And with the votes I've got in, the character you've chosen is Ishida Naoki! Before we get down into this, I'll go ahead and answer another question.
Q1: catboy97 - Given the fact that Umuru is appearing in the story will Tawil appear in the story as well and will she have some kind of tsundereish personality to her given the fact that her lore of her base form has her saying in a tsun tsun tone?
A: Hmm... Not sure what I can say with this one, given how many characters I'm already handling in the story (Umuru included) and the fact that recent feedback about Tawil's playstyle seems less than... favourable. But I'll think about it.
Hope you enjoy this chapter and word of warning, one or two freak outs in this one.
EDIT: 2/3/2015 - Thanks for pointing out that small error guest 97. Fixed now.
Wixoss World: City Park
Things hadn't started out smoothly for Naoki. Upon waking up in the other world he had made it to, not only did he find out that had he gotten himself separated from Aichi, Ren and Leon, but he also had no idea of where exactly he was. In addition, because of how late it was by the time he had regained consciousness, he had to resort to sleeping out on a park bench for the entire night which was anything but comfortable. Upon waking up the morning afterwards, he had decided his first priority was to worry about finding out where he was exactly and reuniting with Aichi and the others so they could hopefully find Kai as soon as possible. Naoki was thankful however that he remembered to pack in a few snacks in his bag in order to avoid going hungry early, though he knew it would only be a matter of time before he would run low.
Upon leaving the bench, he began to wander around the park, curious as to see if he would find anything of interest. So far though, everything seemed the same to the Narukami user, nothing particularly different about this world from his own. That was, until he was about to pass by a group of girls chatting amongst one another. As he was passing by though, his ear suddenly twitched as he heard an additional voice in the conversation. Naoki briefly glanced over to the group, there were three girls present, yet he could of sworn that he heard a fourth voice present. Suddenly afterwards, he heard a fifth as he scratched his head in confusion. He looked around him, but he couldn't find the sources of the additional voices.
(Cardfight! Vanguard OST: Kossori Tsuiseki)
What the heck? he thought Did I hit my head hard after landing in who knows where?
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as one of the girls looked over towards him.
"Is there a problem?" she asked.
"N... no, it's nothin'!" he replied "I... was just hearing things, that's all!" After bowing in apology, Naoki quickly went on his way, hoping not to cause any more trouble with the group. Unbeknowst to him however, his actions had not gone unnoticed as a pair of familiar dark brown eyes from a nearby set of bushes was glancing right at him. Eventually after finding a different spot in the park to stop for a bit, when Naoki was sure that he had regained his composure and possibly his sanity, he found what he hoped was a lonely spot to reflect on what had just happened. First, he was in some kind of city away from Aichi and the others and now, he felt as if he was just hearing weird voices in his head. Sighing out of curiosity, he took out his deck box and picked out the cards from inside. When he glanced closely at them however...
"W... W... WHAT THE HELL?!" he cried before screaming out loud, his voice echoing across the entire city and catching the attention of someone nearby.
(End Music)
City Streets
As Aichi and 'Yuzuki' continued to wander the streets in search of Kai, the cardfighter couldn't help but wonder how his friend was faring. All he knew was that the sooner he could find him, the sooner he could find out what he had gotten himself into. As he walked with 'Yuzuki' down a street, like Naoki from before, he could also hear additional voices coming over from other girls nearby, unbeknowst to him were coming from their LRIGs. The twin 'sibling' of Kazuki looked down at him, suddenly noticing one of his eyes glowing a bright rainbow colour.
"Is something wrong Aichi?" she asked. Aichi suddenly looked back at her, the previous glow in his eye suddenly disappearing, unbeknownst to him.
"I thought I could hear some strange voices," he answered "You can hear them, right?" Before 'Yuzuki' could answer his question, the two could suddenly hear Naoki's scream echoing across the street, catching their attention.
"What was that?" she murmured.
"That sounded like Naoki!" gasped Aichi.
"Naoki?"
"He's a friend of mine," he replied "But it sounds like he's in trouble."
"It sounded like his scream came from the park," said 'Yuzuki' "If we hurry, we might be able to catch up with him." Aichi nodded in agreement before the two ran off in the direction of the park, 'Yuzuki' staying in front so that the cardfighter would not end up getting lost in the streets.
Elsewhere...
