Rijuku Park

"Oh, thanks!" He said accepting the gumballs in exchange for the candy. Then he saw how the person under the bench grabbed some of his candy, came out with his previously unseen cat and sat in front of them. As he had introduced himself, Carlos just followed with the presentations hoping that the young girl would follow too. "I'm Carlos. Nice to meet you too" He said as he shook his hand. "And no, I'm no fugitive".

They were a little bit different from what he though where going to be his first friends, but they were being nice for the time being. And that was something he appreciated. "And I suppose you're not a fugitive too- Wait, D'Nyan?" He changed the subject when she heard the girl giving a name to Sera's cat. "What kind of name is th- Oh no, don't cry! Here, take some candy!".

"But yeah, I feel a bit excommunicated now that you mention it" He said while looking at Sera.

"I-I didn't really mean the excommunicated bit, sorry 'bout that. Meant to really say that it's weird to see people around here who, you know, aren't from around here. And-"

D'Nyan.

Sera's head began to turn at an awkwardly rigid pace, as a face of horror clouded his previously curious expression. His eyes glowed a vicious red, staring at the girl and the horrid name she even dared imposing upon his precious D.D

"D'N-Nya-n... That is the most..."

Sera shook with rage, nearly bursting at the comment. He might rip the poor girl's throat out and feed it to D.D. Then he remembered what he was here for. And what Haruka taught him as far as it goes when it comes to being "human."

"Interesting... name... I've ever heard. Y-Yeah..."

Sera looked away, pouting with his arms crossed, pouring the last of the candy he was given into his mouth and chewing aloud.

"What do you think of the name, Carlos? I-I mean there are better names but..." Sera started muttering obscenities under his breath.

"D'Nyan the Great XIIth!" Aoi shouted with a couple tears still rolling down her cheek. She was a bit overwhelmed by Japan and her misfortunes, so those tears really were genuine. However, finding something to feel good about... helped her feel better. Even if these two didn't like such a brilliant, well crafted name, she would never let it go. Her masterpiece of a fluffball. D'Nyan save the queen. All hail D'Nyan.

"Oh... I'm Aoi Undyne", she calmed down and introduced herself, chewing on another skittle.

"Well, its an... Interesting name, to say the least" He answered. "And D'Nyan the Great XIIth too. But I don't think that's a good name for a... Cat" He added, eating some candy from the bag. "Or any living being, actually" He thought and tried to not say it aloud. Suddenly, he remembered that he was in need for food and water. "So guys, do you have water or at least some slice of bread? I'm starving and this candy doesn't help. Well, not much".

"I tried to get some with these, but no one was paying attention to me" He said while showing them the signs with "Will cardfight for food", "Will dance for food" and "Will strip for food" written on them. Maybe he shouldn't have done that, because they might think he's an indecent or a pretty good dancer (And he was none of them). "Yeah... I was that desperate" .

Nonsense! It was an amazing name for a cat! Bah, the friends she made back in China and her masters would agree! This country sucks. The pouty foreigner nibbled on some more candy. She heard he doesn't even have water or a slice of bread to eat, he must be hungry... Then the signs appeared. They were all weird beggar-signs that led Aoi to the conclusion that... yes, of course! He must've been a masterful dancer.

"I think there was a water fountain around the entrance I came in from. I only have this candy though."

Sera took a glance at all the signs and then began to erupt into a maniacal laughter. Not at the signs, but that he agreed with Sera on the ridiculous name for the cat. Sera was sure that name was absolutely asinine and must be eradicated before any human on Earth ever has to hear it even once.

"Right. I understand though, if you want food, take this."

Sera reached into the back pocket of his rolled-up, olive slacks, producing several thousand yen bills. Twenty-nine of them to be exact.

"Hmm, here, take this. I don't need it. I get my food from a house anyways, so you can have the money. Just don't spend it all in one place. Enjoy!"

