A Proper (Re)Introduction [Tobi & Katashi]

Another day in the classroom, another bell rings and the procession begins. Tobi trudged through the monotony of high school hallways as the bell for lunch finally rang. A groggy yawn escaped his lips as he scratched his head, tearing the frizzy knots apart with his fingernails acting as a comb and brush combination. His school uniform was rather lazily put together but still fit to the code well enough for someone of his stature. The shade of his hair generally off-put many students into thinking he had delinquent tendencies but only the skittish ones ever really paid mind to it.

Escaping to a small spot behind the gymnasium, Tobi plopped down and placed a small boxed lunch in his lap. He unwrapped the sky blue cloth and untied the coiled band keeping it latched shut. As he did, the aroma of what was inside began to seep out, positively making his mouth water. He threw open the box to see fried shrimp, rice, vegetables of several assortments of which were steamed, and a variety of meats lined on the far left of the container, grilled for the most part. Tobi almost began digging in, until he felt the pinch of something in his back pocket he was sitting on. With a short sigh, he retrieved his deck case containing his Pale Moon deck, holding it up to his face to look at it. He didn't remove any of the cards, barring one that he pulled from the front.

Masked Magician, Harri. Grade 3. The ringmaster of the deck who keeps the show going. Tobi's face, normally stoic or simply resting in bitch position, softened a bit and his eyes glowed at the sight of the card.

Nearby the baseball field, which was situated just next to the spot where Tobi seated himself for lunch, had a game on-going with several people as well as people watching the game and others pouring in and out of the cafeteria back entrance, yet Tobi sat alone in his small shaded spot with his lunch, still untouched. He was in his own little world, at that time.

High school was busy. Always something to do. A test for this class, a project for that class, a presentation a week off that you were really never ready for but had to do anyway, clubs to be in, activities to go to and the list went on. The lunch hour was about the only time before school let out that Katashi felt like he could breathe as he typically had his homework done on time and kendo club wasn't until after school.

This wasn't to say he didn't have friends eagerly awaiting him to take his seat at a lunch table. The boy was popular even and people wanted to talk with him. But for some reason he took notice of something he usually hadn't as he walked out of the cafeteria with his food. He must have seen the person eating there dozens of times without ever really registering that it was a person. Like of course it was just the loner who eats lunch there. That was one of the nicer things Katashi's circle had said with regards to this and others like him. But this time something caught his attention.

Maybe it was a sound from the baseball game that got him to look in that direction but his eyes landed on a boy that the longer he looked the more he thought he recognized. In fact he knew he did. He began walking over much to the confusion of his friends. A lone rocket was taking off toward a small separate world.

"Hey, it is you!" Katashi said excitedly as he saw the boy's face better. This was the Pale Moon player who had accepted his challenge through the FICA quest system. "It's me, Katashi, the Fenrir player. I had no idea we went to the same school uh..." he trailed off. This was gonna get awkward. He'd never gotten his opponent's name.

"Uhh... remind me your name again?"

Real smooth Katashi.

Tobi's small daydream was broken by the call of hurried voice. He looked up and to the left, just outside the shade of the trees where he sat and saw his face. It was that guy he made a fool in front of at the card shop! Tobi's eyes widened as he sat his lunch down off his lap and stood up to meet Katashi at his eye level, straightening up his disheveled uniform. The tie was a bit crooked so he fixed that first while dusting off his rear from the patch of grass he was sitting on.

"Me? Oh, me! Uh, hehe..." He scratched a few more knots out of his hair, gently this time, putting out his free hand with a sort of anxious look on his face. He was used to having pranks pulled on him by his older classmates when he had been younger, and as Pavlov would have it, anticipated that kind of thing now. Maybe he was just joking with him... though the more Tobi looked, he became aware that it really was that guy he had a rather sociable approach to him. Friendly, even.

He nodded, awaiting a shaken hand as he introduced himself. "My name is Tobiro, but I go by Tobi. I remember you from that day, but I guess it never clicked you went here. You're in the same year as me, yeah?" Tobi started getting decently excited, until he saw the group of kids off in the near distance staring back at him and Katashi. Probably where he just was, with some friends of his. Tobi's face descended slowly in a stoic, even cynical expression. One eyebrow skeptically rose a little as he sat back down whether Katashi greeted him with a handshake or not, putting his lunch back in his lap.

