Hello my fine readers! As I've mentioned on the indefinite hiatus note of my longest running fic, I want to get back into the groove of writing cardfights as I've been out of practice in writing within an era whose cards have continued to fade out of the public eye with age. As such, I've decided to write a crossover fic set within the Overdress era of both the anime and Vanguard itself with the aim of getting said groove back and wanting to tell a good character driven story that falls in line with some of his depictions.

As this fic will be both an adaptation of Overdress Season 2 (with some elements subject to change in part for future content) and featuring some minor elements from Dear Days 1 also making the odd appearance, this fic will aim to be completed within 20-23 chapters minimum.

With that said, I hope you enjoy the fic!

Dress 1: Alter Vanguard

The forest within the Japanese region of Kaga was quieter than usual on most dark nights, given what it would normally be home to late into the evenings that all who stepped foot in this area would recognize. Noise would normally accompany a scene in the horizon from beyond the trees that was now only silent and home to darkness after events that had transpired the previous nights. A silence that only until now, had finally been broken by the sound of an unstable portal cracking open with great force one moment, then sending something hurtling from its entrance before abruptly closing up. Crashing into the nearby trees was a young boy over the age of 12 as well as his best friend, a most peculiar yellow creature that would be no doubt called an Electric Mouse in part of its bolt shaped tail and red sacs of volts from where the pair had come from.

Being the first to recover, the creature scurried up to the boy's lap and tapped his head in worry to see if he was alright. After groaning for a moment and rubbing his sore cheeks that bore strange z shaped markings, he had opened his brown eyes and brushed his head before retrieving his cap from the area of their crash. Seeing the worried expression on his partner, one he would consider his best friend since the day they first met years ago, he rubbed his head gently to reassure him he hadn't been hurt too badly.

"I'm okay Pikachu…" he winced, still being some of the pain from landing as hard as he did "I'm just glad you're okay."

Upon hearing a relieved "Pikapi!" from his Electric Mouse, the boy looked towards the point where they had entered the forest from, only seeing mild blue sparks as remnants of the anomaly responsible for sending them here and for separating them. That and it was also responsible for stranding them away from friends, family and the world they once knew, not that they immediately already knew.

"Okay Ash, this hasn't been the first time you've gone away from home or other Pokémon through crazy portals of any kind," the boy muttered to himself, slowly getting to his feet and retrieving his bag from the trail "I just hope we can get back in touch with the others."

It was a gamble, considering that he couldn't get in touch with the person who would've wanted to know of his now current predicament in the one that happened and concluded only moments ago. But he felt that he had to at least try, to at least let everyone know that he appeared to be safe and sound with Pikachu in hand. Opening up the zip of his bag, a smartphone shaped device, inhabited by another of the many creatures that roamed his world called Pokémon, hovered around and glanced across Ash and his partner.

"Rotom Phone… can you try and reach Professor Cerise?" he asked.

The Rotom Phone buzzed with energy and tried to connect a signal to the laboratory that had been Ash's shared home away from home, in the hope that Professor Cerise who would've no doubt had been concerned for his whereabouts following the last chain of events that led to him and Pikachu arriving in this place would know they were alright. Unfortunately for the pair, no luck was made in establishing any kind of signal or contact with the communications network of the lab itself.

"Signal must be bad in wherever we've ended up in," he huffed as the Rotom Phone hovered back into his open pocket "Hope Professor Cerise finds a way to get in touch and soon."

Pikachu squeaked a few times to get his trainer's attention, causing Ash to turn his head briefly to his lifelong partner before gazing out in the horizon towards the dark shapes out in the distance from the nearby clearing as the moonlit sky remained still above them. Deciding that moping around and waiting for who knew how long before his Rotom Phone could finally establish contact with either Professor Cerise or his friends back in his home dimension, he decided to throw caution to the wind and investigate whatever it was that had caught his Pokémon's attention. Before doing so, he looked back at the tree that he had crashed into as a result of his abrupt trip through the portal.

"Well, it's just you and me, along with whatever things I've got left in my bag," he said with a grimaced smile, earning a "Pika!" from Pikachu "Let's go and check it out."

And with that, the two of them along with what little resources they had at their disposal set off once more into the unknown.

After eventually reaching the clearing, having little to no encounters with what the two had perceived as other Pokémon with the woodland creatures, Ash and Pikachu eventually reached the source of the shapes that the electric mouse had sighted from their initial distance. Wherever it was that they had arrived at, it looked old in its age and very run down as if it had not seen much activity if at all for a very long time. Looking across the area at the ruined equipment and numerous unique disused structures, the trainer could see that they resembled something he had seen back in his own dimension.

"It looks like an old amusement park," he noted, shivering a little as he looked over the inactive animal animatronics "I just hope there's no Ghost Pokémon or wild Rotom waiting to give us a scare."

Pikachu briefly flared his cheeks with volts of electricity upon hearing that comment before hopping up onto his trainer's shoulder, deciding to stay close with the lack of knowledge of wherever it was they had stumbled across. Slowly, the two entered the dark and empty amusement park, deciding to stay close together in case there were any potential threats, Ghost Pokémon or otherwise that were awaiting their arrival. The lack of light with the exception of the moonlit sky that hung over the area did little to ease their spirits as they eventually came towards an old carousel that much like the rest of the park had seen better days. From what the two could make out, it was perhaps the most intact out of the other structures save for the broken light bulbs littered across cables strewn across the old ride.

"Wow. I can't imagine what this place would've been like for other people and Pokémon back when this place was running," Ash breathed in amazement, briefly glancing to Pikachu on his shoulder "If we ever get back home, we should stop by the Nimbasa Amusement Park the next time we head to Unova."

Pikachu let out an excited "Pikapi!" in response, seeing that the place they were in did trigger some happy memories from days past from another time. Ash smiled as he felt his earlier unease from entering the area slowly vanish, despite remaining partially apprehensive from the apparent emptiness of the place itself. Before either of them could comment further on their situation in their own manner of speaking, they could hear footsteps coming from nearby, causing the pair to look to the right of the carousel.

A young man in his late teens, wearing a white shirt with a long sleeved red jacket along with a crystal shaped pendant as well as a pair of white trousers and black shoes, walked from behind the structure into view. He had blonde yellow hair with a portion tied by a bandage into a small ponytail and his gloomy orange eyes were only just registering the ground below him until they eventually trailed onto Ash and Pikachu. For a brief moment, the two stared curiously at one another, unsure of what to say to one another with only Pikachu offering a noise briefly as after what seemed like minutes, his trainer eventually spoke out in an effort to break the silence.

"Hi there," he greeted kindly, putting up a smile "My name's Ash and this is my partner Pikachu."

The electric mouse offered a loud "Pikachu!" to the person before them as he eventually registered their presence before him. Before he could offer a comment to the boy in front of him, his eyes briefly widened in surprise as he saw Pikachu in full, forcing him to blink to reassess his line of sight. Eventually, when he saw that the creature before him was apparently no illusion or fantasy his mind had conjured before him, he walked up to the pair who gave him partially bewildered looks as he came in front of them. He apprehensively reached out a hand to touch the electric mouse's head and gently palmed it, secretly surprised when he found him to indeed be very much real.

"Hey... are you alright there?" asked Ash, causing the person in front of him to retract his hand "It looks like you've never seen a Pokémon in your entire life."

"... I've never seen, let alone thought, that a creature like that could exist here," the young man commented "And I've never heard of any being called Pokémon... or whatever you call them."

"Pika?" Pikachu quipped, confused by his statement.

"But a Pokémon is pretty much any creature aside from a human that lives all around us," said Ash who was just as bewildered by the person's statement, before blinking for a minute and scratching the back of his head with an awkward smile "Unless this place calls them differently than where I'm from, eheh."

The young man looked on blankly for a few minutes, uncertain of whether to take what the boy before him was saying as fact or fiction, but there was no denying to him that Pikachu of whom he briefly palmed with his hand and was seeing for himself was very much real.

