Me: YES SOMEBODY ASKED FOR MY OTP THANK YOU BLACKWING-DARKRAVEN!

Astral: (sighs) We don't own Cardfight Vanguard. This takes place before canon, slightly AU.


"You're giving this card to me?" The small, beat up, blue-haired boy asked in shock, staring at Blaster Blade. It had to be the most amazing thing he had seen, and a stranger was really giving it to him? A weak little kid? He couldn't believe it.

"Yeah! Imagine yourself as strong as that card!" The brown-haired boy who gave the card to him said happily. "Imagining will become your power!"

"Imagining... I-I can't do that..." He stuttered, looking down.

"Don't be silly, of course you can! Come back tomorrow, and I'll teach you how to play vanguard too!"

The blue-haired boy looked up at him. "R-Really?!"

"Yeah! It'll be great!" the other said. "I'm Kai. Kai Toshiki."

"I-I'm Sendou Aichi."

0o0o0o0o0o0

"Okay, you attack like this, and guard like this!" Kai explained.

"That's really cool." Aichi said. The two kids were playing on the bench with some of Kai's cards. "Although it seems hard..." He wasn't sure he'd ever be able to do something like that. After all, Kai seemed so cool and was so natural with the game, while he was, well, himself. Small, weak, and unable.

"It gets simple when you know how to play!" Kai said, gathering up the cards. "Make your own deck, and we'll have a fun cardfight!"

"R-Really?" Aichi looked at him in awe. "Y-You'd be willing to have a cardfight with me?"

"Of course!" Kai nodded. "We're friends now, so of course I would!"

"We're... friends..." Aichi repeated, looking at the Blaster Blade card. He had a friend. He, really had a friend. The sides of his mouth lifted up in a long time into a large smile. "Yeah!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"See, it's good to have cards that work together like this in, while it's also important to have these sort of simple cards in to give it balance." Kai explained as he and Aichi looked over the Royal Paladin cards Aichi had gathered from the nearby cardshop. Aichi nodded, not quite understanding it but just going along.

"B-But, I'll still be able to put Blaster Blade in, right?" He asked.

"Definitely!" Kai laughed. "Plus you should put Wingal in too then, since Wingal gains power when boosting Blaster Blade."

"So it's giving Blaster Blade more power!" Aichi smiled, looking at his beloved card. "That's great, isn't it?"

"Of course it is!" Kai nodded. "Listen, you should finish this deck up, and then tomorrow we can have an actual cardfight! It'll teach you a lot, and you'll know how to improve then. We'll have the best and the funnest cardfight ever!"

Aichi smiled again, his face shining in happiness. "Okay then!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Poor thing."

"Yeah, poor kid."

"That was a quite a car crash. Killed both parents."

"Now the kid's left alone."

Kai looked down, the comments flying through the air barely reaching his ears. What did it matter, what they said. His parents were gone, that's all that mattered. He was leaving to live with his uncle. His parents were gone. His parents were gone. They were gone.

All these people at the service were people from his mom and dad's work, people who barely even knew them. Listening to all these insincere people say how sorry they were, it made his stomach churn uncomfortably. All these people muttering about him, what he was going to do from now on, he wanted to scream at all of them to shut up. Shut up and leave him alone. Sorry barely covered the sadness he was feeling. Sorry didn't make things better. It wasn't fair. This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair at all.

He ran out of the funeral service, refusing to look at all the people's pitying gazes at him. He felt sick. Whispers floated around him, and they felt suffocating, and all he wanted was to get out of there as fast as possible before breaking down. Get as far away from here as he could. Get away from all this as fast as he could.

So he did.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Aichi hummed to himself on the park bench. Kai was late. He wondered why. Kai was never late. He must have just been held up at school because of something. He would come soon and they could have fun together.

So he waited. After two hours, it began raining. He kept waiting. It was dark before his mom found him still waiting and soaking wet, and forced him to come home with her. She wasn't angry at him, just sad. He never understood why.

He went back the next day. Kai still wasn't there. Kai wasn't there the next day, or the day after that either. Eventually, his mom told him he couldn't just wait there everyday afterschool anymore. He still glanced at the park everyday when walking home, hoping Kai would appear. He never did.

It was frustrating, but he kept waiting. It was disappointing everyday, but he kept waiting. It hurt, but he kept waiting.

"He'll come, right? Kai-kun will come, right?" Aichi looked down at his Blaster Blade card in his room, staring at the brave warrior. The brave warrior that would be impossible, no, just hard for him to become. Kai-kun said he could become strong like Blaster Blade. He believed in Kai-kun. He wiped away some tears coming, and smiled at the card. He could become strong.

On that day, he swore he saw Blaster Blade nod and smile.

So he kept waiting.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

And so, on that day, when Morikawa and Izaki stole his card, when he was forced to cardfight for the first time in his life, when he met him again, when he had miraculously won, when Kai had acknowledged him as a real cardfighter, after all of those years he had spent waiting, well, what could he say.

It was the best day of his life.


Me: Eh, bit longer than the other ones, but I can't help it! It's my beloved Kaichi! Review!