"So uh, can I help with something? I need to eat so." He shrugged, trying to play off the situation as cool, or that maybe he didn't need to be bothered when he had something so important to take of, when in reality he was actually way more interested in talking to Katashi. "Unless you wanted to eat lunch here or something... your friends look like they're waiting for you, I think?" He made a short remark, pulling apart a share of chopsticks and digging into his feast a little bit. His Pale Moon deck sat at his side with the Harri card still pulled out, sitting on top of the case as it gleamed a little in a sunlight.

Katashi happily shook Tobi's extended hand and was glad to finally have a name for the face. He hated knowing a person without actually knowing their name. It felt like  whatever they had done was in some way disingenuous because they hadn't bothered to actually get to know each other. Now the fight they had shared felt right because it wasn't just the fight with that kid that seemed unsure of himself, it was the fight with Tobi.

"Yeah I think we are the same year. Funny the people you never run into." he said with a chuckle. He took note of the boy sinking as he looked back at his friends who were obviously wondering what Katashi was doing with the loner. Tobi sat back down stating he needed to eat and mentioned that Katashi's friends were waiting for him as if wanting to dismiss the conversation. But that wouldn't do.

"No, I just wanted to say hi..." he said trailing off as Masked Magician, Harri caught his eye. "Got Vanguard on the mind I see!" he said as he sat down next to Tobi, much to the even greater surprise of his friends. They weren't much of a focus at the moment for him. They saw him every day, a few minutes here wouldn't hurt. "Did you go that event they advertised? The one at the Zoo Branch? I hear it was crazy!" he said, indirectly betraying the fact he hadn't been able to attend himself.

Tobi shoved a large piece of fried shrimp in his mouth as well as a small globule of white rice and started chewing, until he noticed that Katashi commented on saying hi and even sat down next to him. He stopped chewing and started blinking as if the actions were mutually exclusive activities that could not be completed at the same time. He chewed a bit more, swallowing most of it. He started excitedly clasping his chopsticks, nodding at the prospect of having gone to the event.

"Oh yeah! After you'd mentioned it, I thought it might be a good idea to check it out. I... Well, I mean, I didn't win any fights, but, it was still really cool." Tobi remembered the event decently clearly, his eyes pointed at the sky as he recalled memories from the other day. "There was this giant panda in the desert..." He trailed off, vividly recalling a pudding-eating panda in the bizarre heat of the desert biome in the Zoo Branch Building.

He shrugged, picking another piece of shrimp up between his chopsticks as he veered his vision back to Katashi with a slight grin on his face, a rare sight.

"I don't really care though. It was surprisingly fun. Met this girl, Mizumi. Kind of cute-- Erk, I mean, cool! She was pretty cool!" He waved his chopsticks, waving away the image of the girl from his mind. "Her friends were cool, too. This girl, Aoi and her friend Jessie? I think? A few others too but I didn't really catch a lot of their names. There was this concert and some other stuff... You didn't go, though?" Tobi glanced to Katashi again, as an inquisitive expression opened on his face.

Katashi listened carefully, glad to see that Tobi was in better spirits after the event than after their fight together. But the boy had also caught on to the fact that he hadn't been able to attend himself. The brunette sighed deeply as he took a bit out of some cheap cafeteria food. Nothing amazing, just what was available today. And Katashi didn't exactly have the luxury of making lunches at home ahead of time.

"Yeah I was too busy that day. The Kendo Club's got some new recruits that are kind of struggling this year so we've been doing extra practices to try and help get them into shape. Coach can't be around a ton for those though so it falls largely to me to oversee that stuff." he said fairly cheerfully despite the blatant disappoint of missing the event. "I'm definitely going to the Magallanica event though! I don't have anything going on that day so I'll get to just fight it out!" he declared, clearly perking up at the idea. He ate with a little more vigor at the thought.

"Hey, if you want we could help each other get ready! Make sure we can both run through our combos like they're second nature and stuff. What do ya say? Harri there looks raring to go if you ask me."

