"I'll be fine, Diake-nii. I'll be fine. You keep going to find that inner peace of yours, alright?" A female voice said out through a blue flip phone of an older teenager with white hair, who was currently sitting underneath a tree for shade, with a backpack right beside said tree. The sun above was a clear indication that it was noon, and if that wasn't made even blatantly obvious, on the teen male's phone had the clock specifically stated to be '12:10 PM'.

The boy, 'Diake' had white hair that was seemingly trimmed to retain a certain hairstyle he liked. His silver eyes flicked around cautiously while his pale skin made him look more like a foreigner than a Japanese. It also wasn't helped by the fact that he was wearing what seemed to be a dark blue Shinto attire for him, excluding the hat. In replacement of said hat, he was wearing a cowboy hat he bought off of a convention that he conveniently found along the way in Tokyo, thinking that it might be useful for him.

It kinda was.

"Hey, you're having your first year in high school next week, don't you?" He asked, hugging a knee.

"I do, yes."

"Behave yourself, okay? Your body is capable of attracting the worst of people," he told her sternly.

"I know that. Isn't that why you trained me to defend myself in the first place?"

"And proceed to flop it by grabbing a broom and smack my head over with it, thinking that it qualifies as 'self defense'?"

"Uh. . . Uhm. . . I'm not wrong, right?"

The boy simply scoffed.

"Correct or not, that was not traditional self defense."

"It's self defense nonetheless!"

"Fine fine. You win. Just be careful. I don't want you to be in any danger whatsoever, okay?"

"Will me falling down and getting bruises because I played sport be dangerous?"

"It won't because it's part of sport. You get hurt at some point."

"You have a point-- OH NO!!"

"The chicken's overcooked?"

"Yeah!! Talk to you later at 8!! Bye!!"

There was a long beep soon after, and the boy chuckled slightly as he heaved a sigh.

"Cooking isn't her best, but at least she's trying."

Standing up from the tree after acquiring enough rest, he dusted his butt from any imaginary dirt, before grabbing and hoisting the straps of his backpack back onto his shoulders before moving forward. Digging through his left pocket, he pulled out a folded up piece of paper and a mechanical pencil. Unfolding the map, he revealed it to be a map of Japan as a whole, as he pointed towards a specific point while circling to a city.

"There's 40 kilometers from here--" the pencil pointed to the town he had circled, before going to the specific point he had marked. "--To there. Hmm. . . . Maybe I'll take the train, if it would lead to there, but I haven't really checked through all the city. . . Yeah, I should stay here for a while." he told himself, before putting away the map back into his pocket and walked straight towards the city he had circled in the map.

. . . .

He felt glad that not a whole lot of people were all over him and started to question where the boy came from, as he walked freely, with only a few people staring at him due to his unusual outfit and very unusual foreigner-esque appearance.

"This is for cosplay," he'd reply, which always cleared him of suspicion.

'That worked out quite we--'

"Give it back!" His thoughts were cut off when he heard a female's voice at a dark alleyway right beside him. Stopping, he turned to look to at his left only literally see nothing, but heard scuffles in there.

'Is. . . . Is this gonna be that situation?' He thought, spinning his stick so that he held it like a baseball bat as he rested it on his shoulder before calling out to the alleyway.

"Who goes there?" He called out, causing the scuffle to immediately lessened, before hearing footsteps approaching him fast.

"Get out of my way!" A male's voice was heard briefly, before Diake immediately swung his stick straight to a middle schooler's chest, causing said boy to fall straight back down to the ground on his back, while Diake mourned at his now broken stick.

'I'm sorry, Seikato-san. . . I failed you. . .' He thought sadly, ignoring a slight scuffle right beside him. Before long, his senses returned as he heard fast footsteps fading away from him, alongside the same female voice right beside him.

"Thank you so much sir!" She exclaimed, bowing down to him. The boy could only look at her with curiosity.

The girl had dark brown hair that reached her legs, and almond shaped brown eyes. Her skin was fair, and she wore what seem to be a school uniform, something that he was familiar with. What he wasn't familiar with was that she was wearing a yellow tie, not a bowtie, or a ribbon tie, something that was conventionally worn for females. Her blazer was an aquamarine colour, and instead of a skirt, she wore a pair of black trousers instead. Her shoes are the conventional type, however. In her left hand held something that seem cuboid in shape, but he couldn't identify it properly.

And yes, she is as flat as a bent cardboard.

"Ah, no problem," he replied softly, but he was internally conflicted by what he was seeing.

'WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT UNIFORM?! IS SHE REALLY A GIRL?!!'

"Um. . . Sir, what are you doing here? Can you understand me?" She asked, causing the boy to sigh from her question.

"I'm Japanese, okay? I may look like I belong in some European country, but I really am Japanese," Diake insisted, his eyes turning into squiggly lines.

"A-ah. I see. I'm sorry for asking that."

"No no. It's fine. I get that a lot. I'm desensitized by it already."

"I-is that so. . ." The girl heaved a sigh of relief.

"Now, what was it the boy was trying to get from you?" He asked, raising an eyebrow, while the girl glanced at his choice of clothing.

". . . . What? You've never seen a Shinto priest wear a cowboy hat before?"

"No, this is a first."

"Is it that rare?"

"I think no one ever does that."

"Really?!"

"Yes."

"Ha~. Is that so. . ."

The boy tilted the cowboy hat backwards so that it fell, but instead of falling to the ground, the rope that had held it instead held it behind his neck.

"So, what was it the boy wanted to get from you?" He repeated.

