Chapter 7: Calm Before the Storm
A/N: So hey everyone, nice to see you again. This wasn't supposed to take this long, but hey that's life. Hopefully this chapter should be the last before I finally get into the shop tournament and things start to happen in this series! I was asked a couple of chapters ago if Asuma would end up paired with someone and originally, I planned for it to be Misaki. However, I'm no longer sure of my decision because man I just love Misaki and Miwa too much to break them up! I'll see where it goes from here though (let me know what you guys think, with pairing suggestions and all that). Anyway, here's chapter 7!
Though Asuma was initially pretty freaked out, he brushed off the dream and went through the rest of his day mostly normally. What that weird space dragon had said stuck in his mind though, leaving him wondering what it meant by 'who he is'. "Jeez, I can't believe I'm letting a stupid dream distract me so much." Asuma complained as he headed out to the school's grounds for lunch. His absent-mindedness caused him to wander places he normally wouldn't, and as Asuma turned a corner he noticed Misaki sitting on a bench by herself under the shade of a tree: she was reading what he assumed to be a textbook, and had a packed lunch sitting next to her.
"Yo, Misaki!" Asuma called out, waving to the reserved young lady as he walked towards her, waving. She looked up and gave him a small smile. "Hi Asuma, did someone take your usual spot? I've never seen you on this side of the grounds for lunch." She slid her lunch closer, making a spot for him on the bench. Asuma shook his head, a bit embarrassed. "Well, not exactly. I've just been kind of spacing out today, and I ended up wandering over here" he admitted as he took the seat Misaki offered. Even as she went back to her book Misaki kept up the conversation, "You're probably nervous, right? The shop tournament is coming up, and I remember one of the teachers mentioning there's an exam next week. You have been studying, right?" She raised an eyebrow, and even though she didn't make eye contact Asuma felt like his soul was being stared through, and he quietly grabbed a notebook out of his bag instead of the deck box he had been reaching for. 'Ah man, with starting to play Vanguard and meeting all these people I completely forgot about studying!' Just then, a realization hit him.
"Wait a minute, I've just about never seen you around before I went to Card Capital, how do you know where I usually eat, and that I have an exam when I'm pretty sure you aren't in my class?" Asuma turned to Misaki with this mini-revelation. Without even looking up, she tapped her temple with one finger and nonchalantly stated, "I remember everything I see or hear, even if it's just once. Nothing super special." Asuma raised an eyebrow, thinking, 'She's got a perfect memory? That explains her choice of deck, OTT is pretty much perfect for someone with that kind of ability!' But even as he opened his mouth to voice his surprise, she lifted a single finger in his direction. "I don't like to talk about it, trust me it's not as much of a gift as you think." Slowly closing his mouth and turning back to his lunch and book, Asuma spent the rest of the lunch break studying and eating, then the rest of the day wondering what made Misaki so melancholy about her perfect memory.
Finally, the final bell of the day rang and Asuma headed out of Miyaji, his bag hanging loose off one shoulder as he started jogging towards home. His head was swimming with many different thoughts, from what his dream meant, to why Misaki seemed so gloomy, to how much he needed to study. "Ah man, guess I can't make the trip to CC today, I need to buckle down." Asuma thought out loud, pushing the door to his house open. Most of the rest of the night was nothing special, spent studying and doing chores. Asuma was surprised to get a text from his old friend Nishiyo, one of the other stars of his former football club, asking what Asuma had been up to since his injury. Asuma answered vaguely, unsure as to how his old friends would take the information that their old teammate had taken up a card game as his new pastime, even one as almost universally popular as Vanguard. Later in the evening, Asuma started wondering why he hadn't heard from any of his new friends, before smacking himself in the forehead upon realizing he had somehow managed to give none of them any way to contact him. He ended up writing a note to himself which read, "give out contact info at CC" before he turned in for the night, dreaming of Vanguard, homework, and homework Vanguard, a bizarre concept where Seifried threw a giant notebook at Asuma, who woke up just before it smacked him in the head.
Shooting up in bed in a cold sweat, Asuma shuddered at the thought of "Dr. Seifried" smacking him with a gigantic homework assignment. "Well, that was terrifying." Asuma swiped his hair out of his face and swung his legs over the side of his bed, just taking a quick look at his deck box before getting ready for the day with a quick shower and breakfast, hug for his mom and out the door for school he went, bag slung over a shoulder and deck slid into a pocket. He had the sun in his face and the wind in his hair, overall a good feeling for the day. School flew by, he ate with Misaki again with only minimal scolding for his study habits, mostly small talk. Afterwards he practically flew down the steps, quickly catching up to Misaki on her way to Card Capital: he passed her by with a smile, a wave, and a quick "See ya there!" Asuma's grin only widened as he felt the pavement under him fly by, running harder than he had in a good while, eating up the usual 20-minute walk to Card Capital in under 5. Slowing down as the sliding doors and bright yellow banner came into view, Asuma took a deep breath and headed into the card shop.