Tobi was empathetic to Katashi's plight regarding his business and the amount of time and effort he put into his activities. The blonde boy shifted his weight against the shady patch of grass he was sitting his, stretching his legs out. He stretched out his arms a bit, forking through a bit more of his lunch with his chopsticks as he listened, gulping some green tea out of a small thermos he had with him throughout the day.

After a short sigh, Tobi nodded in concurrence that he would be going to Magallanica as well, but whether he'd be staying to participate or cheer wasn't exactly discussed...

"O-oh, eheh, yeah I wouldn't mind practicing with you if you like. I mean, it isn't like I really need it or anything! I'd be totally fine on my own! Y-yeah!"

He was something between comically frustrated with his own shortcomings and trying to keep a cracked up chuckle from escaping his lips as he chatted with Katashi about everything, despite feeling a bit embarrassed regarding the situation with practice.  He knew he wasn't as good as he could be, but trying to give up this facade now would likely destroy any semblance of bravado he had. His fingers danced over his Harri card gingerly, nodding to Katashi with a mild grin.

"You can look at my deck if you like, see how it is?"

He passed the deck case, sliding Harri back into it, to Katashi so he can check out the contents of it.

It was a relief to hear Tobi liked the idea of practicing for the next event. Katashi had been worried when he'd left Shop Handsome in a bit of a huff. The boy had seemed frustrated and a touch confused during their fight. He wanted to help him really get to learn and love Vanguard but he figured the Pale Moon player would respond better to be treated as his equal rather than someone who needed teaching. But then Tobi handed him his deck case.

Oh no, he wasn't ready for this.

"Yeah sure I can take a look." good going Katashi. He had next to no idea how Pale Moon was supposed to be built so he questioned how good his advice would be.

"I'm no Pale Moon expert mind you but I'll give it a go." he continued, attempting to relax. Handling another person's deck always felt tense to him. Like they poured a bit of their heart into it and to just have given to you to look through felt oddly intimate and awkward at the same time. He started shifting through the cards and took note of a few things.

First off, Tobi was playing all four types of triggers. That was a tad unusual as most people tended to focus on two types aside from the customary four hearls. In his initial pass through he thought he only counted fifteen triggers but he thought he must have just missed it and would come back to it later. Moving on to the more impressive units... well it was hard to call them more impressive. Tobi ran a lot of vanilla cards like grade ones with eight thousand power but no skill and grade twos with ten thousand power but no skill either. Harri's skill combined with the strides in the deck could perhaps make up for that but Katashi couldn't help but think there were more helpful units he could search out to add to the deck. The grade ratios seemed fine but there seemed to be an odd lone grade two unit: Hell's Gate Magician. Now he was worried.

After another three checks or so he confirmed what was wrong. Tobi had in fact only been running fifteen triggers this whole time.

"Tobi!" he exclaimed, startled at the revelation. " Did you know... your deck only has fifteen triggers in it?" came the awkward question. "I'm glad I caught it cuz you're not allowed to play with any more or less than sixteen. If they'd found out somehow at the event they might have disqualified you!"

Tobi cocked his head to the side, like a small, confused puppy. He hadn't really grasped what Katashi was so worried about by the trigger count until he realized that fifteen was indeed not equal to sixteen as the Cardfight!! Vanguard rules state. He plopped his chopsticks into the small bin where his shrimp had been, clutching the sides of his hair in a fit as his eyes went wide with embarrassment.

"Only fifteen?! You're joking right? They... Well, I guess nobody was checking decks there at the time but..."

He wiped his eyes with his sleeve, scooting close to Katashi so he could peer through the deck himself while his friend handled the cards. Indeed, there was only fifteen triggers present in rainbow formation, though there was only three Stand Triggers outside the uniform four of each other type. He fell over onto his back, staring up at the sky with a drawn-out groan.

"Oh! I could've sworn I had the right regulation number! I'm not an idiot, I swear! I just, well, it isn't like I really had any help building one of these before. Shop managers freak me out with how enthusiastic they insist I get about the game and..."

He grumbled, his words somewhat said more to the wind than Katashi.

"I've only ever played with my grandpa before..."

Then, actually speaking to Katashi facing him.

"... Well, before I took your quest anyway."

