Me: Hello, welcome to me being stuck in China with a sucky computer battery and school starting! Welp, I got this. Oh, and also, some random pairings I might throw in:

EmixKamui (one-sided at first, possibly improves)

MiwaxMisaki

AsakaxRen (cause both of these dorks should just get together)

KouteixYuri (again, cause they're both dorks for each other)

Leonx (one of the twins, still deciding. Leon won't make an appearance for quite a while though, so I can worry about this much later)

SubmanagerxFish (I'm so sorry)

Disclaimer: If I owned Cardfight Vanguard, Kai would already be making out with Aichi. Because I do not, that's why this is here.

Chapter 4: Dance

"Hand me the bandages!"

"No you need to apply the medicinal mix first!"

"That's not how it works!"

"You. Calm down now before you destroy the patients instead of helping them."

"According to research you should really wash it first with clean water..."

There was a horrified expression stuck to Aichi's face as she watched the four of them argue amongst themselves. "U-Um, am I done...?"

"No! Not until Kusuke realizes we gotta apply the bandages now!" Ayaka yelled.

"I-It wasn't chaos like this yesterday... Why is it like this now..." Aichi mumbled.

"It's Lim's lunch break." Rika said from behind her, making her jump in surprise for the nth time that day. How come people liked surprising her that much? "Lim can usually give out the orders, get Ayaka and Kusuke into line enough to work, and put general order into place here. She's 23, and was studying to be a doctor before the Void incident, making her the best option to be in charge of the medical ward here, at least, better than those two." She pointed at Ayaka and Kusuke, who were now yelling at each other while throwing rolls of bandages at each other while Seiri tried to calm them both down.

Aichi sweat-dropped. "I guess... so." She said.

"And since she's not around," Rika sighed, "I can keep Ayaka in line sometimes, and sometimes Seiri can to Kusuke, but they're both two hot-headed for their own good. Another reason why they cannot be put in charge of anything."

"Oh, is that so..." Aichi mumbled.

"Anyways, let's fix that arm." Rika said, picking up a roll of bandages that rolled across the ground from the commotion. "Don't mind them."

The alarm blared over the speakers again just as Rika finished wrapping bandages around Aichi's arm, sealing it.

"Oh, looks like Blitzkrieg's back." She said, sighing. "That means—"

The window next to them shattered, and Seiri pushed them both down to help them get away from the broken glass. "...something like that." Rika swore underneath her breath.

"WE'RE BACK WE'RE BACK!" A girl's voice yelled from outside, echoing throughout the entire area.

"Can you NOT break something every time you return?!" Rika yelled out the window. Down below was a girl with blonde pigtails and amber eyes, and a grey hoodie smirking up at them.

"Aw, but it's so much fun messing with you Riri!" She replied.

Rika scowled, showing the first emotion Aichi has seen on her face from when she first met her. The girl down below was spinning another rock on her finger like a basketball.

"Whitney? Could you, maybe, not throw that?" A small girl with short black hair said from behind her. "It's hard enough to make glass..."

"Eh, it'll get replaced! Stop worrying!" Whitney drawled, launching the rock into the air in their direction again. It flew towards them again, and Aichi ducked down, waiting for impact.

"Oi! Knock it off already!" A boy with bright red hair yelled, catching the rock and throwing it back out the window as he stood in front of Aichi and Rika. "I'm recovering from a broken leg here! Don't put more pressure on it!"

Whitney made a face. "Butt out Naoki! It's your fault for breaking it!"

"What was that?!"

"You heard me! Unless your ears are broken too!"

"We sorta need to get the water supply unpacked." A guy behind Whitney, with the same hair and eyes as Whitney (twins?) said, holding the handle to a huge wagon with barrels in it. "Can you two argue later?"

"It'll just take a few seconds Wesley." Whitney replied.

"No. It'll stop now." Takuma sighed, picking up a barrel of water from behind the twins. "And start taking these inside. Our current water is pretty low. You guys got back at a good time."

"Well, good thing we didn't take that extra break then, right Whitney?" Wesley turned to his twin, who started grumbling something about sore legs.

"This isn't over!" Whitney yelled. Rika stuck out her tongue, although Aichi doubted anyone would see it since they were so high up.

"Oi, calm, calm calm calm calm calm down you guys." Kusuke said, patting Naoki's back, who's face looked like it could have split from annoyance.

