Medaka and I stopped outside of Card Capital, the automatic doors sealed shut. Medaka fidgeted nervously beside me, clearly hesitant on if she actually wanted to go inside.
"Um... I'm not really sure I should go in," Medaka said hesitantly.
"Calm down, Sendo-chan," I flicked her forehead lightly. "I'm not asking you to interact with anyone, but we need to help you break out of your shell. And if we have a Cardfight in the shop, it'll help you get used to people being around people and you'll start to be able to move on from your anxiety issues. If you ever feel overwhelmed, we'll leave."
"I... Well..." She swallowed and nodded. "Okay."
I reached out and pat her head lightly. From early on in the timeline, there wasn't a drastic need to 'change' things too much, at least this early on. Medaka getting her confidence up, resonating with Blaster Blade, and Team Q4 forming- these things were all things that I saw no problem with nudging into happening against.
However, I had certain things I had to do... First was to create a second deck for myself. Eva was perfectly good, but having more Deck options for multiple opponents was always good to have.
The second was to craft a better Deck for Misaki.
Among the members of Team Q4, it was Misaki who always struggled the most... Especially once they entered the Limit Break era- Misaki's deck was still underpowered- relying on Scarlet Witch Coco to empty her soul and obtain effects based on that. But the problem was that Oracle Think Tank was a Deck that fundamentally preferred to use the Soul... She even ended up abandoning her Oracle Think Tank Deck entirely in the Link-Joker series, only coming back to it in the Stride Era.
But in the Stride Era, everyone was using Decks for multiple clans that they'd used in the past for the most part. Kai was using Kagero and Narukami- and WAY too many versions of Dragonic Overlord. Even Ren had adapted some of his Gold Paladin Units- Spectral Duke Dragon- into his Shadow Paladin Deck, just like how Aichi's Royal Paladins adapted into Gold Paladin in Link-Joker.
On top of that, another reason to craft a better Deck for Misaki- specifically the Minerva Deck from the D-Series- was because the D-Series had only introduced a single Oracle Think Tank unit from what I remembered. Anything else remotely 'Oracle Think Tank' or 'Angel Feather' had all been turned into 'Keter Sanctuary.' Genesis had- barely- managed to endure.
I shook my head, banishing the thoughts from my mind as Medaka and I walked forwards- the doors sliding open as we made our way into Card Capital.
I looked around with a smile as I finally got to walk into the place where Legendary Cardfighters would one day emerge. It was... Pretty much exactly how it was depicted in the series- nearly exactly the same, in fact.
Of course, what drew my eyes first was the beautiful girl sitting behind the desk. Her hair was long and lilac, framing her face beautifully. Her green eyes looked over the magazine in her hands with an almost bored expression. She glanced up briefly, making eye contact with me. "Welcome," she said in a bored voice before her focus returned to the magazine.
I merely gave a nod as I continued to look around the shop before my eyes landed on two people- a pair of girls.
The first girl was energetic, blonde, with her dark brown eyes alight playfully as she spoke to the other girl- who merely kept her eyes closed as if bored. She kept chatting happily however, as if she knew the girl was listening. She was dressed in the school uniform of the high school division of the school Medaka and I attended.
Her appearance was a dead ringer for that of Marin Kitagawa.
The other girl, however, gave off an extremely unapproachable vibe- but her beauty was completely bombshell. Long crimson red hair with the inner parts of her hair being coloured blonde and- when she occasionally opened her eyes- they were revealed to be crimson red, almost glistening with majestic power...
She looked like a mirror copy of Mavuika from Genshin Impact.
My PSYqualia flared up, and I saw a large crimson dragon standing behind Mavuika- guarding her, aiding her... Dragonic Overlord.
And if that was the case...
'That must be Kai and Miwa.'
It wasn't hard to deduce...
As my PSYqualia turned off, I noticed Mavuika glance back at me and frowning in slight confusion- as if she'd felt something, but didn't know what it was...
Had she actually felt my PSYqualia??
Come to think of it... In the manga and the V-Series, Kai had PSYqualia as well- he merely made the conscious choice to not use it after he finally unlocked it because he saw it was being 'too powerful' and a form of cheating.
