(GS3) Field: Umano Underground Slums

[OverDrive]

Tsubasa had just finished his 2 day rest, and decided that now might be the time to test his skills again at the underground slums. Originally he had hoped to fight other different fighters but in his mind he thought that he needs to grow accustomed to the relentless fighting style of the slums in order to be prepared the next time he cardfights.

Upon entering the slums he starts to look around for any familiar faces before he starts practicing again, at that moment he notices someone he had met before in the slums once.

"...Isn't that yukino?" he thought. "Hmm, something is different about her from the last time we met but it could not hurt to  say 'hi' at least, maybe she'll be up for another cardfight."

"...What clan did she use again.." he thought, as he walked towards yukino. "Hey, it's good to see you again yukino."

[Cherry]

This woman seemed rather eager to fight without vocalizing such through words. The very actions of whipping out a deck and placing it down before even asking screamed: "let's play a game!". The queen wasn't against it and in fact, needed this. Approaching the table, the Gold Paladin deck was set down by a similarly eager Yukino. Before answering Neu, Tsubasa called out to them. A man fought during the Shadow Paladin onslaught... he tried to help her, which already labelled him a swell guy in her book. Even if the memories of that day made her cringe.

"Tsubasa, right? Good to see you again too", Yukino greeted. Then turned back to the woman of obvious German origin by name, smiling back. "My name is-"

"Speak the name of importance", Ezel whispered.

"... Yugure. Nice to meet you."

[OverDrive]

Yukino was about to cardfight against someone Tsubasa had never seen before, nevertheless Tsubasa was interested in watching to see how this cardfight turns out.

"Maybe after this cardfight I can cardfight against Yukino but for now I get to watch...let's just see how good this person is." he thought, as he stood next to the table to watch the cardfight unfold.

[Cherry]

Shadow Paladin.

Neu presented Shadow Paladin to Yugure, greatly distressing the queen. Desperately asking where she got it, and where the blasters of fate were... she only received vague answers. Not only dodging the questions, but shrugging everything off as a casual game. Yukino enjoyed the fight, or at least, wanted to. But her precious blasters... In addition to that all, this girl taunted her constantly. Drawing a bundle of triggers was something Yukino was already accustomed to, drawing a bunch in an opening hand. Yet, this girl's luck put Satoshi's to shame with Heals and Criticals.

Never mind those.

What really got to her was the arrival of Dark Dictator. Seeing the tyrant turn his blade on her... seeing herself on her rampage...

Bladed-eyes responded with fury.

This woman took Yukino's distress as a joke, clearly, telling her to lighten up. It was just a normal fight, and nothing more to everyone else. The slum's dogs still found it strange how the queen kept yelling, inquiring about names they didn't recognize. A few wanted to stop the fight in order to calm her, protecting Neu. While they did refrain, they were concerned for the mental health of the queen. Yugure also felt as if she was supposed to be taught a lesson, as if this fight was to knock her off her high horse. Regionals did that a long time ago, but to taste it again with someone having the intention to do so...

A fist banged on the table, then proceeded to do so repeatedly. She left without answering Yukino's questions.

She knew who Yukino was! Not because Yugure introduced herself... but because of the fact that she knew Yukino played Shadow Paladin! She remembered Shadow Paladin, Royal Paladin... Probably Kagero and Bermuda Triangle too! Neu EdelWeiss... was she the mastermind behind their disappearance?!

"Goddammit!!"

Neu -3 Affinity

[Hope]

"Fun fun...."

She looked at Yukino's frustration in the distance. It was like seeing Alfred falling off his horse, the high horse, of course. Neu really enjoyed that fight, taking a liking to Yukino as well. The ones watching were worried sure, but at the same time they were enjoying what they watched, a nice game. She looked at the Shadow Paladin deck, and smiled at it. She placed it into one of her pockets. A small label laid on it, one she put perhaps as a joke, maybe even just a design to make herself laugh each time she saw it. The deck holder for her Shadow Paladin deck had a cute little sticker and it said in clear words:

"Jellal Kisaragi"

She turned away, satisfied at the outcome, hoping Yukino would not hate her far too much, but at the same time in her mind, she really didn't care. People like that weren't welcome in the world that she wanted, but of course, if she got on her knees, and acted in humility as she did now, then maybe Neu would consider opening the door of salvation for her. It's funny though, all she knew about Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark was that they were taken away by The Rift. Basically she knew just as much about them as Yukino, yet... she got so worked up over her pretending like she actually knew something.