"I don't know what is going on now, but unless you're here on Blackout or any other Vanguard business, I don't have time to chatter pointlessly," he muttered as he turned around and began walking to the other side of the carousel.

"Hey, I didn't catch your name!" Ash called out, causing him to stop "And what are you talking about anyway?!"

"... Tohya Ebata," he replied "As for your other question... it's probably none of your business."

The trainer and his Pikachu blinked in confusion as they watched Tohya continue on his way, eventually coming back around to his side of the carousel from where he was earlier. The duo looked to one another, now having even more questions than answers that they had started with. Clearly wherever it was they were in the universe, the creatures of this world were not referred to as Pokémon for one reason or another, even to the point of the term and the electric mouse alone seeming alien to the young man. But that was the least of their concerns or newly piqued curiosity for that matter. The questions that were now brewing on their minds were pondering about what he was meaning about "Vanguard" and "Blackout business" around the amusement park.

Suddenly, a hand had unexpectedly reached out from beside the pair and began gently stroking Pikachu on the head, much to the Pokémon's happy and joyous comfort, as Ash turned to the right to see a woman with dark jade eyes and long brown hair that broke off into multiple curled pigtails had found a sudden interest and apparent appeal in his partner. She wore a short sleeved white shirt with a short red tie around her collar and a pair of black shorts with a belt wrapped around the waistline.

"Aw, I've never seen something like that whose so unique and cute before," she cooed, getting a giggle from Pikachu and a warm smile from Ash.

"That's Pikachu for you," he replied "My best buddy always grabs attention when we first visit a foreign region."

"That I can indeed tell," she said as she then moved her hand off of Pikachu's head and held it out in front "My name's Tomari Seto. It's nice to meet you."

"Ash," the trained greeted as he returned the handshake "It's nice to get some friendly company... wherever we are now."

"Don't worry about Tohya for the moment, he's currently dealing with his own amends here," Tomari explained before her expression became one of inqusitiveness "I must say, had it not been for Pikachu here being and feeling so real, I would've thought you were making up the whole Pokémon talk just now, whatever that means."

Ash scratched the back of his head with a nervous smile, having not expected any people besides just Tohya to harbor some initial doubt about what he was saying to the young man, let alone not believe him had it not been for Pikachu's constant presence beside him.

"I guess there's a whole lot here I'm not used to," he said with a slight chuckle "Say, do you know anything about this Blackout and Vanguard stuff he was going on about?"

"Hmm..."

Tomari pondered for a moment, wondering if now was the right time to tell Ash about the full story of Blackout and the current disorganized state of the team in question from the most recent weeks. In spite of her hesitance to speak of what happened right away, if he had any questions about Vanguard itself, she felt she had a right to answer them to the best of his understanding regardless of his interest or mere curiosity.

"I can't say much in regards to Blackout at the moment, but I can give you an explanation in Vanguard itself," she said.

"Sure," the trainer replied with a smile "I'm listening."

"Pika!" Pikachu called out in reply, showing he too was willing to listen.

"Well then... HERE WE GO!"

With sudden unexpected energy, Tomari grabbed Ash with one arm and dragged him with great speed much to his and Pikachu's surprise to a nearby table from the amusement park's disused cafe area where was seated in an instant. Before he had time to process what had just happened, six objects suddenly were flung onto the table's surface with a loud TAP! and settled in front of him and his partner. They all seemed to resemble cards of some kind as each one depicted a creature or humanoid like figure with different patterns and colours, all listed in a written language even he was not unfamiliar with back in his own dimension.

"What are these things?" he pondered as he picked one up, that being a card named 'Sylvan Horned Beast, Lotte' which depicted a creature with orange and white coloured fur, four legs and a tail along with its head having two orange eyes and a horn positioned above the forehead.

"These are the cards which form the game of Vanguard itself!" Tomari's voice echoed as she eventually zipped back to the table where she sat opposite and dropped a couple of boxes, causing Ash and Pikachu to sweatdrop nervously at how much there were "Players battle it out through their cards and imagination as their Vanguards to lead the way to victory!"

"T-that doesn't sound so hard," he said with a small stutter, with Pikachu voicing a "Pi..." in agreement.

"You say that now, but nothing is as simple as it may appear," she replied "There are numerous units with playstyles that only you can choose and decide as to their flow. Did you see anything unique about the six cards in front of you other than their names and appearances?"

"Well, they do seem to have a colour and flag on the right side of the card," Ash said thoughtfully.

"Bingo! Those are the six nations that divide up the different decks and combinations you can use!" Tomari replied with a cheer "Each of them has their own unique units and playstyles, but which one you would like to try out is something only you can decide."

The trainer unsure of how to immediately process the large amount of rapid fire paced information the woman had given to him, especially with the number of cards that were now at the table, looked to Pikachu who simply shrugged, wondering if it was best to go with the flow for the present. At first, he reached out a little towards the card that he had picked up in the midst of his sudden introduction to Vanguard itself, still feeling lost on how these were meant to play any part of it. When his eyes looked over the other five cards for contemplation, the one named 'Knight of Heavenly Bow, Base' seemed to suddenly cause him to gravitate more towards it.

"So, Keter Sanctuary is your choice?" Tomari asked.

"I… I guess so," Ash said somewhat apprehensively "My gut would want me to pick Stoicheia over the fact I'm a Pokémon trainer, especially with how many creatures I've met over the years. But there's something about Keter Sanctuary that… just feels like it calls to me."

"Very well then, that can be your trial pick for your first experience with Vanguard," the woman replied happily as she took away the other five cards, before looking ahead with a surprised expression.

Ash looked up to see who it was that she was seeing approach where the pair along with Pikachu had been sitting and from the reaction that they could see, he was just as surprised to see them as they were him. A boy who seemed a bit older than the trainer came up to where the three of them were standing and sitting around, his eyes glimmering with wonder as he saw Pikachu who simply glanced back at him. He had purple eyes and messy dark blue hair and was wearing an oversized grayish white hoodie with green and black trims as well as a pair of black jeans and long brown boots.

"I haven't seen you around here in a while Yuyu," Tomari commented, addressing the newcomer by name.

"S-Sorry Tomari-san…" Yuyu replied "I haven't been around since… Danji-san left and I only dropped by out of curiosity."

He then turned to look at Ash who waved hello and Pikachu who came up to the edge of the table to greet him, causing the boy to blink in curiosity and surprise.

"This… is this your pet?" he asked, only getting a mild stare from the Electric Mouse.

"I… wouldn't go around calling him just that," Ash replied, before rubbing Pikachu's head gently to calm him down "Pikachu's been my best buddy for life and I'll always be by his side wherever we go."

"I see…" Yuyu murmured before looking to the trainer "I'm Kondo Yuyu, it's nice to meet you."

"Same to you," he replied happily before looking to the card he had picked out "Say… what do you know about this, Vanguard?"

The boy blinked in surprise, having not expected to come across a newcomer to the game of Vanguard in quite some time, let alone one who had come across the premises of Wonder Hill in its presently semi-abandoned state. This state being a result from the members of Blackout having not come back to it in quite some time since the incident that led to many of its structures and carousel being heavily damaged, now being repaired by one of the perpetrators who had caused this to happen in the first place. He wanted to ask about Tohya, but felt that could be put on hold if Ash had shown he wanted to learn what he could about Vanguard.

"I caught the tailend of your conversation with Tomari-san, but if you were wanting to learn how to play the game, I'd be happy to show you what you need to learn," Yuyu said before looking to the woman who better went by the team as their Screaming Fight MC "Tomari-san, could you get a deck put together for Ash whilst I help him set up?"

"Leave it to me," she said, turning briefly to the boy and winking much to his surprise "Our charming rookie learned everything he did from here and now he'll be the one passing on knowledge to you."

"I see…" Ash replied with a nervous laugh as she went off to find the cards needed to put a deck together for the trainer.

