Chapter 3: New friends, new opportunities
A/N: Holy crap guys! Over 250 views on my pet project story that I wasn't even sure if I would publish. It's insane to me that other people like what I'm doing, thank you guys so much, and I'm sorry that it took so long for me to write this, life is fun. Anyway, here's the next chapter in Asuma's story.
The night after Asuma's impromptu trip to the card shop, he couldn't stop thinking about Vanguard. The way he could feel the units' power, the strength and fluidity of their attacks, the stalwart willpower in the guardians. Everything felt right, like when he was leading his team to victory on the field back before he got hurt. "I have to go back and play again," he thought as he lay in bed, staring at the ceiling.
"I wonder how good the players Shin mentioned will be. Plus, there's that blonde guy and his kind of rude friend. I wonder how strong they'll be. There's so much I want to learn about Vanguard, from other clans to how other people play. I can't wait to go back to Card Capital!" Asuma thought as he rolled over, looking out the window at the moonlit, clear sky. Then, the deck box sitting on his desk caught his eye. "Spike brothers. You guys are amazing, and I hope I can keep playing with you and leading you to victory."
The next day, Asuma was sitting out in the courtyard at school eating his lunch by himself as usual, but he had changed somewhat from his usual routine. For instance, instead of reminiscing about the past, he was thinking of the future, wondering what kinds of cardfights he would have at Card Capital. The school day flew by, until finally Asuma could retrieve his deck box from his locker and head down to the shop. On his way there he passed by a tall, silver-haired girl who was heading the same way. He didn't pay much attention to her at first, so distracted by his thoughts of fights and strong opponents that when he arrived at Card Capital he didn't even notice her follow him in.
"Hey newbie, it's time for our rematch!" Asuma didn't even notice Morikawa until the loud boy was practically jumping up and down in front of him. "Alright, but only if you quiet down, there's other people trying to play here too." Asuma said as he held his hands up in a placating manner. "Let's use one of the corner tables so we don't disturb the whole shop, okay?" he asked as he headed over, setting his bag down and pulling out his deck for only the second time. Morikawa whined a little but finally followed, sitting across from Asuma "Fine, but with my special, personally-built deck there's no way I'll lose again!"
"It's about time somebody kept him from bothering everyone" Asuma didn't recognize the voice, and when he turned to see who said something he found the source. It was that girl he passed on his way here! "We don't need our customers getting driven away by his constant yelling." She was standing behind the counter wearing a red apron with the double "C" logo of Card Capital on it, her gray eyes cold.
"Come on Misaki, you know how intense cardfights can get!" Morikawa protested, but a single finger lifted was enough to silence him. "That's never stopped the rest of us from being polite, you oaf." The spiky-haired teen slouched after the reprimand, slowly turning back to the table and shuffling his deck and grumbling to himself. This continued all the way through the fight, with Morikawa complaining (quietly) about this girl whose name was apparently named Misaki. Asuma tried to take the fight seriously, but Morikawa's deck was so stacked with grade 3s that Asuma ended up beating him while he was still on a grade 1 vanguard.
When Asuma got up from the table, he looked around and saw that there were quite a few people in the shop playing vanguard, but he didn't recognize anyone, so he headed over to the counter to say hello to this new (admittedly cute but somewhat intimidating) girl. "Hi, I'm Asuma Kujito. Your name's Misaki, right?"
She looked up from what seemed to be an inventory catalogue, giving a polite customer service-style smile. "Yes, that's me. I work here, running the register, doing inventory, and keeping rowdy players like him in line." Misaki gestured over to where Morikawa was poring over his deck, complaining about the low grades and how he would need different grade 3s. "I've never seen you around here before, are you new?" she asked, and Asuma anxiously rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I just started playing yesterday, actually. I ended up really liking Vanguard, so I decided to come back and see what kinds of players there are here."
Misaki nodded with a smile "I'm fairly new to playing myself, but I've been watching people play here for quite a while. What clan do you use? I'm sure we have some packs that might turn out to be useful." Before Asuma could answer, however, the door to the shop slid open, and a timid-looking boy with blue hair stepped inside, followed by a shorter boy with insanely spiked up black hair. "Hey big bro Aichi, we have to cardfight again today, I want to see what you can do with more than one grade 3 in your deck!" The smaller boy piped up, before the middle-schooler timidly replied "Sure Kamui, but I want to try and tweak my deck first, the tournament is coming up after all."
After their initial exchange, the duo headed over to the counter, the younger boy hardly noticing Asuma at all. "Hey Misaki, is the new set in? I really want to get some of those new cards!" Meanwhile, his shyer counterpart seemed to notice the purple-haired boy. "I'm sorry about Kamui, he's very enthusiastic. My name's Aichi Sendou, what's yours?" Asuma smiled at the duality of these two and replied "I'm Asuma Kujito. You two wouldn't happen to play Vanguard, would you? I'm really new and looking for some people to cardfight with."
Aichi's blue eyes lit up at the mention of a cardfight, and he quickly pulled out a deck box. "I love Vanguard, I'd love to be your opponent!" The two of them sat down at an empty table, shuffling their decks and placing their starting vanguards. It was at this point that Kamui finally noticed Aichi was missing and came running over to the table where he and Asuma were sitting. "Hey big bro, who's this guy?" The elementary school boy slapped one hand on the table and pointed at Asuma. "My name's Asuma. And who might you be?" He said, raising an eyebrow at Kamui's antics.
"I'll have you know I'm the great Kamui, and I've even beaten Aichi!" The short boy retorted, before Aichi intervened. "Come on Kamui, Asuma's even more of a new player than me so go easy on him." The blue haired boy looked across the table to Asuma. "Are you ready to play?" Asuma just grinned back at him, his hand already hovering over his deck. "I might have just started playing, but don't think this will be an easy win." The two drew their starting hands, and then said those magical words: "Stand up, Vanguard!"
A/N: Hey guys, sorry for another short chapter, and that it took so long to come out. College has been crazy recently but catching up on the new anime has really reinvigorated my love for Vanguard. Hopefully you won't have to wait too long for the next installment of Asuma's story – his first cardfight with Aichi Sendou!