thenearshore | Closed

It takes the teens few minutes to get everything recovered and back into the bag, a hasty stop at a nearby convenience store for some tape. Food distracts them and it give Ginia enough time to slip back to the shop ahead of them. She hastily buys a few starter decks to work with as well as a substantial stack of booster packs before heading to the room.

"They're getting food at the konbini, so we should be fine for a little longer." Ginia signs at Shun before taking out her phone for the sake of the kids.

"Sorry to hear you've been having trouble from those bullies. We'll make sure they learn their lesson. Who wants to see if I pull anything good in the packs?"

If there's a universal joy in card games, it's definitely seeing what someone pulls from booster packs.

It looks like Shun's gotten started with the kids a bit by the time Ginia comes in - he's looking through some of their decks and talking about things that work and things that don't. For once, he's also being cautious to phrase it in a manner that doesn't sound like he's belittling their ability, since they all seem like decent players for their age anyway, they're just being put up against people who have other advantages behind them.

Shun glances up and nods when Ginia comes in, the kids all waving at her. However, the caution of the greeting goes out the window when she mentions the packs, because the kids all let out a resounding "yes" and come a bit closer to see which ones she's bought.

Shun comes along with them, signing to her initially. "I've given them some tips on those guys already, but we can still do a bit of deckbuilding."

Then he switches back to speaking so the kids can understand. "Ginia is pretty new to the game as well, so if you see her get anything you know is good, make sure you tell her."

The kids all nod seriously, apparently taking it as some sort of small test of knowledge. Without the older players around, it seems like they're plenty ready to prove they do know about the game.

Ginia creates a generous stack of booster packs on the table. It's the kind of experience most kids dream about. As she opens the first pack, one of the kids is quick to stop her and show her how to move the cards around so the rare card is always the last card she sees. The other kids nod sagely at this arcane secret. Going through the first pack, the kids are more than happy to weigh in on the cards, whether because it's good, annoying to play against, or otherwise a favorite card for any numerous reasons. A slow collection of rare and even a few foiled cards form a new pile.

There's excited debate among the kids as they compare the cards she's pulled to the premade decks, each favoring their own tactics. Ginia takes the moment to sign over at Shun. "Mind checking if the other teens showed up? One mentioned he wanted to sign up for the tournament."

Shun mostly observes, watching how the kids respond - there's definitely something familiar about the vibe of excitement that settles on them, and for a moment, he thinks back to the times before the war started, the kids who used to always hang around the Duel Schools.

He shakes his head a moment before he notices Ginia move to sign at him, and he nods, backing off a few steps so he fades out of the kids' attention before disappearing. He'd rather teleport than give away where they've gone off to by opening the door if the older teens are outside, and he reappears at the far end of the store.

He can't see the other teens yet, but as he heads towards the front of the store, he starts to hear chatter from outside that sounds familiar from that video. He sends Ginia a quick text.

They'll be here in a minute.

Ginia glances at the text and raises her phone to show the message to the kids. They look a bit crestfallen, glancing at the door as if the bullies will come in here too.

"Don't worry, Shun and I won't let them bother you," Gina assures through her phone. "Shun's real good at card games. We'll make sure they leave you alone after the tournament." Maybe even the store for some time too. A ban might be good for the troublesome teens, even a temporary one. It might help them to cool their heels. Or maybe there's talking to them and getting through to them their behavior isn't acceptable.

...God, she really is sounding more and more like an anti-bullying PSA in a kid's anime. Dammit, Chris.

In the store, the teens are jostling each other around as they enter, swaggering in like they own the place. The owner smiles nervously as they enter the store.

"Hey, ojisan! We're signing up for the tournament! There are spots open, right?"

The manager, despite his reservations, gives a slow nod at the request. He almost glances towards the other room, but appears to think better of it, and pulls out a book from under the counter instead, checking the names.

"Yes, yes, we've got quite a few left...all of you, then?"