By the time she had returned and handed all the cards Ash had needed to play with the nation of his choice, Yuyu had already set up a table with a playmat occupying the surface for both him and the trainer to use for the duration of their game. At first, things didn't begin so smoothly when the boy had shuffled in some cards into his deck by mistake, much to Pikachu's mild chatizing, but after taking his set up approach much more slowly and calmly, he was soon ready to begin.

"Are you ready to begin?" asked Yuyu.

"Sure am!" Ash replied excitedly.

"Good!" he responded "First, draw five cards from your deck to form your starting hand. If there are any you want to return to the deck, you can return them to the bottom and redraw the same amount once."

The trainer nodded in understanding, looking to the cards he had already drawn, noticing peculiarities amongst them already with some possessing features others did not. Deciding that he'd only understand better through going through the fight, he decided to keep the cards in his hand.

"If you're all happy, then before we can begin, there is something you need to know," Yuyu explained "Now, it's time to imagine it."

"Imagine it?" Ash asked in confusion, getting an equal response from Pikachu.

"That's right," the boy continued as he closed his eyes and relaxed himself "The two of us have been transported to a planet similar to this Earth called Cray, where our Vanguards and their forces live amongst the other units that exist on that world and do battle with."

The trainer looked to Pikachu for any hope of an explanation on why imagining would be necessary for what seemed like a simple card game, only to receive a confused shrug from the Electric Mouse who told him with his usual noises to just go with it and see what would happen. Ash eventually relented and took a deep breath, closing his eyes and relaxing himself to picture himself on the Planet Cray like Yuyu had said to do. When he did so, he thought he could hear wind whistling past his ears. Opening his eyes within his maintained imagination, he saw Yuyu on the surface of a rocky plain where a violet hued sunset was cast across the skyline, one that displayed multiple distant worlds and moons much to the trainer's shock.

"Is this… Cray?!" he gasped in surprise.

"That's right," Yuyu answered "In these frail astral forms, we project ourselves onto the Planet Cray. This allows us two powers, one to ride your vanguard and the other to call your forces into battles."

"Ride huh?" Ash murmured before smirking "Interesting… so you're saying we can take the forms of our Vanguards!"

"You catch on quickly," the boy replied "As the game progresses, you ride from the basics of a grade 0 unit at the very beginning to gradually reach the peak of grade 3 once every turn."

As the image they presently had in their minds faded around them to return back to reality and begin the game, Ash took the cards in his ride deck and had a look over them, getting intrigued by their appearances before taking out Base's card and following Yuyu's lead with his own starting vanguard, setting them face down onto the vanguard circles of their sides of the field mat. Pikachu made some loud noises in an effort to encourage Ash, who simply raised a thumbs up, hoping this would go as well as he would expect for a Vanguard Crash Course.

"Are you ready Ash?" asked Yuyu.

"Yeah! Let's go, Yuyu!" Ash responded excitedly.

"Stand Up, Vanguard!"

Both Yuyu and Ash turned over their starting Vanguards, revealing Knight of Heavenly Bow, Base and Sunrise Egg respectively. Within the image of their coming fight, their astral spirits on the Planet Cray took the form of those two units.

"With this, our Vanguards have now materialized on Cray," said Yuyu, getting a curious but somewhat confused nod from Ash and Pikachu "To help explain things as we go, we will not be using skills until the turn where both our Vanguards reach their peak and I will go first to help explain the flow easily."

"Right," the trainer murmured as he gripped his opening five cards tightly, preparing to expect the unexpected.

"Mhm. First, I will start my turn by drawing a card," the Dragon Empire user said as he took the top card of his deck and added it to his hand "Then we move to the Ride Phase. By discarding a card from my hand to the drop zone, I can choose a card from the Ride Deck with a Grade higher than Sunrise Egg and Ride it."

He revealed a card named 'Blaze Maiden, Zaara' from his hand and putting it into his drop zone, before taking a card from his Ride Deck and putting it on top of 'Sunrise Egg'.

"I ride Grade 1 Blaze Maiden, Rino!" he announced.

On the battlefield of Cray, their shared image displayed Sunrise Egg turning into a bright red colour of opaque light before its silhouette changed to a human-like figure with the glow shattering into shards to reveal Rino. The Blaze Maiden herself was wearing an ornate white dress with flowing trails from her bell wrist braces and a red headdress encrusted with a ruby gem.

"Whoa," said Ash as he witnessed this action through his image of Base "I see now, so this is how our Vanguards get stronger as we get into the game. Kinda reminds me of evolutions."

"Oh.. that's an interesting comparison," Yuyu replied "Some intended ride lines in a way are kind of evolutions themselves when you think about it. But let's not get you distracted. After completing my Ride Phase, I move on to my main phase. If I have any cards in my hand with the same grade or less as my Vanguard, I can call them to one of the yellow rear-guard circles as a unit of that kind. To demonstrate, I call this."

He then placed down a second copy of Rino to the back row circle that was directly behind his Vanguard Rino, before looking up to his opponent.

"The player who goes first cannot attack, so I pass the turn to you."

"Right, here we go Pikachu," Ash said to his partner, who let out an encouraging "Pika!" in response "I draw!"

He then put the top card of his deck into his hand before looking over it, trying to think of what to discard to ride into his Grade 1 Vanguard from the Ride Deck. Thinking about it carefully, he then made a decision and immediately took action.

"Alright! I discard this card to Ride!" he called out, discarding a card named Exalting Knight, Eafred from his hand and picking out a card from the Ride Deck, placing it on the Vanguard Circle "I ride Knight of Heavenly Sword, Fort!"

Base vanished from the battlefield on Cray in a bright azure coloured glow that shattered into glass like shards, revealing the spirit of Ash for a brief instance before the shards reassembled around his form, taking a new shape. The new being that became his Grade 1 vanguard was a white armored warrior in a similar vein to Base, though his weapon of choice was far more suited for close combat.

"Great! My first ride!" Ash exclaimed happily "Now the main phase, right?"

"Yup," his opponent replied happily.

"Alright! Now what to call..." the trainer pondered thoughtfully before eyeing a card and picking it out "I call Platinum Wolf!"

The card that Ash put onto the back row circle behind Fort was a wolf that was clad in gold and white armor with neon blue trims adorning each plating. Attached to the creature's back were two protusions that could easily be mistaken for wings. These in question housed numerous blades that the High Beast or its comrades could take arms from when charging into the fray with one such weapon already being carried in the creature's maw.

"Alright then, I think you're comfortable to proceed to your battle phase Ash," Yuyu interjected "When here, units in your front row can attack a target in the front row. In this case, your only available target is the Vanguard, the one you really want to damage as much as possible. Turn Fort's card to the right or left to signal the battle."

"Like this?" asked Ash as he rotated Fort's card to the right by 90 degrees.

"Perfectly," his opponent complimented "Now, did you see a small arrow beneath the grade of your called Platinum Wolf?"

The boy blinked in confusion, having been caught up in the moment up to this point to have not noticed any further details to his cards that he may have missed. Fortunately, Pikachu was able to point him in the right direction by gently pressing the tip of his tail to the icon in question.

"Ah, I see it now!" he gasped before looking to his Pokémon partner "Thanks Pikachu!"

"Pikapi!" the Electric Mouse replied gratefully.

"Good. Now then, Grade 1 or 0 units have an arrow icon called the boost ability," Yuyu continued "If a unit in the same column attacks, you can turn it sideways to boost the attacking unit's power by that unit's power until the end of that battle. Okay?"

The boy nodded in full understanding, swiftly resting Platinum Wolf's card to signal the boost for his vanguard's attack against Rino.

"Right, so Platinum Wolf gives its 8000 power to Fort's 8000," the trainer commented "What next?"

"When the Vanguard attacks, turn over the top card of your deck and put it into the trigger zone face up. This is called a Drive Check."