By the time Naoki had finished his loud scream of disbelief, he breathed heavily as he looked back at his cards. He still couldn't believe what he had just seen before his eyes. The Narukami Brawlers he used were still there, but their card borders and stats had completely changed. There were now several things that didn't make sense to him that he was now seeing on his cards, LRIG, SIGNI, Spell and ARTS. Just what did this all mean to him? How had his cards changed whilst he had been unconscious? None this was making any sense to him, panic being the only expression littered all over his face. Taking a deep breath, he looked around him to make sure he had regained his composure before his eyes suddenly picked up on Chiyori who was standing only a few feet from him, startled from his sudden outburst.
(Selector Infected Wixoss OST: Something is Going to Start)
"S... sorry about that!" he called before bowing in apology "I didn't see you there!"
"Just try not to be so loud!" she replied "Your scream almost deafened my ears."
"Heheh. No need to worry Chiyori, he didn't mean any harm."
Before the Selector could walk away, Naoki having realized that there was another person present quickly scanned across his surroundings to find the source of the voice. Chiyori looked back at him, wondering what was up with the Narukami user all of a sudden before he then looked back at her.
"Hey, did you hear that?" he asked.
"Hear what?" asked Chiyori.
"I thought I heard another voice," answered Naoki "Oh, is Chiyori your name?"
"Mhm," she answered before suddenly becoming confused. "Wait, how did you know?!"
"I… I heard a voice saying "No need to worry Chiyori, he didn't mean harm"," he said whilst trying his best to do a rough impersonation of the voice that spoke out. "Did you hear it too?" Chiyori was surprised. She never expected him to actually hear the voice of the LRIG she had in her possession, the only 'other' boy she knew being Kai. She pulled out the LRIG card from her jacket pocket and walked over to Naoki. She then showed him the front of Eldora's card she held as the cardfighter looked on closely in wonder.
"You can see her, right?" she asked. Eldora herself then looked up at Naoki and offered him a warm smile in greeting.
"Why hello there," she said kindly.
Naoki gasped, then he stumbled and fell backwards in disbelief to what he was seeing and hearing right in front of him. Whilst Chiyori could only stare at him in confusion, the cardfighter was struggling to process everything he had just witnessed. Did… did that card just speak to me?! What the heck is going on?!
"Oh, sorry if I frightened you," the LRIG replied "Though this wouldn't be the first time someone would be freaking out over the appearance of someone talking inside a card."
"So… I'm not imagining things," said Naoki as he got up, still trying to process what he had just witnessed. "That card… can actually talk. What's your name?"
"My name is Eldora," the LRIG replied warmly "You really are an interesting person, yelling out to the sky like that."
"Oh… You heard all that..." he answered "I've just had some rough things happen lately, that's all."
"Say!" called Chiyori "You must have an LRIG of your own that can talk as well, right?"
"LRIG?" Naoki pondered before remembering back to when he looked at his deck to find it had changed to adapt to the rulings of Wixoss. "Well I have a few, but none of them talk like yours," he answered. He then got out his deck and held out the LRIG cards to Chiyori to show what he meant. She wasn't exactly surprised from what she saw, having already been familiar with some of Kai's cards in their previous battle. Rather than just one card with a single LRIG to act as Naoki's avatar in Selector Battles, they seemed to be multiple cards that depicted different sorts of dragons. In addition, his cards appeared to have their borders colored in yellow, a color that wasn't even present in Wixoss until his arrival. Just as Naoki said however, none of them could move or talk.
"Aw…" Chiyori pouted "That's no fun." Eldora however seemed to disagree with her viewpoint.
"You're right that your LRIGs don't seem to talk," she replied "But I can feel something from them that is similar to a Selector's LRIG, much like 'his'. You have played Wixoss before, right?"
"Uh, nope," answered Naoki "But, what do you mean by 'his'?"
"You haven't heard?" said Chiyori "The 'infamous boy Selector' and expert of Kagero, Kai Toshiki!" Naoki suddenly gasped out loud. He was in luck and he just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
(End Music)
"You've seen Kai?!" he asked.
"But of course," answered Eldora "We've run into him a few times before meeting you."
"Then do you think you know where I can find him?!"
"That would be easy if we could find out where he goes on a regular basis," replied Chiyori "By the way, you haven't introduced yourself."