Sera giggled, picking up D.D and petting his. D.D clawed Sera in the arm, producing a rather large gash.

Sera was 1000% unfazed and continued petting the cat regardless of his human condition. Without any band-aids on him, there was no way he could really deal with the problem anyways.

"So, Aoi, Carlos, what brings you to Japan anyways? It probably isn't really smart to be here without a goal in mind, right?"

Another of Haruka's dumb lessons.

"Wow... You're an angel, Sera! Thank you so much!" He said as he accepted the money. "I don't think I need water from that elusive fountain anymore. With this I can buy... Stuff!" He proclaimed standing, feeling powerful now that he got money. After he calming down, he sat on the bench to answer Sera's question.

"Glad you asked. I'm here because I love Vanguard! Its an awesome game, so I thought traveling to the country of his birth was something I needed to do!" He explained. "Oh, and I heard some strange rumors surrounding this game on the internet. Something about banishing cards, real Units obliterating cities, and a Clan named... Huh, Bonds Jester or something like that. I wanted to see if it was true".

"I know the game must be very advanced here, but that really sounded ridiculous" He added. "And... How about you, Aoi?".

"Uh..." Aoi kind of stared at Sera's gash for a minute, wanting to question if he's alright, but two things caused her not to speak: Sera's ignorance of it and D'Nyan being the cutest little button in the world. The girl smiled over the adorable kitty and Carlos' amazing joy over having money to buy... stuff. Listening to his passionate reason for coming to Japan, and discovering it was similar to her own, her heart felt... lighter. A companion of interests in this country! She could cry, but she was already doing that. It was really something how Carlos referred to Vanguard's birthplace in Japan being "his". As in, he referred to the game with a gender.

That was beautiful.

Then she started sweating over the "rumors" he heard. The... same warning she got at the train station about vanguard units coming into reality and attacking. Those were... jokes, right? They had to be. She giggled nervously, looking toward the distance, then back at them when addressed.

"I came here because I wanted to learn about Japan's Vanguard. I was... kind of drawn to this country, in fact."

A bit of a mysterious reason.

Sera listened to their, well, reasoning for being here in Japan. To his immense fortune, they were both here for the purpose of Vanguard discovery. Carlos was more of an enthusiast and rumor chaser, whereas Aoi had mysterious reasons for visiting the area in the first place.

"Hmm, Bonds Jester? Sounds creepy. Never heard of anything even possibly remotely close to that. Oh! But I play the clan Link Joker! Cool, huh? They're friends of mine, but in card form!"

Sera thrust out his deck, showing a face-up Star-Vader, Dark Zodiac sitting on top. He eyed it with pride, happy to see his own friends stand by his side in Cardfights.

"You ever seen 'em in real life before? I mean, materializing units requires a really deep bond with your units. For example I could easily materialize Dark Zodiac behind me here but that's effort and he tends to get violent aka lock people in black spheres dominated by red rings and essentially keep people from doing anything.

...

.....

........

COOL, HUH?!" Sera was excited to show off his deck, and even started to jog in place with pure bursting excitement.

Aoi sweat nervously.

"Maybe I should... go find my friend... if I can."

Nope, this country sucks. Everyone's mean or a lunatic.

Fubuki hadn't realized Aoi was even gone at first. Then ten minutes passed. Then twenty. Then thirty. After thirty minutes, Fubuki realized it was way too quiet. She looked around, and realized she was no longer guiding Aoi. This was bad. When had she left? Where had she left to? And how? Frantically, Fubuki began scouring the city. Card shops? Nope. The training facility? Fubuki didn't even bother checking that terrifying place. Beach? Fubuki checked, but heard jazz music and instantly left. Jazz music usually meant something weird was going on. Finally, she checked the park. If she wasn't anywhere else, she had to be here, right? Right. There she was, being spoken to by two rando---- Haruka.