Mavuika had seen Ren- god I hoped Ren wasn't gender swapped- use PSYqualia and become corrupted by it... Perhaps that was the reason she failed to awaken her own in this timeline; she only saw the negative effects of PSYqualia and by the time she saw the positive effects the rejection was too deeply ingrained. As compared to the V-Series, where Aichi was wielding PSYqualia without losing himself to the power.
Regardless, it was apparent that she'd been able to- at least momentarily- sense my PSYqualia when I activated it to see Dragonic Overlord.
"Ohhh~" Eva hummed. "So, this is where Overlord's Vanguard likes to get her fights in... Based on what I've heard in the short time I've been on Cray, Dragonic Overlord seems to be fighting a lot of smaller enemies who've come to challenge him."
I merely nodded... Cray and Earth were linked, so Overlord crushing the people challenging him wasn't unusual.
Well, regardless, I pat Medaka's head. "Come on, Sendo-chan," I told her. "Let's go find a table, I'll teach you how to play."
"Y- Yes," she nodded and followed behind me as we walked past Mavuika and Marin.
Mavuika watched me carefully, and my lips only quirked up in a smile as Medaka and I sat opposite one another, shuffling our decks and then cutting as I went over the basics briefly- 50 cards in the main deck, 4 in the Ride Deck.
Right as our fight started, I momentarily activated PSYqualia again- pulling the slightly curious Misaki into the world of imagination to watch the fight first hand.
Misaki's eyes widened and her eyes seemed to glaze over as she found herself on the surface of Cray as Medaka and I began our cardfight.
"Stand Up! Vanguard!"
.
.
.
I returned to my room after walking Medaka home, a pleased smile on my face as I flopped onto my bed. The panel floating in front of my face was the reason for my happiness.
[You have changed destiny, usurping Dragonic Overlord as Blaster Blade's Destined Rival. You have become the reason that incites Misaki Tokura's interest in Vanguard. You have become Medaka Sendo's Mentor. PSYqualia slightly improves. You have obtained 100 Blank Cards. You have obtained 1 Depend Card Fragment.]
[Three Depend Card Fragments are required to create a Depend Card.]
This completely confirmed it- disrupting canon was the best way to obtain System Rewards and to improve my PSYqualia.
The Blank Cards was no small amount either. Combined with my previous rewards, I had enough Blank Cards for four full decks.
However, I couldn't just make extremely overpowered decks right off the bat. Not only was my PSYqualia not strong enough for that yet, but cards such as the Fated Ones, Destined Ones, and Mythisch would bring about power that would greatly interest the void and might even cause Cray's Idea to go Dormant sooner.
I had to take it slow.
That also meant I shouldn't create Grade 4 Cards... At least, not until the VF Circuit at the earliest. The Void would start to become active by then, as shown by the fact they kidnapped Royal Paladin, Shadow Paladin, and Kagero leaders in exchange for reviving Aqua Force.
"... For now, a deck for Misaki can be put on the backburner," I decided. "Instead, I'll start with my Second Deck... And also, some extra cards for Medaka."
The fact Medaka was only running a single copy of Blaster Blade- even once Blaster Blade 'evolved' into a Liberator, implying it must have been a new card, and thus more copies could be obtained- was so extremely infuriating. I would not be allowing such a thing to repeat.
"Wait," Eva blinked. "So... Am I Sir Blaster Blade's Destined Rival now?"
"I don't know," I said honestly. "But... Your body on Cray, it had an encounter with Blaster Blade during the Cardfight didn't it?"
"Of course," she nodded. "Cray and Earth are linked- like two sides of the same coin. Vanguard fights on Earth are replicated in Cray depending on the connection to the Units. Usually, it's just small skirmishes. But when people have strong connections to their units, that's when things start to get serious."
"What happened?"
She huffed, "I decided to go poking around United Sanctuary to investigate some of the metals that don't exist 3000 years from now, and he saw me. He questioned me, and I just blew him off- so he attacked me. Ended up needing to summon my Obscudeid and had them fight before he finally calmed down."
Interesting. It was likely that Blaster Blade's rival wasn't Eva then, it was Obscudeid. Though, indirectly, it was Eva given she was the one who outfitted Obscudeid- who was often subjected to her many experiments.