"Ah, that's right," he said whilst scratching his head in embarassment "My name's Ishida Naoki."
"So I was right in following you!"
(Selector Infected Wixoss OST: Akira)
Everyone suddenly had their thoughts interrupted as another voice had entered the vicinity of the seemingly empty area of the park. Naoki quickly scanned around the area, wondering if it was another LRIG like Eldora. His answer came in the form of Akira who had entered the park into the group's sight only a few moments after Naoki had given out his name. Like before in the magazine that Hitoe had previously read on the day before, her scar from her an earlier confrontation had seemingly vanished from her right cheek altogether. Naoki felt a little uncomfortable from noticing her smile on her lips.
"So you're another 'boy' Selector," she spoke "And someone who knows Kai quite well."
"Wait," he murmured "What do you mean 'boy' Selector? And how do you know Kai?"
"Let's just say he and I have some unfinished business," Akira smirked "It seems Ulith was correct in there being people like him around here."
"Hey, isn't that..." murmured Chiyori "Um... What was her name again?"
"I don't know," said Eldora.
"Never heard of her," replied Naoki. Akira could only frown a little from the remarks, but quickly shook it off as she turned her attention back to Naoki, pulling out Mirurun's LRIG card and displaying it before him and Chiyori.
"Hi! I'm Mirurun! Pleased to meet you, lun-lun!" the LRIG called out before staring at Naoki in confusion as to the fact he was looking right at her. Things suddenly began to make sense for the Narukami user.
"Wait a sec..." he murmured, suddenly remembering back to earlier. "Those voices from earlier... They were from cards like yours!"
"Oh, so you've figured it out, Ishida?" Akira playfully mused. "Not 'everyone' can hear the voice of an LRIG. Though if I wasn't a Selector, I'm sure I would have branded you off for acting crazy."
"You...!" he growled.
"But enough of that," she continued "If you somehow know Kai well, then defeating you will mean I'm a step closer to claiming vegeance." As she turned Mirurun's card around to open the battlefield, Naoki quickly glanced back at Chiyori before looking back at Akira.
"Hey, wait!" he called "I don't even know how these battles work!"
"Too bad for you then," she replied "Your loss will contribute to my gain. OPEN!" A wave of blue energy suddenly erupted from Mirurun's card and engulfed both Naoki and Akira, bringing them to the field that awaited them. Chiyori having stood just behind Naoki at the time of the declaration was also brought along to watch from the sidelines with Eldora.
(End Music)
Selector Battlefield
When Naoki eventually came to his senses, he found himself on the battlefield. On his table, he could already see his Life Cloths and starting hand set up for him, though he had no idea of that yet. On the LRIG space, he could see Brawler, Fighting Dracokid stanced and ready to battle on his behalf. Naoki's half of the battlefield was mostly coloured yellow, much to the confusion of Mirurun who was all set up and ready to start the battle with Akira. The Selector looked over towards Fighting Dracokid, sneering with interest.
"So you also have dragons for LRIGs," she spoke "How scary! Goosey-goosey-goosebumps!"
Fighting Dracokid growled in response to Akira's attitude, clearly showing he wasn't exactly a big fan of the way she acted. This caught the attention of Naoki as he noticed the sudden response from the Narukami unit, surprised by this turn of events.
"Y... you're the real thing?!" he gasped.
"But of course, my Vanguard!" the Dracokid answered "Did you not think that we from Cray also existed?"
"W... Well, I knew that," replied Naoki "Leon did mention it once or twice. But still..."
"Either way," Fighting Dracokid spoke "Let's get this over with. That girl's really starting to get under my hide." Naoki nodded in agreement, having also wanted to get the battle over with. But that was the problem stirring up in his head. He had no idea of how to accustom himself with the changes among his cards and also having no idea of even to play Wixoss himself. Naoki shook his head clear of that thought, trying not to worry about it too much. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as he heard a strange noise before looking above him, seeing the roulette with the yellow and blue colours that represented his deck types. Seconds later, the giant wheel stopped on a yellow slot. He stared at the slot, wondering what this could all mean.
(Cardfight! Vanguard Unreleased Soundtrack: Charge!)*
"Well, what are you waiting for, Ishida-lun?!" Mirurun called out, bringing Naoki's attention to her. "You can choose who can make the first move!"