The teens get in a rowdy line to sign up as Shun disappears back into the other room, signing to Ginia when he materialises again.

"They're all here and signing up for the tournament. So it'll be easy to deal with all of them when it happens."

That aside, he glances towards the kids. "For now, let's ignore those idiots. If you want to try some of the ideas for your decks we were talking about earlier, I can take you on."

That in combination with what Ginia had said about him seems to get the kids excited, and they immediately start pulling out their own collections of cards in binders, taking things out and switching them into decks with all the grave seriousness a gamer gives to these kinds of matters.

Ginia nods at Shun. She considers seeing if anyone else at her temple wants to join in to help with their odds, but no. Between her and Shun and the kids gathered, they're a pretty good fighting force against three bullies. Watching the kids gear up with all the seriousness she puts into heading out for a prayer... yeah, they'll be fine.

As one kid battles Shun, Ginia works with the other two on putting together the final touches on a deck. She begins to battle herself, the third kid working as a referee and adviser of sorts, reminding her of the rules and how mechanics work. It's not hard to pick up, but a bit of guidance as she plays through her first match is appreciated. It helps the confidence of the kids too as they're able to show off how much they know.

By the time the manager drops by to let them know the other teens are gone and a reminder of the time, the kids are excited and looking toward the tournament. They're talking among themselves about seeing if their classmates want to sign up, easily forgetting about the two of them as they leave the shop.

"As the resident card expert," Ginia signs with a teasing smile, "how do you think this will go down? The kids definitely have the drive to defend their shop and seem pretty sharp. Seems like all they needed was a boost in confidence."

Shun doesn't hold back on the match, but even though he's good, this isn't his favoured game, which means the defeats he lays out are rousing rather than crushing. There's a few close calls when the kids draw better than he does, and though it's subtle, there's a certain softness that comes over him as the fights go on. It's familiar, almost nostalgic, and though memories of what happened to the kids he used to duel against after that still eat at him, he manages to keep it aside this once.

Shun watches the kids leave, but turns to Ginia after that to watch her sign. He doesn't seem particularly bothered by the tease, considering it's accurate enough, and he glances back to the kids once more before he signs back.

"I think it'll be fine. Hopefully all of them get a chance at one of those idiots, since they can't all fight a single one of them in a tournament like this. Ideally the kids will be the ones who get to ruin their day, not us."

They're there for backup, but if the kids can handle it, then it'll play out much better. A tournament that pairs based on wins means that it's unlikely more than one of the kids would get a shot at a particular one of the bullies unless they were playing down, but hopefully one sound defeat each will be enough to make them steer clear.

"Guess all we can do is wait until the tournament. I'll get a bit more practice in." They're all dying of work at Ebisu's temple, but that doesn't mean they don't get breaks. Ginia is pretty sure she can beg some of the card players to spend a break playing a match against her, especially for the sake of a prayer and some kids. "I'm going to grab a few things and head out."

Ginia thanks the shop owner for letting them use the space, buying a few more booster packs, card sleeves, a deck box, and signing up for the tournament. The large purchases can't hurt, but getting kids back and shopping is the more sustainable goal.

The day of the tournament, Ginia shows up early to scope out the mood. There are a few pre-teens, including the ones they helped out, having a friendly pre-tournament match. Ginia smiles as she watches them, hanging out of sight as she waits for Shun to show up.

Shun has most of the usual supplies already, but he buys a few of the most recent booster pack when he signs up for the tournament as well, even though he doesn't really need anything else for his own deck. It might still be useful in future, or he can take anything sought-after back to the shop so it can get sold on.

On the day, he doesn't show up much later than Ginia. He's in more civilian-leaning clothes than he usually wears, including a black shirt with a white design of a branch of flowers and a falcon on it, and has a bag hanging over his back that has what looks like it might be a card binder poking out of the top.

Also the weight of his usual supplies and weapons stash hidden underneath something at the bottom, because he can never be quite that casual.