Katashi couldn't help but laugh at the situation. It was happy and not mean-spirited but he felt bad for doing it and tried to compose himself. Tobi was so intent on carrying himself like a pro when he was actually fairly inexperienced.

"You know, I had a feeling you hadn't played very much when we fought. I just didn't want to make a fuss over it." he started as he passed through the deck another time. "So your grandpa got you into it huh? Well I'm glad you've decided to start playing more and with more people. I agree it can be a bit overwhelming at first but Vanguard is really great when you finally get your head around it." he said with a smile as he handed Tobi his deck back. He began rummaging through his pockets to produce his own deck, Fenrir adorning the top of it naturally.

"I'm not gonna try and tell you how to build your deck, well other than getting a sixteenth trigger. But I'd be happy to share some tips with things I've learned as I've gone along." the boy said, not wanting to offend Tobi in case he intentionally had most of the deck the way he did. Somehow he doubted this was the case but still, his new friend seemed to have something of a need to maintain a sense of dignity about these things.

Tobi looked out of the corner of his vision, still visibly annoyed about his deck building dilemma. It was like watching a small kitten growl at their owner, having an angry on their expression that can only be described as "cute." As emasculating as it was, he huffed out a sigh angrily, staring at the dirt and slowly raising his gaze towards Katashi. He was... way too close. He'd kind of leaned over to look at the deck over his shoulder and hadn't moved during that exchange, making him suddenly inches away from his face.

He fell over onto his backside, calling out with an affirmative sound of pain. Rolling over to look at Katashi, who maybe hadn't noticed and if not, for the better. He squinted at him, nodding, defeated. "Yeah... Some tips, couldn't hurt, I guess..." He sat up, brushing the dirt and grass patches off his uniform jacket and sleeves. He scooted a bit over to Katashi again, not as close this time, looking at his deck now. He pointed at Fenrir excitedly with little stars in his eyes.

"That one! That card was super cool! He had all the chains and stuff, so cool, so cool!"

As Katashi scrolled through his deck library, Tobi would continuously pointed at cards he recognized, exclaiming how awesome they were or how strong they were, thinking it was absurd how good a card like that could be. He refrained from comparing them to his deck... for reason.

Katashi wasn't sure what to make of Tobi's displays. Something had blown him off balance and he worried a bit but the boy seemed fine. He was happy to hear Tobi would accept his help though. He wanted the aspiring Pale Moon player to really enjoy the game and knowing how to deck build well was the foundation of it all. He did an initial pass through of his deck and was quietly really happy to have his cards praised. He agreed, Fenrir was awesome and many of the cards helping him were things he cherished. But with the initial review complete it was time to get a few specifics.

"So first we should talk a bit about triggers." he said as he brought out the sixteen trigger units from his deck. He fanned them out showing four heals, four stands and eight crits. "As you know there's four types of trigger: heal, critical, draw and stand. Your deck right now has all four of them but from what I've seen, aside from heals most people tend to focus on two types. Like here, I run eight crits and four stands." he said showing off Kukurihime, Thviti and Dreaming Dragon.

"My focus is criticals because Vanargand can help me secure more during his triple drive and it gets really hard to guard really fast. In particular I use Kukurihime and Thviti because they have skills that are helpful for fixing numbers or strengthening the vanguard as well." he said while putting the crits back into his deck and just holding his dreaming dragons. "In my case, getting hand isn't too much of a problem for me so I don't use draws. Stands can give me a bit more offense but what I really want is Dreaming Dragon's skill. Fenrir runs through his deck fast because of all the soul charging he does. But because I also do a lot of soul blasting I can use this guy to put my drop zone into my deck and keep going." he said while putting Dreaming Dragon back with the rest.

"The issue with only using four of each trigger type is it's hard to count on seeing something you only have four of. Each trigger has a specific use that some decks make good use of and others don't. It's pretty rare to find a deck that benefits from every trigger type so I'd consider what you think you need. If you need more pressure on your attacks crits are always good. If you find yourself low on hand or missing rearguards you need draws help a ton. And if you want to extend your combos stands are really great. I don't know Harri super well so it's something you'll have to figure out with how your games go." the boy said. He seemed really happy to be explaining the game he loved to a friend.