"R... Right," he replied. Naoki thought carefully over what he should do. He knew he could take the first move right off the bat, but he knew that as he had no idea to how things worked in the Selector Battles, there was a very high chance of messing things up from the get go. However, there was always the option of letting Akira go first instead, so he could study her move to see how things should play out properly. He gathered his thoughts together as he analyzed the situation before making a final decision.
Even if I don't know how these battles work at first he thought I'll go at it like I always have with Vanguard.
"I'll go second!"
"Oh, so you're going to attack first," replied Akira "Fine by me, Aki-lucky." She drew her card and then turned her attention to Mirurun.
"Grow, Mirurun Nano!"
A series of flashes rose up around the LRIG, her appearance not changing at all with the exception of a small hairprin that seemed to resemble that of a chibi cat. She flashed a cute smile towards both Naoki and Fighting Dracokid, only succeeding in receiving dumbfounded looks from both of them. That didn't seem to matter though as Akira continued with her turn.
"Summon!" A SIGNI known simply as Chlorine, Natural Source, appeared in front of Mirurun with beautiful blue hair and a dress to match with the tone. Akira then made a sign over to Naoki that she was passing the turn over to him.
"All right!" he called "Let's go! Draw!" As he reached out over the top of the main deck with the intention of drawing a single card, the top two cards suddenly jumped into the palm of his hand. Naoki gasped at this, wondering if he did something wrong.
"What's the worry?" Fighting Dracokid asked "I'm not sure how, but I can sense what you did was right."
"Y... you think?" The Narukami unit nodded as Naoki let out a sigh of relief. After looking among the cards in his hand, he thought about what he saw on Akira's turn just then. Looking down at Fighting Dracokid's card and noticing the Level icon like he did with the other cards that were transformed into LRIGs, he made a decision.
"Rid... I mean, Grow!" he called out "Baton Brawler, Sogo!"
In a flash of light, Fighting Dracokid vanished from the LRIG space as a male warrior descended onto the battlefield in his place. Sogo had wild hair in an assortment of red and yellow and carried a blade that seemed to ressemble that of a dragon's tail. Naoki looked back at his hand, noticing a variety of options that he could utilize. The SIGNI that were in his hand had an assortment of different levels, but something in his gut was telling him that he couldn't use the higher level SIGNI right off the mark. Glancing over carefully, he made a decision.
"Right. I got this," he said to himself, trying to keep his end under control as he picked up a card and tossed it in front of Sogo. "Call! Wildclock Dragon!" In a flash of lightning, a red dragon with what appeared to be a cloak that was sticking out from the lower body beneath the wings appeared in front of the LRIG space. The brief lightning flash had not only been just for show, it also briefly illuminated the outlines of the SIGNI spaces, allowing Naoki to realized he could only put out up to three SIGNI at a time. Looking over towards Chlorine, without any further hesitation, he went along with what was essentially a gut instinct.
"Wildclock Dragon attacks!" he declared. The dragon dashed on all four of its legs across the entire length of the distance between Naoki and Akira's tables before leaping into the air and bringing down its right claw on Chlorine, elminating her from the battle. The card moved over to Akira's Ener Zone, though the Selector herself didn't seem concerned with the result as she looked back at Naoki.
"Next, Sogo!"
"Guard." Servant O2 suddenly appeared in front of Mirurun, deflecting the strike that was landed by Sogo. The Brawler gritted his teeth in annoyance before leaping back to Naoki's table. The Narukami could only clench his teeth from his opening move being blocked easily, but quickly looked down at his hand to see that he had Eradicator, Wyvern Guard Guld at the ready whenever he needed it.
"Turn end," he groaned.
(End Music)
End of Turn 2
Naoki vs Akira
Hand - 6 : 4
Life Cloths - 7 : 7
Current LRIGs - Baton Brawler, Sogo : Mirurun Nano
SIGNI: EMPTY - Brawler, Wildclock Dragon - EMPTY : EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY
Ener - 0 : 1
"Is that all?" Akira spoke.
"Huh?!"
"It seems as if compared to Kai," she continued "You're not much of a threat. I suppose Ulith was overconcerned about how you and those 'others' she told me to watch out for."
"What are you saying?!" Naoki demanded.