"No sign of the others so far?" He inclines his head to Ginia as he comes in, looking over the current group.

Ginia raises a hand in greeting. She's also dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt with a cat print on it. There's a backpack slung over her shoulder with her cards inside. The only weapons on her are the knife Kimi gave her (and more as good luck charm), and a large bottle of blessed water tucked into her bag. If there's a threat to deal with, it'll be ayakashi more than anything else. Go ahead, cultists, try to crash a local card tournament aimed at kids.

"Not yet. Judging by their personalities, I'm thinking they're the kind to saunter in at the last minute. Turn out is better than I thought, looks like our group convinced their friends to come."

Ginia tilts her head lightly toward the entrance.

"I'm thinking I might put a borderline across the doorway to keep any possible ayakashi at bay. I think everyone is old enough they won't readily notice it and it'll rule out any behavior problems because of them."

Because sometimes assholes are of their own making.

"People will be able to pass through freely, but I might have to let it fall if I need to focus a bit. I'm assuming you have water on you too?"

"Wouldn't surprise me. Inconveniencing people just because they can seems like their brand of stupidity," Shun says rather dryly, glancing back at the door. If they're people who are going to target kids just because it's easy, he feels like they'd go for the other easy routes in being obnoxious and insufferable as well.

It's not a bad idea to put up a borderline, though, and Shun nods a little in agreement. "I do. I'd at least figure their behaviour in general isn't ayakashi since they were acting like that in multiple places, and we probably would have noticed if they had any hanging onto them. But there's no sense courting the risk of any getting drawn in by their attitudes either."

They're probably going to lower the mood just by being in here until they lose, and even that has a risk of drawing ayakashi if the people in question get sour enough about it. Which seems like a very real possibility to Shun, so he's definitely not going to turn down the precaution.

"Usually people don't bring really young kids to tournaments, so I'd be very surprised if anyone was young enough to notice it."

"I came back yesterday to check on things, didn't see any ayakashi naturally drawn here." Without the troublesome group around, it's a pretty friendly place. Even the stress caused by the teenagers isn't any more than the problem a average shop might face. They're probably fine, but staying on top of things never hurt.

About twenty minutes before the official start time of the tournament, the owner calls for any last minute sign ups and checking the roster to see who is here. As predicted, the teenagers saunter in about ten minutes before the start; Ginia strikes her borderline down as they enter, brushing off any possible ayakashi that might have latched on. With everyone gathered, the drawing for the first round of matches begins. Ginia matches up with another adult unrelated to their problem, but notices she'll match up against one of the teens if he wins his first round and she wins hers.

Giving Shun a quick thumbs up, she goes to her assigned table and sets up her cards.

Shun's first match is also an unrelated party, an older teen who seems friendly to the younger players but also quite fresh to the game himself. As Shun sets up, he watches the situation with the others - the turnout for the tournament is decent, so for the first round, it seems like most of the potential pair-offs have missed each other.

The kids are seeming confident going up against older players, though, and for the moment the teens are also against older players, so Shun largely just keeps an eye on things during the first round. His opponent tries, but they're enough of a newcomer that it doesn't take him more than a quarter of the designated round time to handle them.

He does, at least, shake their hand for a good game and give them some advice on their deck, which seems to be welcomed considering their lack of experience. As far as Shun's concerned, the last thing they need is more people put off from the shop because of unpleasant players.

Ginia's opponent has been playing for a bit longer, but is a casual player, here for the fun of playing against other people. He's politely chatty as they play, happy to talk about his kids (the reason he got into the game in the first place) without trying to be a deliberate distraction. It's a nice match as they go back and forth, exchanging monsters and counters and chipping away at each other's health pool. When Ginia ultimately wins, she knows it's because her last two draws worked in her favor. It's a good test of her deck and for her first real match, it was fun. She shakes his hand, complimenting him on the match.