Ash blinked for a moment, the phrasing having rolled over his head for a brief instance before he proceeded to do the action Yuyu mentioned. He slowly pulled away at the top card of his deck before placing it into the trigger zone of his side of the playmat as his opponent had indicated to him before their fight began. The card revealed itself as Vehement Witch, Ramana, the image depicting a tan female elf clad in black armor and boots, brandishing a large spear as her choice of weapon. Aside from noticing an icon that had been present among his Grade 3 cards, there was very little else in attributes he could see of assistance to this attack.

"Right, so what now?" he asked.

"In this instance, as your card was a normal unit with a black border, nothing happens and the card is added to your hand," answered Yuyu "Now that step has been completed and I made no defensive moves, my Vanguard receives one point of damage. This time, I turn over the top card of my deck into the trigger zone and then move it to my damage zone."

The Dragon Empire user then turned over the top card of his deck to reveal Blaze Fist Monk, Nikko, a card with a yellow border unlike most of the cards already seen throughout this fight. What was more unique about it was that in the top right corner there was a box depicting a pink coloured symbol on top and +10000 etched into the side of it.

"Got a Front Trigger."

"Front... Trigger?" Ash asked in confusion "Are you saying my attack triggered that?"

"That is true," said Yuyu "Whenever the drive check or damage check reveals a card with a yellow border and a box in the top right with a +10000 number, it means you have now activated a trigger effect. There are five different types of Triggers in Vanguard and you will want to try and activate as many of them as possible throughout the game."

"So what does this Front Trigger do then?" the trainer inquired with Pikachu also letting out an inquisitive "PIka?"

"The Front Trigger during the turn I check it gives 10000 power to my Vanguard and all rear-guards on my front row rear-guard circles until the end of this turn," his opponent explained "In this case as it was my damage check, after resolving this effect, I move the card to my damage zone face up. When I have six cards there, I lose the fight."

After placing the card there, Ash stared at it for a moment before recalling something he did on the first turn and placed down his hand for a moment.

"Say Yuyu," he pondered as he picked out Eafred's card that he discarded earlier "This card... what kind of trigger does it have?"

"That would be a Draw Trigger," Yuyu explained "If your trigger check revealed that, one of your units would have received 10000 power for that turn and you would have drawn an extra card."

"I get it. So regardless of whether you are attacking or have to take damage, you always wanna see one of these triggers for offensive or defensive power," Ash replied in understanding before grinning ecstatically "I wonder what kind of other triggers I'm gonna see here."

"I imagine you'll have your chance to see all four," Yuyu interjected enthusiastically "But be certain not to be overreliant on constantly trying to check for triggers or your attacks may be much harder to land. For now, both of your units are in Rest and can no longer attack or boost, so we come to the end of your turn."

"Got it!" the trainer replied in excitement "Bring it Yuyu!"

The Dragon Empire user nodded in agreement and proceeded to his next turn, drawing a new card and discarding another one from his hand to ride to his Grade 2 Vanguard.

"I ride Blaze Maiden, Reiyu!" he announced as the card was placed on his Vanguard circle, depicting a female priestess with silvery hair and narrowed red eyes, wearing a similar attire to that of Rino's "I call Stealth Dragon, Tensha Stead to the front row!"

Yuyu then placed down a new Grade 1 unit to the circle that was left of his Vanguard, depicting a humanoid dragon covered in red scales and shimmering markings that was slamming down a claw onto the ground, splitting part of it to rubble.

"Now it's my turn to attack!" he declared "First, my front row rear-guard Tensha Stead attacks your Vanguard!"

"Power 8000... and not boosted?" pondered Ash.

"If the power is at least equal with the attacked unit's, the attack will be considered a hit," the Dragon Empire user explained "Unlike Vanguards however, attacking rear-guards cannot perform any drive checks unless a specific ability allows them to. Here however, I can give you an explanation on how to defend yourself by guarding with the cards in your hand. Look at the shield on the left hand side of your units in hand."

The trainer and his Pikachu observed the cards in hand, seeing a few of the units of them had some of shield with most of them being 5000 in value. Ash was hesitant to use any of them to guard knowing that it was early going, but a lack of knowledge into the other types of triggers and Reiyu's drive check to consider quickly made him snap out of his stupor.

"I guard with Shadow Bow Archer, Lisana!" he announced, revealing the card from his hand.

"All cards that you use to guard are placed on the green coloured guardian circle as Rest sideways and the shield is added to your unit's power for that battle" said Yuyu, with Ash following his lead and doing so "With the rear-guard not being able to drive check, its power is not enough to break through the added shield and my attack ends. After the battle ends, the cards on guardian circle then move to the drop zone after being used."

"Right, so I need to pick carefully what to guard with and when I should guard the Vanguard attack," the trainer noted "I think I'm starting to capture the flow now."

"Good. With a boost from Rino, Reiyu attacks your Vanguard for 18000 power!" his opponent responded.

"I won't guard this one."

Yuyu nodded and proceeded to his drive check, revealing yet another trigger, surprising the boy as he didn't expect the Dragon Empire user to already check two triggers back to back in just two turns. This time, the box on the card named 'Blaze Maiden, Zonnne' had a yellow coloured star instead of a symbol like the Front or Draw Trigger.

"Critical Trigger!" the Dragon Empire announced "With this type of trigger, I can increase the Critical of a unit by one to have it deal more damage when its attack hits and 10000 power to one of my units!"

"So then... two damage?!" gasped Ash.

"That's right," Yuyu replied "When checking this trigger for your drive check, you can separate the effects to give the power to a unit that has not attacked yet and the Critical to any individual unit of your choice."

The trainer winced for a moment, catching the briefly concerned attention of Pikachu who waved for a moment to see if his partner was alright. The boy eventually snapped out of his daze and reached out for his deck.

"First damage," he said, turning over his first card as 'Vehement Witch, Ramana' "No trigger."

He then moved the card to his damage zone in the same manner as his opponent had shown him on the previous turn before moving to the second check. Ash then turned over the card slowly and put it into the trigger zone, revealing 'Healer of Heavenly Staff, Arshes', a trigger marking present on the top right which lit his eyes in relief.

"I've got a trigger!" he cried out, raising a fist in triumph as Pikachu cheered alongside him.

"And nicely timed as well," Yuyu interjected "That card's marking is a Heal Trigger. It gives one of your units the 10000 power bonus for the turn and when put into the trigger zone, if the number of cards in your damage zone is equal or more than your opponent's, you can move one card from your damage zone to your drop zone before moving the Heal Trigger to your hand or damage zone depending on the check type."

"So by removing a damage, that reduces the two damage I would have had back to one," Ash said thoughtfully as he moved Ramana's card to his drop zone and Arshes' card to the damage zone "I can see why they're so handy."

"True, but they have a catch to them for that kind of effect," the Dragon Empire replied "In order to compensate for being able to recover damage, even at a certain timing, decks can only have up to four Heal Triggers regardless of the card names."

The trainer nodded in understanding, with him and Pikachu having now imaged briefly how slow or one-sided a fight could get if all sixteen triggers were nothing but Heals themselves, in a way making him somewhat thankful that kind of rule was prevalent.

"I end my turn," Yuyu calmly announced "Now, it's your turn Ash. If you have any Rest units on your circles, you Stand them before drawing from your deck."

"Got it, Stand and draw," Ash replied as he stood his two Rest units and added another card from his deck to his hand "I'll discard Lisana from my hand and ride Knight of Heavenly Spear, Rooks from my Ride Deck."

After discarding the namedropped card from his hand, he picked out the Grade 2 unit from his remaining two Ride Deck cards and placed it on top of Fort's own, making Rooks the new Vanguard. The card depicted another warrior in white armour with purple colour hair, wielding a thin sharp tipped spear and wearing a violet coloured cape that flowed from the armour on his waist. The trainer then looked to his hand, eventually deciding on what to call next.