The ice cold stare of Fubuki turned into a freezing malice aimed directly at Sera. She stepped forwards. He seemed happy. Too happy. Someone like him shouldn't be allowed to be happy. If there was a knife in Fubuki's vicinity, she'd look like a yandere from that show Past Journal. Maybe some random flashes of blood or something foreshadowing the future would occur. "You."

"That's it! Link Joker! That's the clan!" After showing his deck, Carlos was overjoyed to know that Bonds Jest- Link Joker was a real clan. But then, he was confused over the last part. Did he said that he can materialize Units because he has a deep bond with them? That had to be a joke. After thinking about it, Carlos came to a conclusion - It was indeed a joke.

"Oh, Sera" He laughed. "You devil. I know about making pranks to the silly foreigners. Where I come from, we do that a lot. You really got me there. I know those cards are fake". He then began to inspect his money. "Is this money fake too? Because that would be funny... And sad, actually. I really needed it".

"Huh, someone is coming this way. Friend of yours?"

Aoi heard her friend and immediately got happy. Well, almost-friend? Before turning to Fubuki, the China girl wiped the tears from her eyes, and... saw Dark Zodiac's picture clearly. A sudden ringing noise came in mind, getting louder and louder, starting to block out all other noise. Her eyes widened, almost like saucer disks, and a mind-splitting headache was born. "Augh..." The girl winced, cringed, and reached up to her head one hand at a time. She could hear the very sound of lock for some reason, and it felt more like something was being opened - unlocked in a sense. That thing being her skull, because it felt like it'd crack open.

A blue gumball was removed from pocket. Still in pain, the woman bent over somewhat, taking a few steps back. Another cry of pain came out while forcing the little piece of candy to her mouth. After a few moments of chewing it, the headache began dying down. The magical candy took its effects with haste.

"H-Hey... Fubuki..." Aoi greeted afterward.

"Link Joker is very dear to me, in fact. I've been with them since as long as I can remember, to be real with you guys... Yeah, and that money is real, no worries. I stole it myself, so you're good. Friend? I don't have friends, so probably not."

Sera turned his gaze to the person off in the distance. Nice sweater. He tilted his head, placing his back back in his slack pocket, scratched the back of his head, and picked at the stitch on his lip for a second. Then stopped.

Haruka's words echoed... "There's a time and place for everything, but not now."

Sera nodded with determination, then looked at Aoi who seemed to be frightened. Sera shrugged, mouthing to the poor lass,

"Sorry 'bout that. Got carried away." He looked back into the icy glare without hesitation. Haruka might've tried to do some problem solving. Sera was about to do some problem creating in a second if this escalated even a moment further.

...

Sera faintly heard smooth jazz for a moment, putting him in a slightly better mood. Awesome!

Now to deal with the problem ahead.

... Haruka ignored her. The bastard ignored her. Not only that, it looked like he had made Aoi cry on top of that. Such an act was a capital offense in Fubuki's mind. If she had a knife, it would currently be embedded in not-Haruka's chest.

"What have you done?" Fubuki's voice was cold as ice. This man who didn't deserve to exist in the first place had made Aoi cry. Also him being dead would cause Hikari to suffer. Or so she thought. Of course, it being Sera not Haruka, a fact Fubuki was unaware of, meant killing him would probably be doing Hikari a favor. Anyways. Fubuki continued glaring at the man, putting herself between not-Haruka and Aoi to prevent further crying.

"Wait... wait wait, Fubuki, wait", Aoi got herself together after a minute. Getting over the random, unexplained migraine, she defended Sera. "He didn't do anything. Japan's just... overwhelming and my head started to hurt, is all."

The china girl flashed a soft smile, a little happy with her friend's bit of obvious wrath. People only get mad like that over their friends, so they must've been...! Yes, yes! Success! Aoi fist pumped into the sky.

