Odd System
"So, they didn't figure out that you already knew about Sora..." Axel stared at Ichigo.
"So what?"
"Just saying, they thin they are so smart, and bam!"
"Their intelligence is not high on the bar as they think it is..." Multiple petals show up. A shocked Ichigo turned and saw a smiling Marluxia.
"What made you guys think that I care what you do in the night?"
"You did act like that," muttered Axel.
"Well, whatever. Sora will appear here within a few hours. All I need you guys to do is to sit back and watch the show..."
Axel and Ichigo decided to go to where Namine is, seeing a magical sphere in the middle of the room.
"We can see what will happen," said Axel. "Marluxia is going to 'take' all of his abilities, making him weak."
"Then, how do we do the experiments?" asked Ichigo.
"Well, unfortunately for us, there is a battle system in this castle. It relies on...cards."
"Excuse me?"
Axel smiled, holding up a card. Suddenly, his weapons appeared, and he was swinging them towards Ichigo. Ichigo dodged them, surprised.
"Time for practice!" Axel charged at Ichigo. The soul reaper saw a card number appear above his head, labeled seven. Again, Ichigo dodged, but this time, he tried to counterattack with his sword, only to feel unable to attack.
"As you can tell, you can't attack me. In this castle, we need cards to battle. There are ranges from zero to nine for all three card types as of the following: attack, magic, and items. There are also heartless cards, which give you special abilities."
"So, is it fair to attack a defenseless guy like me?" asked Ichigo.
"Actually, you do have cards. You just have to focus..."
Ichigo took Axel's advice, suddenly feeling like he could attack. A voice in his head prompted him to wait for Axel to make his move. Axel, however, was more interested in explaining one more thing.
"There is one more thing that you should know. You can created sleights, when you combine three cards to unleash techniques and combos. Other than that...let's go!"
Axel tried to hit Ichigo, but he was countered by Ichigo's combos. Ichigo began to learn things about this system. One player has to have more points than the other player to counter. Using sleights took the first card of the combo, and the card zero breaks the combo of the player.
Axel decided to stop, pointing at the sphere. "Here he comes!"
Ichigo looked at the sphere and was shocked. He saw a boy accompanied by a duck and a dog-like man. The boy, whom he presumed to be Sora, had spiky brown hair, blue eyes, and the biggest shoes. "Wow."
"Surprising, right? Yet, this guy did manage to survive fighting our leader."
"He did what?!" Ichigo looked again at the boy. "Ohhhh...he must be strong, or something."
"Definitely strong." Namine spoke softly. "His heart is strong with light."
"Well, this is going to be interesting," said Axel, laughing while Namine and Ichigo watched quietly.