"I call Rooks and Fort!" he declared, calling the two units to his front row, before resting the rear-guard variant of the Knight of Heavenly Spear "I will attack Reiyu with my rear-guard Rooks!"

"I guard with Trickstar!" Yuyu responded, putting a rather unique Grade 0 unit on the guardian circle with its shield being enough to block the attack.

As he moved it to the drop zone, Ash who saw the card for enough seconds to see everything about it couldn't help but ponder something about it, aside from its own small size in appearance. If Grade 0 normal units were generally used as a starting Vanguard, why would his opponent have one in his main deck? He had a feeling he would find out by the time skills would be allowed to be used in this first fight.

"Next up, with a boost from Platinum Wolf, Rooks attacks Reiyu!" the trainer continued.

"No guard!" Yuyu responded.

"Then here's my drive check!"

Ash turned over the top card to unveil Knight of Heavenly Hammer, Gurgant, revealing that much like Zonne from the previous turn, it too had a certain trigger marking.

"Critical Trigger!" he announced "With your advice, I'll give the power to Platinum Wolf and the Critical to my Vanguard!"

Yuyu despite not entirely expecting this, did not appear too concerned as he still had one damage and plenty of cards in his hand to defend over the course of the fight.

"Damage check," he said calmly as he revealed the first card as 'Vairina' before moving it to his damage zone and moving on to the second check, turning it over to unveil 'Blaze Staff Monk, Cho Kuu Sha' "Draw Trigger! I give power to Reiyu and I draw!"

Ash narrowed his eyes at the sight of the trigger for a moment, now seeing Reiyu's power would be at 20000 which was far higher than his powered up Fort. At first, he cringed feeling he would have to end the turn abruptly before recalling something earlier on his first turn that his opponent had told him. Thinking about it for a moment, he then took action.

"Fort with 18000 power attacks your front row rear-guard Tensha Stead!" he declared.

"I guard with Zonne!" Yuyu responded "With 15000 shield, the power is now 23000 for this battle!"

The trainer however was not disappointed with that effort, seeing that his attack had forced the Dragon Empire user to use 15000 shield from his hand to defend a weaker rear-guard, making him think that as long as he chose his attacks wisely, then his opponent would have less shield to use towards the endgame.

"I end my turn," said Ash, wiping his brow much to the confusion of Pikachu before exhaling "Gotta say, I didn't know I'd be thinking this hard just for my first try at Vanguard."

"No, that's you naturally deciding on a flow to take with your formation," replied Yuyu, surprising even the trainer at that praise "If Pokémon battles are what you're into the most back where you come from, maybe that essence has helped you with strategizing here."

"Yeah... when I think about it, I thought I'd be way off with using any of these cards," he said thoughtfully, looking to Pikachu who had an equally curious expression "But as you've been explaining the rules, I've found it simple to follow even in the teaching stages and I feel like I can already imagine a path to take here."

Looking away from the table and gazing around Wonder Hill itself, Ash was starting to imagine how the disused amusement park could've been such a precious place for Team Blackout to gather at and play the game of Vanguard in wherever it was that he and his best friend had landed in. Even the Electric Mouse was starting to get an idea on why this place held sentimental value to the few people that the two of them had met tonight, though he still felt that the idea of a card game of all hobbies was something that would still prove a foreign concept to him, especially with the battles fought in the plane of one's imagination instead of being physically side by side like in actual battles back home. When the two looked at one another, their thoughts turned to the side of the damaged carousel and pondering on the state of Tohya, prompting Pikachu to suddenly hop down, pointing in that direction.

"You're going to look for him?" Ash asked in confusion, causing his partner to nod in confirmation "Alright, but don't get too far away from here. I don't wanna get separated from you in wherever we've ended up in."

Pikachu nodded in agreement and dashed off to the other side of the carousel to try and find Tohya with a certain intent on his mind. Yuyu and Tomari looked at one another with uncertain expressions and otherwise shrugged in confusion before turning back to Ash who was otherwise ready to proceed with the fight.

"Say Yuyu…" he said "I think I've got the basics down and I'm ready to go all out. You don't mind not holding back from this point, right?"

"You mean you want us to proceed on to using skills?" Yuyu asked curiously.

"Yeah!" the trainer responded in excitement "My math may be basic at most, but I've got the idea of the whole flow now! You show me their lead and I'll follow up!"

The Dragon Empire user sweat dropped a bit, having wanted the fight to only proceed with basic essentials before even considering teaching his opponent the idea of skills and other abilities outside of the basic flow.

"Sounds like our potential new rookie is already growing up fast," Tomari teased before playfully nudging Yuyu's shoulder "If he really wants to take his first fight to the next level already… go and knock yourselves out!"

"Okay then!" Yuyu replied as he turned to face Ash and resume the fight "My turn! I ride Chakrabarthi Divine Dragon, Nirvana!"

He revealed a copy of Rino from his hand before discarding it and picking up the last card from his ride deck, holding it high into the air and revealing it before slamming it down onto the Vanguard circle. Within the pair's image, Reiyu glowed brightly before vanishing from the battlefield and allowing a bright torrent of flames to erupt from the ground and soar into the air. Eventually, a shadow soared from within the inferno and with a flap of its four great wings dispersed the column to reveal Nirvana in its full glory. Its appearance resembled that of a giant phoenix than what one would normally expect from a ferocious Flame Dragon from the Dragon Empire nation as gentle embers swept across the plain, taking Ash within his image of Rooks by surprise from the sight he had been greeted by.

"So that's… your key card?" the trainer breathed in amazement.

"Yes!" Yuyu replied "Grade 3s are the stars of our ride lines and the full powered leaders of our decks. In addition to further power and skills like most other units, they also possess two unique special abilities of their own."

Ash said nothing, but still kept his look of amazement on his expression, wondering what kind of powers both it and the grade 3 that was still in his Ride Deck were capable of doing.

"From here, I will now give a demonstration of some skills," the Dragon Empire user continued "The first is the ACT ability, which can be used at any time during the main phase as long as the cost can be paid and the unit whose skill you want to activate is on the correct circle. In this instance, Nirvana's ACT ability can be used on the vanguard circle by discarding a card from my hand for its cost. This lets me activate this particular skill, allowing me to call a grade 0 card from my drop zone."

He revealed a copy of Tensha Stead from his hand, putting it into his drop zone before picking out Trickstar, causing Ash to blink upon remembering that he had used that unit to guard an attack during his last turn.

"I call Trickstar from my drop zone to the rear-guard!" Yuyu called out as he placed it on the circle behind Tensha Stead's card "If you have rear-guards in your left and right columns, you can swap them vertically to the other's circle."

"I see… handy if your later attacks need boosting," Ash commented before blinking in confusion, recalling the power of the discarded card "But… why discard a grade 1 just to get Trickstar out?"

"Trickstar is a key piece of my deck and is the potential to victory for many units alongside Nirvana itself," he said "When I first started Vanguard, this was the card that had drawn me to cardfighting. We've won together, lost together, but he has never let me down and even in this uncertain time, I've never regretted calling him my partner to show off my Vanguard."

"Partner…"

Ash looked down at his board at the units he had managed to assemble on the previous turn, wondering if he could call one such unit a partner of his own if the opportunity ever arose. Letting his opponent's words sink in about why he had chosen Trickstar and had been cardfighting with what would otherwise be considered a small unit to be his partner to bring him the key to victory, he soon realized that perhaps there was something the two of them had indeed had in common. Yuyu with the units he put his trust in and he with the Pokémon he had caught and trained including his best friend who had gone into countless battles that he never thought to have kept count on his long journey to achieving his dream. Seeing that the trainer had gone quiet, the Dragon Empire user spoke up.

"Is something wrong Ash?" he asked.

"No, I'm ready to go now!" Ash responded confidently, lightly keeping a gentle grip on the cards he held in his hand to meet the next wave of attacks head on.