"I am a girl." Rika snapped, then stormed away grumbling.

"What's her problem?" He asked. Naoki shrugged.

"Girls, I guess." Naoki replied. He leaned on his crutch and hobbled out, leaving Seiri to clean the room and entire mess up. Again.

-linebreak-

Aichi sighed. It was surprisingly lively here for a place like this. She was going to go and take a nap in her room until dinner, where she was going to eat and relax. Then have a nice, peaceful sleep—

"Aichi!" Emi ran up to her, holding a laundry basket. "Aichi! We're having a party today at 8! Be down at the dining room at 8! Dinner's going to take place at that time as well!"

Aichi blinked. Party? Dinner? Her stomach inwardly growled, but Emi was already running down the hall away. "See you then! I have to tell the others!"

Her stomach growled again, this time louder. Um, um, um, um, oh, man… She skipped lunch because of all the chaos going on. She entered her room and looked out the window. Grey, grey, and more grey. Not much of a view…. Considering the broken buildings and remnants of society lying everywhere…

All that had happened in a week. She did not ever imagine herself to be fighting. No, mostly, well, she didn't imagine anything. It was nice being rescued, and she had to admit she had dreamed of it a few times, but she never really thought it would happen…

And she had never imagined she could cardfight. It had been a lucky coincidence she had managed to keep her deck after all that time. And how she kept stumbling upon houses with satisfying food and water.

Hitomi's words echoed in her mind. It never occurred to her to think about how she had been surviving, just that it sorta happened as she went along. It did seem a little… too convenient how she just traveled around, and got supplies at abandoned houses…

She squinted at something moving in the distance? A bird? Were there still birds around? A person? Void? Oh no Void! No alarms were going! There was only one person maybe they weren't picking up on just one! She stood up in a hurry and ran out of the room. She had to tell someone she had to tell someone!

She ran down the hallway, bumping into Kamui halfway. "I was not peeking at anything!" Kamui yelled as he stood up in a panic, then spotted her and breathed out. "Oh, it's only you. I thought it was—"

"Kamui-kun, I-I think I saw something coming!" Aichi said, and Kamui's eyes widened.

"Okay, let's go New Girl!" He yelled, taking off down the hallway. "Hurry up!"

Aichi glanced at what Kamui had been looking at before running after him. Emi and Mai getting laundry? Huh?

They ran all the way down the stairs, with Kamui leading the entire way. He dashed out the front door, nearly slamming into the sliding doors before they opened for him.

"OI! VOID! SHOW YOURSELF!" Kamui yelled at the top of his voice, attracting many heads to pop out of windows above. The figure walking in the distance stopped, then stepped out of the shadow of a building.

"Kamui, what are you doing." The woman said, walking forwards. She had light lavender hair and a black jacket and long skirt to the ground, with a white dress shirt underneath and a hand on her hip, accompanied by an annoyed expression. "You don't seriously think I'm Void now, do you?"

Kamui blinked. "Misaki-san?" Aichi finally caught up with him, and leaned on the side of the building to catch her breath, while looking at the woman. Misaki… san?

Oh.

Whoops.

Um…

Kamui glared at her for a second, before looking back at Misaki. "Sorry Misaki-san! There's been a misunderstanding!" He said cheerfully.

Misaki sighed, finally reaching the building. "This is the greeting I get? Wonderful."

"Kamui-san! We heard a commotion and—" The two kids always around Kamui ran out of the building, then completely froze when they saw Misaki. They immediately bowed in front of her. "Welcome back Misaki-san!"

"WBM!" Eiji followed up. Misaki raised an eyebrow at their behaviour.

"That's more like it." She said, and typed in an access code before entering the building. Just as she past Aichi, Aichi thought she saw something.

Misaki's hair all the sudden seemed blonde, with many strange red crooked horns coming out of her head. Her body looked white and mechanical with a black—

"Is there something wrong?" Aichi blinked, to see Misaki, with her lavender hair and light blue eyes peering down at her.

"O-Oh! Yeah. I mean, no! Nothing's wrong!" Aichi said, mentally hitting herself. Why was she staring! She needed more sleep, if she was going to keep hallucinating like this. Misaki gazed at her, before continuing inside.

"Don't spend too long out there thinking about where you went wrong in life." She called casually to Kamui, who scowled and went back inside with her, Aichi and the two kids following him.