"Oh, you know. Others like you and Kai if I recall their names. Suzugamori Ren, Soryu Leon and..." Her lips pursed a sinister smile in particular when she recalled the last name she was given. "Sendou Aichi." Naoki could only stare in disbelief towards Akira. How had she known about him, Aichi and the others despite not meeting them before? Truth be told, Akira herself was the only one with the answer to that question as she began reminiscing about what happened earlier in the day.
Flashback
Akira was busy in her bedroom, applying some makeup that Ulith had given her to cover up the scar she had on her right cheek. Sometime after the Selector had gained Mirurun as her new LRIG after losing Piruluk as a direct result of her loss to Kai, Ulith had visited Akira to get back her job and seemingly express some 'longing feelings' that the former LRIG of Iona did not seem to show previously. Needless to say, Akira was all too happy to accept both Ulith's offer and express some return of those same feelings herself. As a result, she found herself more dedicated to pleasing Ulith by any means in order to maintain their new 'relationship', even if it meant hurting others. Earlier in the morning, Ulith had approached Akira with a piece of paper held in her hand.
"Akira, I have a small request to ask of you," she spoke.
"What does Ulith request Aki-lovely to do?" Akira asked. Ulith handed over the piece of paper to the Selector who stared at it in confusion.
"This is a list of names that my, 'higher-ups' have drawn up," she explained.
"But, they're all boy's names..." murmured Akira. Then it suddenly hit her. "Don't tell me, they're just like Kai, right?!" Ulith gave a single nod, confirming the Selector's suspicions.
"Then I'll do anything you'll ask!" she replied "I'll swiftly eliminate them for you, Ulith! Even Ruko and the real Iona!"
"Patience, Akira," Ulith softly spoke whilst kneeling down and gently clasping Akira's left cheek, causing the Selector to blush deeply. "We'll deal with them when the perfect opportunity arises. For now though, I just want you to find and observe them. Nothing more, nothing less. We'll 'take care' of Ruko soon afterwards." Akira nodded in reply to Ulith's request before she smiled and left the Selector to her own accord.
End Flashback
(Selector Infected Wixoss OST: Battle More)
Akira glanced over towards Naoki, her smile never leaving her lips making his expression seem less comfortable than before. Over from a nearby tower on the battlefield, Chiyori and Eldora could only look on at the cardfighter, curious as to how he planned to win with no experience in any Wixoss battles before. So far, things did seem promising from Naoki managing to pick up on part of the concepts of Grow, but the fact that he had no knowledge of other important rulings at this point seemed to make the situation seem grim.
"Well then, I wonder if Ishida will be able to keep up with his lack of knowledge," murmured Eldora.
"He better do so!" called Chiyori "I want to see him hang on long enough to get out that cool LRIG I saw in his deck! Big Bang... Um..."
"I believe you meant Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Buster," the LRIG replied.
"That's the one!" said Chiyori "The card with that strange symbol on it!" Eldora shrugged a little from her Selector's ethusiasm, but went deep into thought about what she mentioned just now. She did remember seeing a strange yellow symbol on Big Bang Knuckle Buster's card when Naoki showed the two the LRIG cards he had, which was actually half of the Legion symbol. Either way, she was intrigued to see just what the cardfighter could pull off if he could first survive what was coming to him. Back on the battlefield, Akira began her turn by drawing more cards before dropping one from her hand into her Ener Zone and glancing towards her LRIG deck.
"Grow, Mirurun Pico!" In a series of flashes, Mirurun's dress had mostly changed, incorporating wave like patterns in the same style as her hair. Speaking of her hair, the largest star that was present in there had only grown even larger. In addition, Mirurun was now also wielding what appeared to be a crossbow of some kind. The crosshairs had the same style as her actual hair and the end of the weapon had an upside down heart pointing outwards.
"Summon!" Two SIGNI known as Fluorine, Natural Source appeared to the left and right of Mirurun. Akira sneered as she turned her attention to the SIGNI that was on her left hand side.
"My first Fluorine attacks!" she declared. The Flurorine on the left picked up the ring that was surrounding her waist before holding it above her and tossing it in the direction of Sogo. Naoki glanced over his hand and noticed Brawler, Green Gem Carbuncle among the cards. As he picked it up, he gasped as he suddenly noticed Guld's text box again before looking back at the SIGNI's own text box. Unlike Guld, Green Gem Carbuncle didn't have a Guard icon, causing him to groan loudly. The ring that Fluorine had hurled towards Sogo exploded on contact with his sword, knocking him backwards. Naoki just had enough time to notice his first Life Cloth enter his Ener Zone, revealing Brawler, Heavy Trailer Dragon which glowed indicating an effect.