"Alright then," Yuyu responded as he placed a copy of Reiyu onto his last open front row circle "Reiyu attacks your vanguard!"

"I guard!" the trainer responded by revealing a copy of Platinum Wolf from his hand.

Seeing that his first attack failed, the Dragon Empire user decided to press onwards without any further concern, looking towards Trickstar in preparation.

"With a boost from Rino, Nirvana attacks your Vanguard!" he declared "Now I will demonstrate the second type of skill with Nirvana's own AUTO ability."

"AUTO?" Ash asked curiously.

"When the timing is successfully met and any costs have been paid, an AUTO ability can immediately activate," Yuyu explained "In this card, the condition for Nirvana's AUTO ability is to attack with it as my vanguard and the cost is this! Counter Blast!"

He then turned over the Vairina card that was face up in his damage zone, causing his opponent to blink in surprise, not thinking beforehand that the damage he accumulated could be used to fight back in his own mind.

"With a Counter Blast, this type of cost requires you to turn over the specified number of face up cards in your damage zone face down equal to the number specified," he continued "Since Nirvana's Counter Blast cost is 1, only 1 face-up damage is needed to Counter Blast. By doing this, my vanguard and any units in a certain state, to which I currently don't have, get 10000 power until end of turn."

"And that's not all?" Ash asked, suspecting that there was more to grade 3s other than power alone.

"That's right," Yuyu answered "Grade 3 vanguards possess the Twin Drive ability, which allows them to perform two drive checks whenever they attack. Each check however must be resolved one at a time."

Looking at Yuyu's side of the field, Ash glanced at Rino, wincing upon noticing that the boost in addition had increased Nirvana's total power of this attack to 36000, a number that was bigger than he had been anticipating. Internally, he wanted to guard the attack and the next one from Trickstar if possible, but knowing that a trigger could break through an attempted shield push especially with two trigger checks coming up, he reluctantly decided against it.

"No guard!" he called out.

"First check!" Yuyu responded, revealing a copy of Nirvana, "No trigger! Second check!"

His second drive check then revealed a copy of Zhonne, the Critical icon already making Ash wince as he knew from not guarding that extra damage was inbound.

"Critical Trigger!" the Dragon Empire user announced "I give the Critical to Nirvana and the power to Trickstar!"

The trainer then performed his two damage checks, revealing copies of Fort and Rooks with no trigger effects amongst them to power up his vanguard and tying the damage at three apiece.

"With a boost from Tensha Stead, Trickstar attacks!" Yuyu called out.

"I guard with Gurgant!" Ash responded "The shield's just enough to withstand your attack!"

Within their imagination, Trickstar in a coated veil of flames attempted to ram itself into Ash who clutched Rooks' spear in a defensive stance. Gurgant then leapt down from above and violently swung his giant hammer into the side of the small unit, cancelling out its attack and sending it hurtling backwards towards Nirvana where it recovered and quickly hovered before it could hit the ground. From his image, the trainer was sure he had managed to survive the turn by keeping the damage tied, but his expression soon changed when he noticed Yuyu standing atop Nirvana's back looking down to Trickstar who nodded in agreement.

"What's going on?" Ash pondered "I blocked his attack, so why am I…?"

"You did well to defend that one Ash," said Yuyu "But my battle phase is not over yet! At the end of the battle Trickstar attacked, I activate a skill from my hand!"

He then revealed a new grade 2 card from his hand, shocking Ash that he had something ready in case Trickstar's attack had failed to deal damage. Aside from the strange red framing that adorned the card, the unit depicted appeared to be draconic like with blazing blue flames erupting from its claws.

"Now I will show you a second type of cost that you can pay from the cards accumulated over the fight," Yuyu continued "As you ride your vanguard to the next grade, the cards beneath it remain in a stack that is called the soul."

"Lemme guess, you can use cards from the soul to pay for costs too?" Ash asked, suspecting this was the case.

"That's correct. By putting the specified number of cards in the cost from the soul to the drop zone, I can pay a cost known as a Soul Blast," the Dragon Empire user explained "In exchange, I can now perform an ability with this unit by using Trickstar to evolve!"

"Evolve?!" the trainer exclaimed.

Back within their imaged battlefield, Trickstar soared through the air before azure blue flames erupted from the small being, obscuring it from view as they suddenly grew in side.

"Get dressed up, Trickstar!" Yuyu called out from atop his image of Nirvana "Superior Overdress… into Vairina Erger!"

A pair of claws slashed through the blue flames, revealing Vairina Erger who swooped down towards the ground and hovered above just a little in front of Niravana. Back in reality, Ash was not only amazed this ability could allow Trickstar to reach a new stage, it also caused him to panic as he realized there was more to this than just a suddenly appearance.

"He's not only evolved Trickstar instantly… this Vairina's also Standing to attack me again!" he cried out in realization.

"That's right!" Yuyu responded "And not only that, during either of our turns, the CONT ability of this unit gives it 10000 power and shield during both our turns as long as it is in an Overdress state! Additionally, since I successfully Overdressed Erger, I can Counter Charge 1 by turning over a face down card in my damage zone!"

Ash winced at the powerup news in the addition to the extra attack was coming his way, making a mental note on how the CONT ability appeared to work in a similar manner to AUTO, but with a constant effect in motion. Within his image of Rooks, he braced himself for what was to come next.

"Here I come! Vairina Erger attacks your vanguard!" Yuyu called out from atop Nirvana, with Vairina coating itself in burning azure flames and shooting forward like a rocket towards a worried Ash.

"I can't block this…!" he winced before crying out in surprise as the attacking unit rammed itself right into his imaged Rooks' gut, sending him flying backwards and hard onto the ground from impact, the damage check revealing a card named 'Remission Sword, Phanuel' as the trainer's fourth damage.

Back in reality, as if he felt from his imagination he really had been hit by 'Vairina Erger', Ash fell to one knee in shock as he breathed heavily, glaring at the unit that had suddenly taken him by surprise when he thought he was finally in a safer position. After a moment to recollect his emotions, he stood back onto both feet and straightened his posture back out, looking down to his damage zone upon realizing he was closer to defeat than he would've liked.

"Are you alright?" Yuyu asked in concern.

"Was that image a little intense for you?" Tomari pondered.

"That was AWESOME!"

The pair blinked before looking over to Ash who had recovered from the mental backlash of the earlier attacks and stood tall once again with an excited gleam in his eyes that appeared to reassure the two of them that he was fine.

"I didn't think that a battle like this could get that intense!" he exclaimed excitedly "If I'm not careful, I might just get a little too hooked on Vanguard for my own good!"

"Well… I suppose that's a sign that you're alright…" Yuyu murmured in a exasperated manner before regaining his composure "But I'll just have to try and finish you on my next turn!"

Unbeknownst to the pair nor Tomari, that was when Pikachu had hopped back into view to watch the result of the cardfight unfold and he was not alone. Quietly, Tohya walked into view to see what it was that the Electric Mouse Pokémon had been wanting to show him after it had tried to communicate to him in as best a manner as he could manage. Glancing over to the field, he had immediately recognized some of the units that Ash had been playing, a majority of them very much identical to the ones in his own deck. He was just about to make a quiet offhand comment on the situation when he saw the excited glint in the trainer's eyes as he drew his next card before immediately discarding it to reach for the last card in his Ride Deck.

"Now it's my turn to strut my stuff with a grade 3 of my own!" he declared before slamming it onto his vanguard circle "I ride Apex Ruler, Bastion!"

The card itself depicted the highest authority of the Keter Sanctuary Cloud Knights that had been present throughout Ash's ride line, a regal white and blue armored knight carrying a ornate blade and riding into battle atop an armoured black pegasus with blue feathered wings.

"Bastion…?" Tohya quietly murmured in suprise before images that were not of those in the fight itself suddenly flooded his mind.

