SailorStar9: Well, I'm restarting this fic since my One Piece fic is currently on hiatus. So this is Chapter 35 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?

Disclaimers: I own nothing, except for the plot bunny.

Chapter 35: Team Q4, Reunited!

Picking up the faint melody of the 'Hana no Kusari' song, Kai's legs led him to an abandoned classroom which had doubled as a storage for paintings created by alumni students.

"So, this is where you keep disappearing to nowadays, Blue." he leaned against the open door, the younger girl was busy with her easel painting. "So, you've decided on what to submit for the Arts and Cultural Festival."

"Um hm." Ami muttered, her sketch pencil in hand as a structure of a castle was already taking form. "This isn't like you." she looked at the green-eyed teen who had entered the room. Said Cardfighter then sat on the counter, took out his deck case and absently shuffled the cards.

"That so?" Kai wondered. "What do you intend to submit?" he asked. "I know you've been banging your head on your desk for the past week because of this."

"Believe it or not, this came to me in a dream." Ami admitted.

"A dream or a memory, Blue?" Kai questioned, taking a look at the incomplete landscape orientation canvas. A castle was in a misty backdrop, with a lighted curved window hinting a ball was occurring inside the stone palace. The Vanguard of Dragonic Overlord then turned his eyes to the main focus of the painting: the couple in the foreground. He recognized himself as the male of the pair, dressed in Dragonic Overlord's armor and Ami as the female, as Queen Isis.

"How..." Ami turned sharply to her taller partner. "You... remember?"

"Yeah." Kai admitted, pulling out the 'Dragonic Overlord' card.

"When?" Ami pressed, resting her pencil on the easel support.

"Does it matter?" Kai asked quietly. "I love you, Blue, you know that." he pulled her into a loose hug. "I won't let what happened the last time happen again."

A low rumbling from Ami's stomach pierced the tender moment between the two lovers.

Kai just let out a small smirk at Ami's embarrassed blush, "How about we go for lunch? I'm in the mood for udon."

Meanwhile, back at Card Capital, Team Q4 were trying to figure out how to reconstruct their decks.

Which one should I put in my deck? Kamui was anguishing over whether to put 'Magician Girl, Kirara' or 'Eisenkugel' into his deck. Kirara has a draw skill that's valuable in a Nova Grappler deck. But I wanna conserve my Counterblasts, so if I concentrate on power, would 'Eisenkugel' be better?

"How about 'Street Bouncer/" Kai suggested.

"'Street Bouncer'?" Kamui echoed and picked up the 'Street Bouncer' card. "'Street Bouncer's skill is drawing if two cards are at rest in the rear-guard." he read the description. "I see." he realized. "I can draw without using a Counterblast and it goes well with the skills of 'Top Gun' and the Death Army units. This is the one to go with for sure. Thank you for the advice." he beamed. "Kai!" he gaped. "You gave me advice?"

"If you don't like it, don't take it." Kai remarked. "It's up to you."

We're on the same team, so you could say it's only natural. Even Aichi was shocked. But Kai has never done anything like that before. And no matter how right Kai was, Kamui would never do anything he says out of pride.

"I'll give this a try to see if it is really the best choice." Kamui slid the 'Street Bouncer' card to the bottom of his deck. "Let's fight, Kai."

"Sure." Kai assented and the pair headed over to a spare Cardfight table. "To make the team stronger." he explained, walking past Aichi.

"Stand up, Vanguard!"

"Stand up, the Vanguard!"

"You'll regret giving me advice after I give you a good walloping." Kamui grinned.

"Say that after you win." Kai retaliated.

"There they go again." Ami sighed, taking her place between Miwa and Izaki.

The next day...

"Why?" Morikawa wailed, his modified 'Golden Mechanical Soldier' had lost repeatedly against Misaki. "After my wins yesterday, why can't I win today? I don't understand! I customized the deck by putting in a bunch of Grade 3s, so why am I not winning? This must be because I had a bad horoscope today."

"What should we do about him?" Kamui looked at Aichi.

"No!" Morikawa was insistent. "My strongest deck should be able to..."

"It's the usual pattern, then." Ami noted amusedly.

"Guess Morikawa will be Morikawa." Miwa agreed. "I'm not sure if I feel disappointed or relieved."

"Ami, your hair..." Kai, on the other hand, was playing with Ami's shoulder-blade-long hair. "Isn't it longer than normal?"

"Is that so?" Ami blinked. "I could just leave it, I suppose." she shrugged.

SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.