She glances over at her next possible opponents. There's a tenser mood over at the table, one of the targeted teens looking a bit smug as he plays. Ginia checks her notes on his deck, one designed to overwhelm with weak monsters that rapidly grow in power with each one on the field. However, stopping the avalanche effect is easy if he can't build momentum and her deck is designed around canceling out card effects and preventing summons. Her smile is thin as she watches him win his match, leaving the offered handshake hanging a bit and giving in only because everyone is watching.

It's a good time to drop her borderline and relax a bit as the first round finishes up. All the kids are moving forward, avoiding another round of facing each other or the teens. Ginia smiles at Shun and gives a thumbs up as she takes a seat at the next table, dropping her borderline back in place. Her smile is thinner as she looks at her opponent, staring him down as she shuffles her deck. All right, time to take this more seriously.

Shun gets another unrelated party for round two, but with the sorting of the rounds, the losers are getting paired against the losers and winners against winners - it's only a matter of time until they run out of alternate pairings. But with Ginia going up against one of the teens first, Shun's keeping an eye on things over there as he starts his own game. He's familiar with that type of control deck that's being used, and while it's hard to break if it gets running, if it gets interrupted during setting up, it's basically a sitting duck unless the person running it has enough skill or luck to recover.

His current opponent is a little bit younger than Shun himself, but quite confident, if not to the point of the bullies. The deck he's using is one that's rather inventive and different to what a lot of the people today are playing, and it's not one Shun's played against before, so it takes him a little bit longer to play around it. That said, once the game is over, he's definitely interested in taking some time out to discuss the build and strategy with the player, who seems very happy to talk about his ideas for it, even while Shun continues keeping an eye on Ginia's round.

The key is to not give away the mechanics of her deck too fast or burn through needed cards and come up dry later. Her deck at first glance is a pre-built deck at its core, but with some careful substitutions and additions, it can keep repopulating the cards she needs into her hand. But sometimes sacrifices need to be made in favor of more information and set up. Ginia gauges her losses as she takes another hit to her HP pool and moves a monster to the graveyard, letting her opponent fall into a false sense of security. He has a few monsters, a shaky foundation but nothing she can't deal with. It's the bigger monsters she needs to watch out for. Another round passes, more set up on her end. There's a smug smile as he lays down a powerful card, confusion crossing his eyes as it activates a trap card on Ginia's side. She offers an innocent, surprised smile as she removes his card from play entirely.

Having the budget to spend on cards and long-time collectors to borrow from also helps. As he sputters over the legality of her card, Ginia calmly pulls up the official rule book on her phone, pointing out the card and set it comes from is accepted in tournament play. The referee assisting with the tournament comes by to look at the situation, agreeing Ginia's move is entirely within legal play. His lynchpin banished, Ginia sweeps the rest of the match, preventing him from summoning anything too powerful and locking down the monsters on the field. Her own monsters - innocuous and saccharine mermaids - slash away at his HP pool until he's done for. Ginia gives Shun a surreptitious thumbs up before offering a handshake. Her opponent grudgingly accepts it before hurriedly gathering up his cards.

Her next match up puts her against one of the kids, but it's also the first round matching up one of the kids against a bully on the winner's bracket. As Ginia drops her borderline, she studies the current set up. There's a chance for the bullies to work back up through the loser's bracket. Whether it's her or one of the kids, someone needs to manage that side too.

Shun watches the end of the match from a more reasonable distance, so he can overhear how things are going properly. He's not surprised it ends up turning in her favour - people who play like the teens do don't tend to respond well to unexpected upsets to the way the deck is supposed to play. It's the difference between someone who's playing a good deck that they really know and put work into and someone who's playing a good deck just because they saw someone else doing it.

The fact that the guy tries to make a judge call on card legality speaks enough for how little he actually reads up on the game he's supposedly good at, and the rest of the game proceeds about how Shun expects. And so they head into the next round - unfortunately, it appears that Shun's intended opponent had to run out for something and doesn't come back within the first match time, leading to that being called in his favour after ten minutes. Another ten and he gets the round, but he's planning to spend that time watching over the game between the kid and the bully. He figures what Ginia chooses to do in going up against the kid is her business, but he doesn't want the one up against the bully losing her nerve.