"Um... Draw Trigger!" he called, closely inspecting the text that was imprinted on the card's effect box to see if he was correct on his instinctive. To his relief, he was 'mostly' correct, only one clause being missing from when it was still a Vanguard card. "I draw!"
"Next!" called Akira. The other Fluorine hurled her ring at Sogo, achieving the same result as before. Naoki's second Life Cloth revealed Brawler, Big Bang Slash Dragon, no Life Burst present on the card this time. Naoki himself however could only clench his teeth, partially blaming himself for not asking Chiyori and Eldora in advance of the rules before Akira had approached them.
"Mirurun!" The cardfighter quickly snapped out of his stupor as he saw Mirurun take aim at Sogo with the crossbow she wielded. Quickly looking back at his hand and recalling that Mirurun was the LRIG that Akira was using, he made a decision, just as she fired the arrow from her weapon.
"P... perfect Guard!" he called as he threw down Guld's card in front of Wildclock Dragon's card. A purple wyvern suddenly appeared in a flash of lightning as a green circle appeared in front, deflecting Mirurun's attack with ease. After the Wyvern Guard had vanished, Mirurun could only pout that her first attack in the battle had not gone as successfully as she hoped. Akira however didn't seem concerned, having taken into account that she still had an advantage, mainly due to Naoki's lack of experience.
(End Music)
"So you've finally figured out how to Guard properly," she spoke "No matter. Once I'm done with you, Ulith will have one less 'boy' Selector to worry about. With this, I end my turn."
End of Turn 3
Naoki vs Akira
Hand - 6 : 4
Life Cloths - 5 : 7
Current LRIGs - Baton Brawler, Sogo : Mirurun Pico
SIGNI: EMPTY - Brawler, Wildclock Dragon - EMPTY : Chlorine, Natural Source - EMPTY - Chlorine, Natural Source
Ener - 2 : 0
"This is just great!" Naoki muttered to himself "I help liberate Miyaji Academy from Reverse and knock the icy pants off of Serra!" He then glared back in the direction of Mirurun and Akira, whose smile had not left her lips and it was starting to get under his skin. I refuse to become the laughing stock of this girl's little act.
"Let's go!" he called "Draw!" Looking over towards Mirurun and thinking back as to how she grew last turn, remembering seeing how Akira had grown her to this Level from using a card from her Ener Zone, he assumed the same thing were to happen with him. Looking over to his own Ener Zone, he made a decision and moved Heavy Trailer Dragon to his Trash.
(Cardfight! Vanguard Unreleased Soundtrack: Burning Passion)*
"Let's Grow!" he called "Jailock Brawler, Konteka!" In a clap of thunder, Sogo exited the battlefield as a male warrior with scaled red and yellow armour along with grey hair and a electrified orange chain wielded in his right hand. Looking back over his hand, Naoki smiled in relief upon looking more closely at his cards. Things weren't completely different or alien to him as he first thought and he was starting to understand more about what was going on in the battle.
"Call!" he declared as two SIGNI cards went in the spaces. These cards were Brawler, Skyhowl Dragon and Green Gem Carbuncle who appeared to the left and right of Konteka. The units appeared in flashes of sparks and stood poised for battle.
"Skyhowl Dragon's skill! I ret... banish the Chlorine in front of Green Gem Carbuncle!" After moving Big Bang Slash's card to his Trash, Skyhowl roared loudly as a volley of electrical sparks shocked Chlorine before she suddenly vanished from the battlefield. As the card moved to Akira's Ener Zone, Mirurun suddenly felt a wave of nervousness cross over her whilst her Selector did not seem concerned in the slightest. She merely huffed a small laugh, catching Naoki's attention.
"What's so funny?!" he snapped.
"Oh nothing," she replied "Your tactics are pretty much the same as Kai's so I'm not surprised. At least I can consider you warm up for him."
"Tsk! Let's go!" called Naoki "Attack!"