"Hey, why did bow down to her?" Aichi whispered to the two boys as they passed.

"Oh, um, see Misaki-san? She's a bit… scary at times." Reiji whispered, hoping he wouldn't get heard.

"SAT…" Eiji muttered, having the same feelings as his friend.

The green-haired man at the desk with the computer looked up and smiled at them. "Welcome back Misaki."

Misaki smiled. "Thanks Shin."

"Please don't call me Shin… call me manager at least."

"Whatever you say Shin." She began petting submanager, who was waking up from his nap and stretching. As soon it saw Misaki, it screeched and dove beneath the counter as she retracted her hand quickly.

"He's never been like this before…" Manager said, stroking the cat to try and calm it down as it kept shivering in his lap. "Strange."

"Oh, you're back!" Kai, Miwa, and Blitzkrieg exited from the elevator, and Miwa waved at them. "Yo!"

"Just got back. How have things been?" Misaki asked as they came over.

"Peaceful, calm, except for a few weak attacks, nothing serious!" Miwa said, and Kai elbowed him in the ribs.

"There's one issue. I'll discuss it with you later." Kai said.

"But anyways, we're going to have so much fun tonight!" The black-haired girl from Blitzkrieg said happily. "I can't wait for your song!"

"Song?" Misaki raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. You agreed to sing a song at the party when us, Kamui, and you came back this month." Wesley said.

Misaki blinked. "Oh, sorry. I forgot."

"But you'll still sing though, right?"

"Yeah I will." She nodded. "I'm going to go take a shower and freshen up some then."

"Great! Me and Kai are gonna call Ren and see if things are okay on his side! You guys just hang tight, and the remember to come to the party!" He added the last part, seeing Aichi and the others enter. "See ya later!"

-linebreak-

The room was loud and full of people.

Aichi found that out very quickly as she tried to squeeze through the crowds of people dancing and talking with each other, looking for someone familiar. She had no idea where the flashing lights or music came from, but the song seemed slightly familiar and almost ear-deafening by the volume. She was just wearing a short light blue jacket over a red, long-sleeved shirt and some baggy jeans, which she had hoped wouldn't be out of place. It wasn't that out of place, she figured, when she looked around. Some people wore fancy clothing, others wore casual clothes, and some wore clothing she thought were undergarments, which made her face turn red when she saw them.

"Um, excuse me, excuse me?" She was tossed back and forth through the people, searching for something solid and unmoving to catch her breath on. Someone grabbed onto her, stopping her from tripping.

"Don't fall." Misaki said to her. "You're that new fighter, aren't you?" Aichi nodded. "You look like you could use a place to just hang out, considering all these people."

"Yeah…" Aichi said, a bit impressed about how she figured that out so quickly. "D-Do you know a place?"

"There's a bar near the back door, it should be fine. Let's go then." They squeezed through the moving crowd, Misaki leading the way until the back came into sight, where a long counter set up like a bar with many chairs was. They both each sat on a chair, Aichi breathing out. It felt nice to have some breathing space.

"Oolong tea please." Misaki said to the counter girl. "Are you thirsty?"

"N-Not really…" Aichi said. A cup of steaming tea was placed in front of Misaki, and she sipped it slowly.

"How do you like things here?"

Aichi blinked. "Oh, I think, it's nice." She said. "It's nice that people are staying alive like this, I guess."

"You guess." Misaki sighed. "Well, that's natural."

"How's everyone doing!" They both turned to see Whitney yelling into the microphone. "Today's celebration's for another month of survival against Void! We got our steady food supply, water, and an awesome duet coming up of Charlie and Reina! Although not as awesome as me." She added as an afterthought, and some people in the audience laughed at her joke. "But enough of how great I am, I'm sure you all already know thoroughly! So for now let's welcome the violin and flute duo!"

Charles and Reina stepped up to the stage and Whitney exited off of it, and they began playing their instruments into the microphone, echoing across the entire room as people began cheering.

"How annoying…" Aichi thought she heard Misaki mutter. Huh? It was probably the speaker system turned on a bit too loud though.

"People are enjoying things here so much. It's occasions like this when they aren't so down about how things are going for the world." Misaki said. She took a long sip from the tea, looking at the crowd of dancing people. Aichi noticed Kai and Miwa talking in the corner, and smiled a bit. Kai really didn't seem like the dancing type. But then, he really cared for everyone else.