"The queen knocked off her throne, that's so much fun! I'm really starting to actually fall for her!"
In her hand she held another deck box. "Love for the queen... right? Guess this'll be my next deck then." It was a deck case, labeled in the same way as the Shadow Paladin deck:

"Haruka Nakahara"

Affinity:
Yukino: +3

[OverDrive]

Tsubasa could not believe what he was watching, while the game was impressive, he saw Yukino shouting and in rage. However, what bothered him most of all was the clan that "Neu" used, for some reason that clan bothered him a lot, for reasons he cannot understand.

".....That clan....just what on earth..something about this clan seems familiar.." he thought, as he started to clench his fists.

As the fight concluded, it was clear to Tsubasa that Yukino had some knowledge about this 'Shadow Paladin' clan, but more improtantly it was clear that she was bothered by it, he had to try to calm her down first.

"..Try to calm down Yukino." he said, as he tried to calm her down. "Jellal Kisaragi..where have I seen that name before.." he thought.

[Cherry]

How could she calm down?! Yugure kept banging into the desk, furious. That girl had to know something, and she was going to get back at her eventually. The aggravated queen finally stopped after some others told her to relax too. Gritting her teeth, she complied. Getting riled up is probably what Neu wanted, and she basically gave Neu the satisfaction. After a few deep breaths, thoughts of how to deal with this were being conjured. Ezel and Garmore checked Cray, unveiling remnants of Shadow Paladin, along with some isolated guardians of Royal Paladin. Two things which shouldn't be possible, considering every knight was told to join under Gold Paladin's flag.

"I'm... fine..." she hissed.

[OverDrive]

"I'm....fine..."

Tsubasa had heard these words in his head more times than he can remember, he had to use them back when he was trying to keep everyone away from him, back when he did not want to involve others in his troubles. He did not want to let Yukino deal with her troubles alone, especially since he knows how hard that can be.

"..I challenge you Yukino..maybe I can understand what's bothering her this time around..maybe unlike last time I can help her." he thought, as he pointed his deck at her.

[Cherry]

Yukino calmed down for a moment, revealing the existence of Royal and Shadow Paladin to Tsubasa - the former is something that he played with her. They fought while Tsubasa revealed himself to Yukino in hopes of breaking down an emotional barrier she had set up at the moment, and for them to be friends. Finally getting to know Tsubasa, learning about himself and his brother, the girl felt bad for what she did two months ago. Completely shrugging off his help... shrugging off his existence. He said Vanguard was something he wanted for him and his brother far away to enjoy together. Yes... Vanguard, that had once been a tool for her, was enjoyable - it was fun.

Gold Paladin was starting to synchronize itself with her, even if her opponents were getting luckier than believable. Yugure stated that Ezel makes a good Avatar choice for Tsubasa, acknowledging his existence and will to help and protect. This resulted in and has kept resulting in Ezel's Superior Calls being on point, never calling a Trigger or a Perfect Guard yet. Even so, despite this, a heal, and a Critical... Yugure was taken down by a Critical on Tsubasa's end.

You know, she was getting sort of tired of everyone else's luck. Satoshi rips Triggers like its his job, Neu and Tsubasa double critical her early on... Bleh, she scowled.

Still, the woman thanked him. For telling her his story and calming her down. Informing him of the lost Paladins led him to desire answers for himself. Wanting to understand his manipulated memories.

When the time came, she hopes he'd fight with her.

Tsubasa +2 Affinity

[OverDrive]

Tsubasa was greatful that he was able to get through to Yukino, and now he is determined to understand what exactly happened to him, everyone else and the clans that disappeared. He was uncertain if he should tell his story to Yukino however, if he wanted a mutual trust to happen both sides needed to understand the other.

"..Maybe one day Yukino will get to know the details of my story...she may understand my drive and the idea of what happened to me and my brother in the past...but she still has yet to know the rest of what happened." he thought, as he began to feel the pain of remembering the events that took place at that point.

"I better get home..there's a lot to do.." he thought, as he began to make his way out of the slums.

"My Vanguard..."
"..Huh..who said that........no time to think I need to hurry home." he said.

Yukino +2 Affinity

[Kisaragi Zane]

"This place sure brings back memories."

