for you to meet, and a lot of them are pretty good, so I hope we'll see you soon."
"I'll definitely be back here again if I can have fun cardfights like that." Asuma smiled and waved at Shin, before turning to head out, sliding his new deck box into his pocket. As he stepped out of the store, however, he nearly ran into someone. "Oh, I'm sorry!" Asuma said as he looked up at who it was, before falling silent as he met the cool glare of a tall boy with brown hair. "Be more careful in the future." The unknown teen said, before heading into the shop. "Kai, don't be rude!" Another voice called, and Asuma saw a blonde teen with a spiky haircut. "Hey, sorry about my friend there. He's a good guy, just tends to be cold with people he doesn't know. My name's Taishi Miwa, but everybody calls me Miwa. I haven't seen you here before, what's your name?"
"I'm Asuma Kujito, and this is my first time coming to this store. Do you and your friend play Vanguard by any chance? I thought it was pretty fun." Asuma responded. "Oh yeah, we play all the time. Kai's really good at it too, so hopefully you'll get to play with us sometime. Anyway, seeya!" Miwa waved and headed inside Card Capital, and Asuma turned away to walk home, a smile on his face as the sun set over the city. He broke into a jog, feeling happy and at peace with himself, not hearing any doubting voices in his head for the first time in a long time.
A/N: Went a little longer on this one. Hopefully you guys enjoy how I write my fights, but if you don't feel free to let me know! Here's to many more chapters to come!