"Oh, if its real money then everything its al- Wait, did you say stolen? Is this another joke?" Carlos said, taken aback by that answer. Before he could ask again, the girl coming to them was already standing in front of them. The girl was staring fiercely at Sera. If looks could kill, Sera would by finishing his 5th death. Then Aoi tried to greet her. "So its a friend of yours, Aoi. I told you they were lookin- Hey! Are you ok, Aoi?".

Aoi looked like she went through a lot of pain. But she recovered rather quickly and tried to talk with girl. She was, in the meantime, directing some word to Sera, but he was just ignoring her. When Aoi randomly fist-bumped the sky for some reason, Carlos took the chance to give a question to Sera. "Are you really sure you don't know her? 'Cause it looks like she knows you". Something seemed wrong at the moment, but Carlos couldn't understand what it was. The only thing he was sure of was that he didn't want to miss a moment of what was going to happen.

Sera threw his hands behind his head, clicking his heel on the ground and approaching the newly found jovial Aoi and despairingly pissed off ice glare girl. Sera wasn't sure exactly what was best to say, or really what to say at all.

D.D ran up to Sera's legs, purring. The gash was bleeding some more. He stretched, yawned, picked up his cat, and walked over to Aoi and ice woman.

"Can I help you? You seem troubled. And with that look centered on me, it seems I have to be the problem, right? What's going on?"

Sera pet the cat, still forgetting to nurse his wounds again.

"No, no, no, I'm fine!" Aoi kept smiled, waving her hands in front of her for emphasis when Carlos asked if she was alright. Overwhelmed was all it was.

"Oh, but Sera, you should get that checked out..." the girl pointed to the bleeding wound, cringing a bit.

Fubuki was silent. Haruka had completely forgotten the hatred felt for him by Fubuki. That was just insulting. She prepared to smack the man, changed her mind to trying to choke him, then stopped herself again. Better to just leave. But first... She leaned towards Haruka's ear, and whispered barely loud enough to be heard, "I'll make sure you die soon." Then, without another word, she turned around, grabbed Aoi's hand, and started to walk off, casting an icy glare back at not-Haruka.

"Oh-" Aoi was being dragged off without even understanding anything that was happening. "Byeeee!" She waved to Carlos and Sera anyway, happy to be pulled away by her new friend. Her companion, of sorts. A colleague. A kindred spirit.

"Stay away from him," Fubuki said to Aoi as soon as she had dragged her out of average human earshot of Sera. "That man... H-he.... He's very close to someone who did something terrible to me..." Fubuki held back the tears, remembering that Hikari was the one who ordered the death of Cyan. Haruka didn't deserve friendship or sympathy. He didn't even deserve to live.

"Huh? But he's nice. A little crazy, but nice! It doesn't sound like he's the one who hurt you..."

Aoi wanted to ask about that subject, but decided against it. Bringing it up and then trying to understand what Fubuki must've been going through just looking at that guy sounded like a bad idea for the moment. Still, something to pry into later. Now that there was an issue, she wanted to help.

They were already gone. Sera sighed, shaking his head, and hopped off into the night with D.D. Maybe he needed a new name for his compadre. D.D did sound a little bland...

Heroic D! That would be his name for now. At least until he found a new more suitable name with D in it because D was a very likable letter for Sera.

For some odd reason. But that woman's reaction to Dark Zodiac... Strange.

"I'll have to bring Haruka into this. Maybe he'll know what to say to her."

Hop. Skip. Jump. Sera was off.

"Huh... Bye then" Said Carlos while watching Aoi being dragged by the girl and Sera taking off shortly after that. He was alone again, but at least he had money with him. "They seem to be good people, but I wish they hadn't left me like this..." He thought. "Well, you know what they say: Easy come, easy go... Will you let me go? Bismillah!" He laughed, remembering that famous song.

Now that he had money, he resorted to verify if it was really money. How? Trying to spend the night in a hotel. A good one. He just needed to find one. He left the park with the hopes of seeing Aoi and Sera again. And to find an inn at least. He walked down the streets, humming the song that he just remembered. "I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me. Ha, so good... And very fitting".