Barren and dead as always, a figure stepped foot into what is known as the Underground Slums. It was gated per usual, dark and sinister as ever, and it reeked of something most vile. "I wonder who enters here now..." the young man stepped forward into from the entrance, taking it all in, welcoming the ghetto. He stepped underneath a light pole which was positioned diagonally from the ground. The light shined in his face, as he stepped from the shadows. His smooth blonde mix hair, followed by his light blue eyes braved into the darkness. Step by step, he got closer and closer to the crowd of usual underground fighters. "They look as untrained and savaged I see.." he thought as he carefully surveyed the perimeter. He heard the faint voices of the crowd of fighters both to his left and to his right: "Who the heckie is that guy?", "That's Jellal Kisaragi", "You mean THE Jellal Kisaragi that made it semi finals of nationals?" "Yeah him...". Jellal listened in more of their conversations, which before, never happened. When he first arrived here, Jellal was treated as a lost little boy who didn't know what he was getting himself into, now though? It was like his very presence graced their dead lands. However, he heard one thing question that stuck out like a sore thumb.

"What clan does he use?" He continued to eye forward to the nearest fight table as he soaked in the remaining conversation. "How should I know?" "He fought big names like Cero and Espoirs but you don't know what clan he uses?" "Ughh.. I dunno I forgot, ok? I'm sorry, like gosh!" Jellal was puzzled: his expression changed to a confused one as he didn't know what to make of it. "They've never seen me use Shadow Paladin...?" He stopped at the fight table, tossing his bag on top of it, searching for something familiar. "I've played at this very table numerous times with the clan yet..." He grabbed his deck case, opening the deck. It was his Aqua Force: Maelstrom in the front. There was something about Maelstrom that felt "right" for once as opposed to the Shadow Paladins he held. He looked through the deck as the idle conversation in the back continued. "I wonder what he's doing here?" "He comes here often to fight" "But he's powerful fighter though.. I wanna see waht he can do!" "Yeah same, you should challenge him!" "Huh? Me? Why not you, you little pansy?". Jellal sighed closing his deck and looked up into the moonlight.

"Shadow Paladin huh..." he thought back during the times he was here. The first time he came and meeting up with Yukino and Hana. "Oh right..." he thought to himself, as he switched his expression to an annoyed one. "I gotta talk to that little one about spreading my nickname...". He waited in utter silence as one of the Underground fighters bravely approached him to fight.

"I wonder how they all are though, how much everything's changed." The moons light shined down on his Armada with Maelstrom's roar echoing throughout the slums.

[Spectre Diamond]

From his bunker in the slums, Hikaru could see what was going on around the place. He saw some familiar faces and with his underlings keeping him updated on who comes through the gate he didn't really have to do much unless it was something urgent. He then looked to the newest face to come around, the man they called Jellal Kisaragi. from his sources, Jellal had made it to the semi-finals of the national tournament. Granted that Hikaru himself had wanted to enter himself, he didn't have the time for it. He was busy hunting after all.

Curious on how he would fair against the young man he got out of his bunker and walks over to him.

[Kisaragi Zane]

"Submit to my storm of righteousness! Maelstrom's Limit Break is too strong for you!"

The blue dragon fired what seemed to be an endless barrage of missiles at his opponent. The force of the devastation blew the top card of the deck into the damage zone, face down, ending the fight. "Good game" he said to his opponent as he took up his deck and held it with pride. It was not something he had came to do for Shadow Paladin, outside of Blaster Dark. He stunned the crowd around as they finally answered their previous questions about his clan. They were confused and asked when and where did Jellal get the clan, throwing out rumors, theories and speculations on how he might have obtained it. He looked over to see someone approaching the area, as the crowd slowly stepped to the side to make room for this individual. Jellal looked, never seeing this person before, seemed to carry some weight around these slums.

"May I help you?" he said to the intruder.

[Spectre Diamond]

"Yes you can actually." Hikaru took out a deck case from his jacket and walks over to the motion figure system. He places his starter onto the vanguard circle.

"I want to see your strength." As his eyes burned with blood lust as he stared at Jellal's own eyes. 

[Kisaragi Zane]

Interested at the challenge, Jellal honored it and sat his deck back down.

"Sure" he said as the wind picked up, circling around him. His eyes glittered slightly, turning brighter as he was prepared to fight.