Only, these weren't mere images that had shown themselves in front of him. It was of his own past self, from a time when he was still as young as the Pokémon Trainer in front of him when he was in first year of delving himself into the field of Vanguard itself with the very same avatar that Ash was now using in his first ever fight. Revisiting this memory in the back of his mind had not been something he had expecting to come back to once again, knowing it was something he was so desperate to forget about when he fought for a selfish reason of his own that led to the damage of Wonder Hill and his pride being shattered under his own hubris.

When the memories he had re-experienced had finally faded, he saw Pikachu looking up at him, curious to know why to the Electric Mouse itself that he was just standing in place with confused emotions on his face. Regaining his composure, he briefly looked down to acknowledge the Pokémon before looking back to the fight that was taking place. Although he mentally claimed that he had no reason to watch this at the boy's partner's request, there was something that kept in him place to want to watch the fight to his conclusion.

"With Rooks' skill, when I ride Bastion on top of him, I reveal three grade 3 cards from my hand!" Ash explained as he revealed Ramana and two copies of Phanuel before concealing them with the rest of his hand "Then I draw!"

After taking a single card off the top of his deck, he smiled at what he had pulled before pulling Rooks and Fort's cards from the front row to the back row.

"I call these!" he announced as he placed down two Phanuels to his front row to his last open back row circle, the cards each depicting an angel with mechanical wings and carrying a thin shaped blade whose sharp curve made up a large tip at the end.

"Well, at least he seems to read the line to take for this kind of formation," Tomari commented before looking to Yuyu "Perhaps he's got some talent to bring over from his other way of fighting."

Yuyu said nothing, but acknowledged that she had indeed had a point. Ash had already taken his advice well from the way he had explained skills to him like he requested and no doubt had learned well enough to take advantage of the continuous skill of Rooks whilst having a front row of grade 3s for Bastion to lay its power output to come at him.

"With Rooks' skill, he gets 5000 and boost!" Ash declared "Bastion's skill gives my grade 3 units 2000 power on my turn! And now, I'll Soul Blast 2 for Platinum Wolf to power him up by 5000!"

After taking copies of Fort and Rooks from beneath his vanguard and putting them into the drop zone, he decided to throw caution to the wind and hit Yuyu with everything he could to try and finish the fight this turn.

"With a boost from Fort, Phanuel attacks Nirvana!" he called out "I'm saving her ability for later if I need it!"

After deciding to forgo paying the cost for the skill, Ash glanced sharply at Nirvana, hoping this first strike would at least get Yuyu to four damage to put pressure on him to try and guard his remaining attacks.

"I intercept with Varina Erger and add 10000 shield with its skill!" Yuyu responded, moving the card to the guardian circle "Grade 2s can move from the front row to intercept an attack targeting a unit other than itself by adding shield value."

"So that's what that skill does…" Ash murmured before shaking his head and getting back on the offensive "With a boost from Platinum Wolf, Bastion attacks your Vanguard!"

Imaging himself within the full suit of armour that Bastion wore, Ash lightly tugged the reins on the pegasus who soared towards Nirvana and Yuyu who could only brace themselves for impact.

"No guard!" the Dragon Empire user declared as Nirvana sunk its teeth into the blade, forcing Bastion to try and pull it free to swing a direct hit.

"Twin drive!" Ash called out as his first check revealed a copy of Bastion "Grade 3! Bastion's skill will activate at the end of the battle! Second check!"

As he turned over the top card, he was hoping it would at least give him something extra to work with to try and clinch the game on this turn. Needless to say, his shock as he eventually revealed the card along with that from everyone else, including his opponent, nudged that hope closer to reality. What was the cause for this reaction was the trigger that this check had uncovered, as evidenced by the absurdly large value in the trigger icon on the top right of the card whose art depicted a strange being with white, blue and yellow colours with four pronged claws and a pair of wings.

"This is…!" Tomari exclaimed.

"Over Trigger?!" Yuyu gasped in shock.

"W-What even is that number?!" Ash cried out in surprise, struggling to even count the amount of 0s in the trigger icon box.

"100 million."

All turned to Tohya who decided to voice his answer to Ash's query, with all at the table surprised he even decided to come to watch the fight until their answer came to them in the form of Pikachu who hurried over to the trainer and leapt back onto the surface by his side.

"Wait… that big of a number?!" the trainer exclaimed.

"That's right," the Keter user replied "For its raw power, only a single Over Trigger can be put into a deck's trigger count. It can either reward you, defend you from all threats for a single turn or rob your chance of victory. When revealed, 100 million power is added to a unit of your choice, a new card is drawn and the trigger itself then removes itself from the fight without going to your hand, damage or drop zone."

"I see…" Ash commented as he looked closely at the card before proceeding "I'll give 100 million to the Phaneul that hasn't attacked yet and then I draw!"

"That's not all," Tohya continued, surprising the boy in the moment "If the card was revealed during your unit's drive check, it also has an additional effect that can be applied. Olbaria's is not the strongest as it can be used in any deck regardless of nation with each nation having their own stronger dedicated Over Trigger, but in this situation…"

"Yeah…!" he exclaimed happily in realization "With the additional effect, another 100 million power goes to my other Phanuel!"

"What?!" Yuyu exclaimed.

Within their image, Ash through Bastion's armor yanked the sword right out of Nirvana's jaw and slashed down the front of the phoenixian dragon sending it and Yuyu crashing to the ground, the user's fourth damage emerging as 'Vairina Valiente' with no trigger icon to better his odds. As if his situation could not get any worse, he then looked to the sky to see the two Phanuels soaring through the clouds with each one holding onto one of Olbaria's claws as they soared towards their target.

"Bastion's skill activates!" Ash's voice called out through the image "I discard a card to let the first Phanuel that attacked already stand once again! Each of them can also let me Counter Blast to give them a Critical for each attack!"

"100 million Critical 2 attacks?!" gasped Yuyu "If I don't stop both of them…!"

Both Phanuels dived together towards the downed Nirvana intending to finish it and Yuyu off with six damage in one or two fell swooops, seemingly easy with the lack of an Over Damage Trigger to hamper Ash's efforts to close out the fight. However…

"Perfect Guard!" the Dragon Empire user cried out as an red scaled dragon with two shields in its arms intercepted one of the Phanuels, stopping her in her tracks whilst the other soared past.

Back in reality on the board state, the card was placed on the guardian circle with a curious feature of the shield value being 0. However, Ash would soon get his answer as Yuyu would explain.

"By discarding a card, I can block your unit's attack from dealing any damage for that battle!" he declared, discarding a copy of Reiyu.

"Darn it!" Ash muttered as he rested the other Phanuel "I'll Counter Blast and make this Phanuel 100 million and Critical 2 plus!"

"One more, Twin Buckler Dragon!" Yuyu responded, dashing the trainer's hopes as the card appeared on the guardian circle with him discarding a copy of Tensha Stead, leaving only a few cards left including his Nirvana from the last turn's drive check.

"That's… the end of my turn…" the trainer said, wincing at the situation.

Yuyu's Damage: 4

Ash's Damage: 4

Yuyu breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the remaining cards in his hand, knowing that if he hadn't used the Twin Buckler Dragons at this moment in the fight, there would've been a likely chance he could've lost the fight. But having escaped defeat with four damage and with his opponent now back in a tight spot, he knew that if he wanted to win, it would have to be on this turn.

"Stand and draw!" he called out before revealing the Nirvana in his hand to Ash "During the ride phase, if I have a card in my hand with the same name as my grade 3 vanguard with this icon, I can ride that same named unit from my hand to activate Persona Ride!"

He then threw the card onto his vanguard circle to perform the action and ability that he was in the midst of describing, surprising his opponent.

"When I Persona Ride, I draw a card and until end of turn, all units on the front row circles get 10000 power!" he called out.

Ash grimaced, knowing he had been going through the last few turns of the fight with fewer and fewer shield to work with and now with the power bonus from Persona Ride, wondering if he was even going to get through the turn unscathed. Pikachu cried out some noises to him, praying that his friend was going to survive the coming onslaught from the powered up Nirvana.