"He wanted to take my deck."

"Deck? Of what, gambling cards?"

"N-No no no no! It's not those kinds of cards!"

"Is that so? Entertain me with your knowledge of the deck."

The girl showed the deck of cards in her hand to the boy, which somehow remained to stick together despite the wind blowing against them. The cards were face down, with the words 'Cardfight!! Vanguard' in some type of specialized font on it, with its surroundings being black and blue in particular.

"It looks interesting," he admitted.

"You didn't even look through the deck." She sweatdropped.

"No no. I can tell that it looks interesting."

"Are you curious of how the game works?"

"Is it gambli--"

"It is not a gambling game."

"Sign me up. I'm curious of this 'Cardfight Vanguard' game."

"Okay. Can you follow me please?"

"Will do."

With that, after the boy left his broken stick to the mercy of the dark alleyway, the two proceeded to walk side by side with each other, with the brunette girl pointing directions to where their destination was.

"I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Diake. Takanori Diake."

"Hiryu. Kagara Hiryu."

'What a nice name', he thought, smiling calmly at her as the two continued to walk.

"Say, Takanori-kun?" She began.

"Ask away."

"Why are you carrying a backpack with you?"

"Ah, this." He immediately thought up of an excuse.

"I want to know how Xuanzang Sanzang felt when he travelled from China to India."

". . . Eh?"

". . . What?"

"I don't think that's really a good reason, Takanori-kun."

"Geh-- Ah~. Alright, alright. I'll tell the truth."

Taking a deep breath as the two continued walking, he began to tell her.

"Y'see, I was travelling all over Japan to find a home to live in with my sister."

"You have a sister?"

"I do. She used to be adorable, but now she is very beautiful."

"Aaah. Where is she now?"

"In a shrine where a couple assigned to us to keep watch over."

"Do you get visitors often?"

"We always do during special events."

His voice suddenly went deep and menacing.

"Although for some inexplicable reason, there's always a large influx of middle school males that came there just to meet my sister."

Hiryu couldn't find a proper way to respond to that other than a nervous laugh, before she stopped walking.

"We're here," she told the boy, as she turned around to face a pair of automatic glass doors. She walked towards it and the door split open, briefly revealing a huge number of people inside the store before the door closed itself soon after.

"Ah. So it's like those hypermalls, or whatever they call those places," he stated before he walked towards the door. Once it opened, he walked in and was surprised by what he saw.

There was a huge crowd of people gathering around a fight table, while two people were playing the game that Hiryu just introduced to the boy.

"What are they doing?" Diake asked innocently, pointing towards the group.

"Ah, they're cardfighting."

"Cardfighting? Is i--"

"It's not gambling. What is up with you associating cards with gambling?"

"I can't help it sometimes. When I see cards, that's where my brain goes towards."

"Why does it always go there though?"

"Y'see, when I was a child, I always see my dad using his money to gamble by playing cards with some other people. Maybe that thought grafted its way to my head."

"Well, you better not have that sort of mindset from now, because this game doesn't really allow gambling."

"That is great to know!"

"Ah, a new customer, it seems."

A man's voice was heard, before he turned to look at the source. He saw a man no less taller than him with blue hair that was kept in a ponytail and had an apron over what seem to be a suit. The man also wore thick gloves, which made many people mistook him as a gardener.

Including Diake himself.

"Are you a gard--?"

"No. I'm not. Please don't get the wrong idea." The man's expression was purely deadpan, as if he had enough of people asking him that question.

"Ah, Kagure-kun! I want to introduce to him in cardfighting. Is that fine with you?" Hiryu asked.

"First off, call me Hikuro, Hiryu. You know me well enough. Second of all, I am completely fine if you want to introduce anyone at all to cardfights. No one is stopping you, me included, to have you introduce other people to this game."

The girl's brown eyes sparkled before hugging the man.

"Thank you, Hikuro-kun!"

"Hey hey. Stop. Someone's gonna call the co-- kid, put the damn phone down. This is not pedophilia, damnit."

After seeing the boy put down his smart phone and continued observing the match, Hiryu let go of the man with a smile, while Diake was observing the ongoings of the match in question.

"What's going on over here?" He asked Hiryu.

"They're--"

"I noticed that they're having a Cardfight, but what is its significance?"

"Oh. I don't know. Must be something personal. But anyway, come with me, Takanori-kun."

The two soon found an empty play table that they could play on as they both sat at opposite sides. The boy observed the playing field, as he saw six circles, with the top middle being red in colour. There was a rectangle at the very left side with the label 'Damage', with two smaller rectangles at his right, with 'Deck' at the top, and 'Drop' at the bottom.

"Takanori-kun, are you done observing?"

"More or less."

He looked up to Hiryu, who reached her hand out towards him. In her hand was a deck of cards similar to the one she showed to him.

"Take it. It's another deck of mine that you can use for the time being."

"I see. . ."

The boy took the deck of cards and went through it. He saw literally nothing but robots that resemble police cars and the sort, alongside several cards that had a very strange looking emblem on it, with light blue colours at the corners. It had a label beneath the emblem, 'Force'.

"What is this?" He asked.

"That's a clan called Dimension Police."

"So what, this game has lore in it?"

"I suppose it does, but I don't quite know it either."

"Heh~"

Diake sounded very disappointed in her response, but nevertheless he then said, "fine then. I went through it, and I can safely summarize that I have no clue what I'm supposed to do."

"That's okay, because I'm gonna teach you how to play the game."

. . . .

A/N: I just had an itch to do this kinda fanfic again, because nostalgia.