Still, that at least gave me a better idea of the connection between fights on Earth and Cray.
"Alright, I have a good idea on what Deck will be my second deck," I finally decided.
"Oh?" Eva raised an eye. "Who are you going to call out? Tamayura? Khaos? Rorowa? Maybe Thegrea?"
I just gave her a deadpan look. She really just named all of the people she was fighting against in order to obtain the Fire Regalis.
"No, none of those- though I might call on Tamayura later. No, I have a very specific Unit I want to call forth. In fact- they already exist on Planet Cray, if I'm not remembering wrong."
Eva blinked and tilted her head. "A unit that already exists on Planet Cray, even 3000 Years in the past?" She murmured thoughtfully. Nothing came to mind when he mentioned that, except for Rorowa- who fell into a Slumber for 3000 Years and ended up waking up in the Chakrabarthi Divine Era before he get entangled in the fight over the Fire Regalis...
'No... There is one,' Eva recalled.
And then her eyes widened.
"That thing?" She asked in shock. "Are you serious? That thing... Will it even respond to you? Usually, it's just lying deep within the Dark States, focused on its Jewels. On top of that, it's pretty violent if it's disturbed you know!"
"Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith," I told Eva as I took a seat on the bed. "I'm going to have to push my PSYqualia to the limit just to glimpse it though..."
Eva just stared at me and then sighed and shook her head, "Reckless... Fine- I'll watch over you. If I see something going wrong, I'm pulling you out- got it?"
I nodded as I took a seat on my bed, pulling out a Blank Card.
A Depend Card was far more powerful than a Blank Card, capable of allowing Units to traverse between Cray and Earth... However, a Blank Card could still form a connection with Planet Cray. With PSYqualia, it was functionally the same as being able to communicate with units just like Eva- the only difference was that Eva could physically manifest on Earth.
I took a deep breath, PSYqualia filling my eyes as my consciousness descended onto Planet Cray.
I found myself in the Dark Zone- a lawless nation of Dark Societies without a true leader. I could hear the voices of many units- Spike Brothers training, Pale Moon Circus practising for their next performance, Dark Irregulars having their internal war with Amon trying to get them under control...
Even small numbers of Gear Chronicle- currently in hiding- were focused on repairing the disruptions of Spacetime caused by both the Void's attacks, and also by Messiah's little trip through time. They wouldn't reveal themselves until Planet Brandt officially joined together with Cray.
And yet, I ignored all of them as my spirit instead moved deep underground...
I ignored the creatures that I passed by- monsters, dragons, demons, humans- and pushed deeper...
The deeper I fell through the Earth, the more I could feel it- my PSYqualia was burning.
But even still, I pushed deeper...
Pain.
Deeper.
Pain. Pain. Pain.
Deeper.
PAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAIN-
I gasped, struggling to keep my eyes open as I found myself in a vast, open cavern- the walls lined with crystal of all colours, filled with a glow from the center as rainbow light refracted throughout.
I slowly forced myself to focus on the light in the center...
No, it wasn't light.
It was flame.
Floating in the center of the cavern was a majestic beast... Like a solemn emperor who ruled in darkness. Its wings flared out brilliantly, surrounded by flames of four different colours- pink, purple, yellow, blue.
Its scales glittered and shone like onyx.
White hair, striking against its body, swayed in the warm heat of the flames.
Purple eyes slowly opened to stare down at me, opening its mouth slowly to reveal a set of wickedly sharp teeth.
My vision began to grow blurry, but even so I reached out my hand towards it.
"How much longer are you going to stay here?" I asked, my voice strong despite my weakness. "The Future... Is Here."
The beast stared at me...
And then my world was overwhelmed by rainbow fire.
I gasped as my PSYqualia deactivated, holding my eyes in pain.
Eva didn't hesitate, her body materialising in the world from Cray as she began to check on me- using her medical experience to give me a checkup on the spot to make sure my eyes weren't damaged.
But, even through Eva's fussing, I kept a smile on my face as I held the card in my hand tightly.
Demonic Jewel Dragon, Drajeweled.
I'd obtained my first Trump Card.