"With Nirvana's skill, I call Trickstar from my drop zone!" Yuyu continued, calling the grade 0 back to the rear-guard "Now with a boost, he attacks Bastion!"

"I guard with Taxus!" Ash cried out, revealing the Front Trigger from his hand.

As he placed the card in his drop zone, he glanced at Nirvana, knowing it would be an attack that would be too difficult to guard without a similar card to Yuyu's own Twin Buckler Dragon and that he also had trigger checks and Reiyu to account for. However, his concern turned to worry once he saw his opponent take a single card from his hand and hold it out, making him wonder if something familiar was about to befall him.

"Don't tell me…!" he exclaimed, before his worst fears were confirmed as the card was revealed to be another Vairina Erger.

"Soul Blast!" the Dragon Empire user declared "Get dressed up in your prideful bluish flames, Trickstar! Appear once again, Varina Erger!"

As he placed the card on top of Trickstar's in the Stand state once again, the trainer's heart thumped violently as he could see through his image of the battlefield that he not only had Niravana to worry about as the biggest threat to endure, but now he had Erger on the board once again to contend with alongside its own skill and Persona Ride powering it up.

"Here I come Ash!" Yuyu continued "I attack with Nirvana and Counter Blast! This 10000 power bonus not only affects Nirvana, but it also affects my Overdress state units too!"

"... No guard!" Ash cried out as the giant phonexian Flame Dragon craned its head back and unleashed a torrent of flames that engulfed his armor, cracking it and sending several pieces flying off, exposing his head to Yuyu's formation.

"And now… with your swift bluish flames, let us attain victory together!" the Dragon Empire user declared "Vairina Erger!"

As the draconic being soared through the sky towards the imaged and damaged Bastion with azure blue flames, Ash could only stare as he realized even without a Critical Trigger not already ending the fight, the 50000 power that Erger now had from the Front Trigger Yuyu had attained was still too much for him to even attempt a defense against.

"No guard…" he winced as Erger slashed across his image of Bastion, causing him to scream out in pain.

Within reality, Ash with his back partially craned over in resignation in having to take these last two high powered attacks was shaking as he reached out for the deck to take the sixth point of damage, he did everything he could to reassure himself that he still had a chance to survive and stop Reiyu if he could reveal a Heal Trigger. Pushing through the violent indecision swirling inside of him, much to the concern of Pikachu, he grabbed ahold of the top card of his deck, betting everything that could come his way. Slowly turning it over with closed eyes, he slowly turned it over before opening one eye. When he saw what it was, his other one opened in resignation as he saw it to be a copy of Fort, sealing his fate and handing the game to Yuyu as he placed the card in his damage zone next to his fifth damage that was revealed to be a card named 'Lifesaving Angel, Kurabiel. As such, this ended the fight, bringing his damage to six.

"Six damage… that bites…"

Pikachu came up to Ash and nuzzled himself into his arms in an effort to calm him down over his first experience in Vanguard ending in defeat, soon feeling the trainer's emotional state beginning to calm slowly.

"Are you alright Ash?" Yuyu asked "I might've overdid it a bit, but you put up a really…"

"So this is Vanguard…?"

All blinked as they came around to the trainer whose strained face eventually relaxed into a happier mood as he regained his composure. Then without warning…

"That was amazing!" he cried out, both surprising Yuyu, Tomari and Tohya, as well as gaining a curious expression from Pikachu on the sudden mood change "Thanks for teaching me everything I needed to know Yuyu!"

"Pikapi…" Pikachu muttered with an exasperated smile.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it Ash," Yuyu said as he came over to him with a hand held out "It seems you've found a rhythm that you wish to build towards."

Ash nodded in agreement and returned Yuyu's handshake, grateful for the chance to experience something that had gotten his heart racing and to have taken his and Pikachu's mind off of their present predicament. Although it was a dilemma that both trainer and Pokémon partner would knew they would have to address and eventually tackle if they were to return back to their home world, they were thankful to have found both company and rivals within Yuyu and his friends. As Tohya stared at the rest of the group, a part of him couldn't help but wonder, if he was still here, if the "proper" leader of Blackout had not left when these two anomalies had appeared before Wonder Hill if he would've approved of the young boy's passion and his willingness to try Vanguard for the first time. When the thought had eventually passed over, he decided to turn around and leave the vicinity of the group as they finally noticed him.

"Tohya!" Ash called out, stopping him in his tracks briefly "I don't know everything that's happened with you and Blackout… but I understand why this place is so precious for you guys! You don't have to force yourself into only making these amends on your end!"

"You…"

The boy blinked at the addressal by the Keter user who briefly glanced back at him with his previous vacant expression returning to him before looking away from him.

"You're welcome to be here and learn everything there is about Vanguard on your own terms," he stated "But this is something I must do on my own. Don't drag yourself down out of blind pity."

Ash wanted to voice his objection, but after feeling mentally and emotionally drained from the earlier intensity of his cardfight's endgame as well as a lack of understanding as to what really happened, decided not to push any further, hoping to get another chance to get his point across to Tohya tomorrow morning. When the older male had left the premises of Wonder Hill, that was when Yuyu and Tomari turned to the trainer and his Pokémon.

"Well… I suppose I could try and put in a word with my mother and sisters to let you stay over…" the boy murmured, recalling the conversation that the three of them had earlier.

"Nah, it's cool," Ash replied, setting down his bag and digging through his belongings until he brought out a rolled up bag "I've always travelled with my pals across regions back home on foot on journeys that sometimes last for a few days between towns and cities. I took some lessons from Brock on managing my own camping with Pikachu and my other Pokémon before I started doing some solo expeditions for the lab that Professor Cerise manages or longer distance travels to events hosted by the World Championships committee."

"Well, if you're absolutely sure you can manage," Tomari interjected "I would rather prefer you'd be indoors, especially if the nights get cold given how you ended up here. But if you need to talk to me regarding those…"

She was suddenly cut off when the Rotom Phone from Ash's belongings suddenly soared out of the bag with electricity sparking and its eyes rolling, as if it were trying to receive something from somewhere. All looked on as they wondered what or where exactly it was that the Pokémon infused smart device was trying to make contact with and with whom. Suddenly, the screen was filled with static as a picture tried to come into view with only black and white static forming shapes of unfamiliar kinds as distorted audio sounded out, making their curiosity grow until…

"#]]#[][#-sh! Ash! Are y]'']'!"

"Professor Cersise, is that you?!" Ash exclaimed, barely making out the voice on the other side of the distorted call audio.

"H#]##]#]-on! Alm[]][]][][!"

Eventually, after the Rotom Phone spasmed wildly from another surge of energy, it hovered gently downwards into the palms of the trainer's hand as the picture quality finally came into view. It wasn't of the best quality, both visually and in sound, but there was no mistake about it. The caller on the other side of the line was no doubt the man that had been trying to contact him following the space time incident that happened not very long ago.

"Ash Ketchum… thank goodness we have finally found you!"

"Check it out, a piece of my soul!"

Ash: Hey guys! Ash and my buddy Pikachu here!

Pikachu: Pika!

Ash: I don't know if I've really got anything Vanguard specific to talk about, but I'll show you this cool card that really put the pressure on!

*displays "Remission Sword, Phanuel"*

Ash: Phanuel here isn't the cheapest card to make use of, but the skill does still carry quite bit of pressure! By performing a Counter Blast of 2, you can add a Critical to this attack if you have three or more grade 3s including your vanguard! Knock your opponent to four damage with a low hand and then go all out with two of her and your Vanguard to really pressure them!

Pikachu: Pipi!

Ash: Hey, if her weapon is a Remission Sword, why is it looking more like a spear...? *blinks in surprise* Ah, sorry there! Well, I'll see what else to expect for Vanguard if that first fight was as cool as it was!