As the doors slid open and he stepped inside, the first thing Asuma noticed was the small cluster of people around one table that included Morikawa and Izaki, as well as Miwa. 'Wonder what all the fuss is about.' Asuma thought, walking down the aisle of tables to get a better look, and to his surprise, Asuma saw Aichi sitting at the center of attention. It wasn't because of a fight; everyone seemed to be looking at just one of his cards. "Woah, I've never seen that card before!" "Is that even in any of the sets out right now?" These were just some of the chatter that Asuma heard, before he stepped through to the front of the circle. "Hey, what's going on Aichi? I'm gone for one day and suddenly you've got a brand-new rare card?" The blue-haired boy turned, looking a bit startled. "Huh? Oh, hey Asuma yeah Morikawa, Izaki and I went looking for new places to cardfight, and we found this super cool shop! I lost to one of the owners, but they were really nice and gave me this card for free." He smiled brightly and showed Asuma the card, depicting a noble-looking swordsman on a horse with a mane of fire. "This is King of Knights, Alfred!"
Asuma's eyes went wide at the flashy-looking card. He asked, "Looks pretty cool, where did you get it?" Just as Aichi was about to respond, Morikawa butted in, "We went this craaazy card shop man! It was run by idols, but they turned out to be super good at Vanguard, and Aichi lost to the most wonderful girl I've ever seen! But then when I tried to go back after we left, it was gone!" Asuma flinched from the sudden shouting, taking a step back from his loud acquaintance. "Woah, what? That sounds insane, a disappearing shop?" He thought for a second, then had a realization hit him like a truck. "Wait, you said it was run by idols? The shop you went to wouldn't happen to be called PSY, would it?" Asuma excitedly inquired, stepping a bit closer to Morikawa. "Uh, y-yeah, why? You heard of the place before?"
"I actually went there once, earlier this week. But uh, those idol girls, Ultra-Rare? They kicked me out for no reason! All I did was walk in!" Asuma explained what happened when he met Suiko, Kourin, and Rekka. "Wait, you said it was over by the first monorail station? When we went there PSY was over in the mall downtown. And they threw you out? When we went, they showed us around and Kourin even had a fight with me." Aichi said, puzzled, once Asuma finished his story. Miwa just leaned back in his chair, "Man, I've got to get out more. All you guys are out here meeting idols and finding strange shops with rare cards, while I'm just having some fights and opening packs with nothing good in them!" The blonde boy laughed and stood up, walking towards the door. "I'm headed on an adventure of my own, I'll let you know if I can be the third to find this mysterious PSY." He winked and spun away from the group, nearly walking straight into Misaki as she arrived at the store.
Meanwhile, Asuma had noticed a flyer for the shop tournament. "Hey Aichi, are you planning on entering the tournament with your new unit?" He asked while pointing at the flyer. The blue-haired card fighter looked up from his card, seemingly having been lost in thought. "Huh? Oh yeah, that's tomorrow right? I'll definitely enter the tournament, I just have to do some fine tuning with my deck first." Asuma smiled and stood up, gently smacking his younger friend on the shoulder. "You'll have to go through me to win it you know!" He grinned and gave Aichi a thumbs up before walking over to the counter. "Hey Misaki, do you have the registration forms for-" Asuma was cut off when she pushed a piece of paper directly into his chest. "Here. Make sure you fill it out correctly, alright?" Misaki gave a half-smile and held up her deck, with CEO Amaterasu shining straight at Asuma. "Don't think you'll be able to run through the bracket to get straight to Kai, Asuma." Seeing her determination filled Asuma with a similar emotion, and he gave her a big grin. "Looks like I'm building quite the collection of rivals. I'm looking forward to fighting you."
After filling out his registration form, Asuma ended up buying some packs to see if he could build up a new strategy for the tournament. Opening them at one of the tables next to Aichi's, where he could see his friend shuffling cards around in different piles, obviously concentrating on making his best deck. Asuma got his own deck box out and started opening packs. The first few didn't have anything special in them, but as he got down to his last three Asuma found some interesting cards, and what he found in his last pack made his eyes light up. "I think I'll be able to make quite the impact on this tournament with your help."
A/N: Ladies and gents, we got there! Next chapter marks the start of the Card Capital Shop Tournament! With tough competition all around from rivals old and new, will Asuma be able to rise to the top? I thank all of you for waiting patiently for me to get off my ass and write this story. I love doing it and I love Vanguard, so I hope you're all ready for a slew of fights coming your way! Make sure to drop a review if you have something you want to see me do and leave any pairings you want to see! It means so much to me that people actually care about what I write, and I look forward to continuing Asuma's story. -SidewaysRiku