The Opening Act! First Attempt!! [Tobi's Quest - "Show him the ropes."]

He had accepted this quest on a whim, honestly. The hot-headed delinquent struggled furiously to get himself across the city despite the weather circumstances. It wasn't raining yet, but the clouds tempted ever further to let it rip and rain down a waterfall right over his head. He made it to Shop Handsome in record time as he made the last stretch, feeling drops of water begin to tap on the fabric of his hood.

Shaking what little water from his bangs and sleeves, he blinked a bit and strolled into the unfamiliar card shop. He'd been to Card Capital 2 several times, but usually just to lurk and see if anyone would approach him for a game. Given how his resting face was a distasteful scowl, he rarely got them. But this time he'd taken the initiative and approached a quest headstrong, determined to get a start somewhere. His grandfather taught him that.

He looked around, trying to identify the two brothers. It only took a few nods and a wave of his deck to find the people who had been presumably waiting for him. He pulled the apex of his hood back, letting it slide to the shoulders and unzipped his hoodie to reveal a thin-fabric black shirt with a graphic of a ferocious tiger on it. He narrowed his eyebrows at the brothers, opening his mouth and showing his deck to them.

"So, we're going to fight, yeah? That, that is what we're doing? I was pretty sure that was what the quest... the quest said..." As he mentions this, he checks his tracking device to make sure the quest said that exactly, fearing he may have to complete an additional or completely irrelevant task in its stead.

"So this is what we're doing, yea?"

As Tobi entered Shop Handsome, the brothers he had accepted the quest for waved him down. The older of the two seemed to be in high school where his younger brother seemed to be either nearly done with elementary school or just starting middle school. There was little particularly remarkable about either of their appearances. Both had typical black short-cut hair and average builds. They definitely looked related though. Something about how the features of the face were placed just gave it away.

"Yeah, you're gonna fight me for my bro here to see a little more of the game" the older brother said in response to Tobi's somewhat awkward introduction. The poor kid seemed awfully nervous for a simple quest and fight. "Name's Katashi by the way. Pipsqueak here's named Jun." he said while ruffling his brothers hair. The younger tried to get him to stop and and got riled up in the process while Katashi laughed.

"All I've got is Genesis decks like I said in the quest and I figure that's no way for him to learn the game. He's gotta see what all there is before he decides what he likes and stuff." the older brother continued. The younger seemed plenty energetic but also shy in the presence of a stranger so he naturally defaulted to his older brother's much more natural take to interaction with the unknown.

"I'm ready whenever you are." Katashi said, the excitement building in his vocie as he set his deck down on a fight table.

This was.... an experience. Before the game had even started, Tobi had done something horribly wrong that he hadn't even noticed himself: his deck was lacking a trigger unit summing it up at fifteen instead of sixteen. Of course, he never checked his entire deck before starting so it must've been a panicked rush or something... right?

The fight went as most expect, however mistakes made on the quest takers side were both abundant and obvious. In fact if it weren't for his attempt to show enthusiasm during the fight, he would have given off every wrong impression one could! His temper flared here and there as borderline disbelief wrote over his face when the stride of Vanargandr finally made its way onto the board in the face of Tobi with a hand not even slightly fit to guard it.

If it weren't for perfect guarding a rear guard just earlier in the prior turn, he might've been able to live that assault. This was the first of many mistakes he was mentally trying to correct, berating himself both in small mutters and whispers as well as mental attacks and notes he needed to prepare for next time. He knew the rules for the most part, but the anxiety of playing with someone who wasn't his grandfather, who he could make mistakes with all the time and not feel frustrated about, welled up a lot this time around, causing only more mistakes to be made.

After the fight, Tobi scrabbled all his cards together, somewhat haphazardly reforming his deck and putting his hoodie on, both in an attempt to hide skin as if it was a kind of cloak, as well as hide his face which was somewhat red with a mixture of embarrassment an anger. He spoke up looking away from Takashi and his brother, slipping his deck into his pocket.

"Sorry, I-uh... I was a bit off my game, I think. I could've done better— Err, I am better than that! A lot, really... Yeah... so, I should, probably go. I'm gonna be late for my bus or something."

Tobi waved a peace sign off without looking back really, starting to take a few paces towards the door out of Shop Handsome as he did so.

As the two played, Katashi got the feeling his opponent wasn't as familiar with the game as he had initially thought. He had been excited to face a clan he had only really heard of like Pale Moon, but when your opponent tries to attack your vanguard on the first turn of the game, you have to wonder. But things felt like they picked up from there. His opponent made some questionable guarding choices, triggers seemed to be more in Katashi's favor as well. It was going his way for the most part. Vanargand secured two critical triggers on the last turn when Tobi was unable to guard and thus the game ended.

Tobi then excused himself and began shuffling off. Katashi wanted to say something but he wasn't entirely sure what. "Hey uh, it was a good fight. If you wanted we could play again some time and help you get more fam-" he started but was cut off as the shopkeeper got everyone's attention. There was an important announcement that every young cardfighter needed to hear he said.

And so at Shop Handsome as well the line up for the Branch Events was laid out with titles and small descriptions. They sounded amazing and the brothers both got excited at the prospect of Katashi entering. He made sure to run up to Tobi before he left. "Hey, I hope I can see you at some of the events. Thanks for the fight, I'll make sure the quest system sends you your points." he said with a warm smile.

Tobi peered through the side of his hood, his nose a bit stuffed and red and his eyes kind of swollen a little. His face was a tad wet, though it didn't seem like any really serious waterworks. He pulled his hoodie sleeve over his eyes, gritting his teeth just a bit and coming to peace with the defeat finally as Katashi approached him. You couldn't stay angry at a person with a good will, especially one who you felt could've chewed you out at any moment. And when you embarrass yourself that hard, you have to have the decency to brush it off and not be so emotional at the small things.

"Yeah, maybe. I wasn't thinking about entering them before but maybe now..."

He shrugged a bit, turning his head away and trotting out the shop door. He felt a sense of anxious conflicting emotions. Anger had somewhat subsided, the frustrations going out with the small outlet of emotion that nobody really got a clear view of, luckily. Instead he felt a kind of determination. Maybe it was more contrived than that so simply, but it was at least a matter of fact that he was going to get good enough to at least be on Katashi's level.

That was the current goal, now.