"As for your grade ones and twos... well this is where I dunno what all I can say since I don't know what cards are out there for you. You have a lot of cards without skills that have higher than average powers to compensate. That can be good because it makes it hard for the opponent to hit you with a lot of early attacks. But it also means that later into the game those cards will be largely doing nothing. Like look here," he said fanning out his grade two line up. "Gleipnir helps me soul charge and draw. Jormungand powers up for every card I soul blast which is great for when I go into Doom Brace or Vanargand. Now this last slot was tricky. I could use a ten thousand base but I choose to use Chamomile because of her skill. When she's soulblasted I can call her which helps me fill up my field without hurting my hand or extend combos. I'm trading off that early protection for more aggressive options." he said while raising a hand to the back of his head to rub it a bit.

"Heh, sorry I'm kind of rambling at this point aren't I? Ultimately you have the basics down but now it's a matter of finding out what cards are available to you and weighing your options based on how you like to play. There's a lot of skills that you have to think of how they interact and what triggers they benefit from and all that." he concluded hoping he hadn't overwhelmed the inexperienced player before him. His friends at his usual table had been watching for a while now and were incredibly confused why he was devoting so much time to a nobody. Maybe that kid he was with was cool? But that seemed impossible to them. Whatever they thought Katashi was enjoying himself and was glad he'd noticed Tobi here.

Overwhelming was an understatement. Tobi sat in awe as he listened to Katashi explain all the ins-and-outs of the Vanguard he played. More specifically, the approach he took to building his deck, how he intended each turn to play and why every card in his deck was important. If Katashi wanted somebody's full attention, he had it and then some. Tobi sat there eagerly gripping the hem of his uniform jacket, listening intently and poking through his deck for reference to certain terms and words he used about the game. He even took a few notes down on a small set of sticky notes he kept in a pocket of his school satchel he brought with him to lunch.

"Huh? What? No, it's fine! You really said some interesting stuff I think I can learn from. I think that's super cool, dude--" He looked up and then behind him just out of view was Katashi's friends, now seated, staring out at the two. That awkward sinking feeling set in again, tarnishing the value of the experience like an oxidized coin. Tobi sighed lightly, remembering his place and staying in his lane. He piled his cards together and neatly folded them back into his case, sitting against the shaded wall again.

"I appreciate the help, but don't forget you still have the rest of your lunch to eat with your friends. What you did for me was cool though, I appreciate it."

Tobi pulled the hood on the small linen hoodie he kept under his uniform up, closing the top on his lunch as it was mostly finished anyways having been eaten between sessions of looking at cards and fiddling with his own deck. He wanted to get the prying eyes off of him and because he also felt partially responsible for the weird atmosphere they were giving off.

The taller boy looked back to his usual table as Tobi brought it up. Katashi hadn't really been thinking about them, especially when he got into deck reviewing and building tips. He wasn't an idiot. It wasn't hard to tell what was happening. His friends were no doubt saying rude things about Tobi, wondering what he was doing with him instead of sitting with them. And to someone who seemed to like keeping to himself, that sort of focus was very unwelcome. Katashi sighed and stood after his deck away.

"It might be nicer to hang out at a card shop like last time or something don't ya think?" and by that Katashi meant it would be nicer to be somewhere they wouldn't be the focus of observation. "Here let's get each other's phone numbers to make all that a little easier." he said. The phone number exchange was quick and painless and so he waved to his new friend as he slowly turned and walked back toward his table. The moment he approached he was bombarded with questions and comments.

"What were you doing with that loser?"

"Didn't you see us calling you over?"

"How do you even know him?"

"You're too cool to be hanging out with guys like him."

"Yeah, he can't be worth the trouble."

"Look, guys it's nothing. We met at a store when I was with my little brother and we had a nice time talking there so I wanted to say hi. That's all." he said, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. They didn't seem incredibly satisfied with their answer but things slowly returned to normal topics for the group though interlaced were more specific comments on how weird Tobi specifically was. How many conversations similar to this had he happily taken part in about other students here? Having glimpsed ever so slightly into Tobi's world, there was a sense of regret setting in about all of it. These were his friends but now Tobi was too. He worried how bad this conflict would be but it wouldn't be long before another bell brought his busy life back to him.