All of his SIGNI charged forwards towards Mirurun at lightning fast speed. Skyhowl make quick work out of the other Chlorine SIGNI whilst Green Gem Carbuncle and Wildclock Dragon took turns in landing a single hit from each on Mirurun. The LRIG tried to parry them off with her crossbow, but it had little effect as she was knocked back by the slash of a claw from Wildclock Dragon. Akira's next two Life Cloths revealed SHORT and Neon, Natural Princess, the second card having a Life Burst present. The Selector smirked as she drew her single card.
"Kontenka, attack!" Naoki declared.
"Guard." This time, it was the turn of Servant O to Guard Naoki's attack against Mirurun. Kontenka hurled the chain at Mirurun, but the Guard SIGNI's defensive stance was enough to block it before she vanished. The Narukami unit groaned as he pulled the chain he wielded back to the LRIG space. Naoki could only feel a little annoyed from this result.
"Tsk! Again?!" he growled.
"It looks like Aki-lucky's got a nice defensive streak built up," the Selector sneered "Too bad for you!"
"Ggg... Turn end."
(End Music)
End of Turn 4
Naoki vs Akira
Hand - 6 : 4
Life Cloths - 5 : 5
Current LRIGs - Jailock Brawler, Kontenka : Mirurun Pico
SIGNI: Brawler, Skyhowl Dragon - Brawler, Wildclock Dragon - Brawler, Green Gem Carbuncle : EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY
Ener - 0 : 3
"Alright! He's managed to tie it up!" called Chiyori "I'm looking forward to seeing what's next!" Eldora however seemed to not be as enthiusiastic as her Selector about how Naoki was faring.
"I wouldn't count Ishida in clear just yet," she replied "From the way things are looking, that girl's just toying with him." Chiyori pouted a little from her response, but looked back onto the battlefield, eager to see how things would turn out.
Just outside the City Park...
"Naoki-kun!"
Aichi desperately called out the name of his friend, hoping he could find him quickly before he could have left the park, unaware of the battle that he was now participating in. After a few more feet of running, both he and 'Yuzuki' stopped just outside of the park, panting from running the long distance to there. She looked back at the cardfighter who in return looked back at her.
"Do you think... we should take a small break..." she panted.
"Y...yeah," replied Aichi who nodded in agreement. The two managed to find a nearby bench to sit down in the hopes of quickly catching their breath. As they were doing so, 'Yuzuki' turned back towards the cardfighter with something on her mind.
"What is it, 'Yuzuki'?" he asked.
"You mentioned before that you said you could hear strange voices," she said, recounting of when she saw his eye glowing.
"Well..." Aichi murmured, unsure as how to answer.
"Then perhaps it would be interesting for you to know, that I can hear these voices as well," 'Yuzuki' answered.
"R... really?!" he gasped.
"That's correct," she replied "Normally, a special kind of Wixoss player known as a Selector can hear the voices of living, breathing LRIGs in their possession. I'm not sure as to how you fall under that category, but I can sense from the cards you hold that same feeling." As Aichi could only think on in wonder, as to what she actually meant, their thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.
"So Kai isn't the only one."
Aichi and 'Yuzuki' suddenly turned their attention to the source of where the sudden interruption came from. There, standing before the two of them at a distance was Ruko, holding out Iona's LRIG card out before her. Her expression didn't seem very happy, but at the same time, she didn't seem angry at the pair. She at first gazed towards 'Yuzuki', having already known who she really was from before turning her attention to Aichi who could only look on in wonder and confusion. What did she mean that Kai wasn't the only one? He had a feeling though that he would find out right now.
And there we go! As Naoki struggles onwards against Akira with new LRIG Mirurun whilst getting to grips with the rules of the battle, he begins to find a way to possibly turn the tables from his current scenario. Meanwhile, Aichi begins to learn of how he can hear and see the LRIGs belonging to that of Selectors from Hanayo, just as he comes face to face with Ruko for the first time. Oh and if any of you are wondering about Naoki's mix-up with the vocabulary of Vanguard and Wixoss, keep in mind that he was challenged with no knowledge of the rules, pretty much immediatly after finding out that his deck adapted to Wixoss. And don't worry, this will be the only battle in which that will happen (as I'm sure it would be a pointless and annoying running gag). Don't forget to follow, favourite and/or leave a review! Hope you've enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you again next time!
*This soundtrack first plays in Episode 149 when Naoki begins his match with Reverse Shingo.
*This soundtrack plays in Episode 166 when Naoki rides Brawler, Skybeat Dragon.