"So how much do you know about Kai?" She asked Aichi.

"Kai?" Aichi repeated. "Um, he's… cool? Strong? Brave?"

"Very leader-like, isn't he."

"Yeah, he's good at that." Misaki said. "Vanguard means leader. Being a successful vanguard means being able to lead your units, or in Kai's case, all of us, into battle. Leading the troops into battle fearlessly, the one who will save both Cray and Earth. Do you think Kai can be that person?"

The question caught her off guard. "What?" She replied.

"You said Kai's strong. Do you think he could be the one to save all these people?"

Aichi blinked. Could Kai save everyone? "Yeah, I think he could." She blurted out quickly. When Misaki questioned her with a glance, her face went red. "I, well, I just think… I haven't known him that long… I just met him a few days ago… but I think he's really strong…"

"A few days ago?" Misaki asked, her eyes widening. "You mean you were a survivor? You survived all by yourself for five months?"

"It was five months?" That was Aichi's reply, and she blushed a bit. "Well, it just sort of happened. I can't really explain it… It was mostly me just hiding and fending off a few Voided people…. And eating a bit of food or water I found… it's not anything impressive…"

She felt like a specimen underneath a microscope like the ones they used to use at school, with the way Misaki looking at her like that. That didn't give her a good feeling. The first time her class had used microscopes, she broke one and everyone laughed at her like they usually did. The things she was supposed to be studying spilled all over the ground. It was probably unlikely, but she really hoped Misaki didn't knock her over onto the ground or anything like that…

Misaki's eyes flickered over to the back door. "I think I saw something. Let's check it out." She announced, grabbing her hand and leading her out of the party all the sudden. The outside was very chilly and dark, the sun having gone down a few hours ago. She rubbed her arms for warmth, being able to see her breath in the air already.

"So, what do you see?" Aichi asked.

Misaki scanned the area. "There's been a change of plans." She said. And all the sudden that black ring was back.

-linebreak-

"So, you, uh, enjoying the party?" Kusuke said, trying to break the ice. Takuma grunted. "It's pretty good, isn't it!"

He waited for a response. He didn't get one.

"I don't know how Reina and Charles still know how to play their instruments, but it's really cool how they can still perform for us!"

Still no response.

"Come on, try going on the dance floor and letting loose for a bit! These only happen once per month anyways! Can't you just take one little break from being so… what's that word Seiri uses… um…."

"Stoic?"

"Yeah! Stoic!" Kusuke froze. He started yelling, pointing at him and smiling. "YOU RESPONDED TO ME! YOU RESPONDED TO ME! YEAH!"

"Calm down." Takuma sighed. Why was he stuck with Kusuke again? Anyone would be better than Kusuke right now. Literally, anyone.

"HEY AYAKA! I WIN THE BET! TAKUMA RESPONDED TO ME!" Ayaka immediately ran over as soon as Kusuke was done yelling, and Takuma rewrote his thoughts. Make that anyone other than Kusuke and Ayaka.

The two began to argue over who knows what, and Takuma really, really wanted to just crack right there. Then he noticed Nina walking towards him, and breathed out. He was saved.

"What is it?" He asked when she arrived. She looked out of breath, and while that was understandable currently, she was also frowning and looked slightly panicked. Not a good sign.

"You know that new girl, one that was found a few days ago?"

Takuma nodded.

"Misaki just reported to Kai. She's missing."

Takuma Maki belongs to Digidramon

Nina Lim belongs to M0n0chr0meHue

Wesley, Whitney, Charles and Reina belong to Blackwing-Darkraven

Me: So, you see, this was originally a lot longer. Then since I decided you guys went long enough without an update, and you probably won't see one for a long time on this, I'm giving you this now. If you're OC hasn't appeared yet, then they will appear in chapter 6, since I just chopped the original plan for chapter 4 in half.

Astral: Her excuse is high school.

Me: Yeah that's all I got. Anyways, sorry about the wait for this chapter, sorry about the wait that will come for next chapter, and that's about it. Review please, it'll remind me to actually write the next one. Oh yeah, and one more thing. Comment on whether or not you'd prefer chapters of this length, 3000-4000 that'd come out faster, or chapters of around 6000-9000, that'd come out slower like I was doing before roughly.