It doesn't seem like a problem initially, though. The girl seems quite ready to show the bully what she's learnt since they last fought, and the match gets on a roll promptly, both sides starting strong.

Ginia gives her opponent a warm smile and shakes his hand.

"You're doing good. Even though I'm new, give it your all, okay?" she plays through her phone. The kid nods, expression steeling in the way kids can get when they're ready to focus and go in seriously. He's made it this far and Ginia has no doubt he can go further. She has the benefit of an powerful deck through money and the tactics to play it well, but she lacks experience. It's a deck she's only dabbled in while her opponent knows his deck and the game quite well.

He matches her counters with ones of her own, playing a deck that forces discards and allows him to cycle his own cards back into his hand. He plays well and Ginia has to admire the mechanics of his deck as he manages to stall her down to one card in her hand. As he launches an attack that takes out her health pool in two attacks, Ginia grins as she shakes his hand again.

"Teach me how your deck works after you beat everyone else?"

"Sure thing!" He says, returning her grin and giving her hand a firm shake.

Ginia gives Shun a thumbs up. "I'll hold the fort down on the loser's bracket." Having focused on her game, she's not sure how the other match turned out, but she's ready to boost someone ahead or hold the bullies back.

Shun isn't too surprised to see Ginia lose to one of the kids - they have been playing for longer, all else aside - but his focus is a little more on the match between the kid and the bully. The bully makes a powerful play, evidently having had to build their hand up a bit to get there, and replaces their creatures on the field with much more powerful ones, flipping a card that will make them all extremely difficult to get rid of.

The girl merely flips another card in a chain, leaving the bully gaping as stacked effect rules mean her card completes its effect before the protection kicks in, wiping the creatures from the field. The protection is still there, but without the creatures, it's less than useless as the girl's turn snowballs into a winning move, their HP already having been depleted considerably by the fight up to that point.

Shun gives a somewhat approving nod as the bully storms off to gripe to their friends, and he approaches the girl to discuss her tactics briefly before coming back around to Ginia.

"They're doing well. I might not even have to step in here, though I hope they don't mind losing to each other when the winner's bracket gets small enough. Someone has to win outright."

That's good to hear. There's a request for a quick break and the store keeper is happy to oblige, giving everyone fifteen minutes to grab something to eat or drink. Ginia keeps her borderline as a few people head out of the shop before letting it fall to give herself a break.

"I imagine they'll handle losing to each other well enough. They can have fun with it. Can't say the same for the bullies." There's one left in the group and they're all huddled together. With two in the loser's bracket, all they need is one more loss each to get knocked out.

"How about you? Having fun with all of this?"

Shun keeps an eye on the bullies as they have their little conference, but they seem quiet enough for the moment (thankfully), so most of his attention goes to Ginia when she starts signing.

"At least they'll be respectful about it, which is more than I can say for those idiots," he remarks, which is pretty much his way of saying he agrees with her thoughts on it. As for the talk of fun, he frowns a bit and glances away.

"I'm...still working on thinking about it as something more mundane here. There's a fire you get out of people when this kind of thing isn't just a game, or is a bigger fixture than it is in this world. I don't really get that feeling from the people here, but they don't have a reason to be like that."

Sometimes a game is just a game. Maybe on higher levels of play with prestige and bigger prizes at stake, there's more of a fire in people, but it's still not the same level as it was in Shun's world. And maybe that's better for Shun too, having a bit of separation from the game and a life-or-death situation. She gives him a few seconds before whistling to get his attention back so she can sign again.

"You should consider looking around for other tournaments to play in. Even having people to talk strategy with could be good." Her head tilts toward the store owner, making the rounds and chatting with the players around. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you wanted to coach kids once in awhile. It could be good for you, Shun."

Once she whistles, Shun's attention comes back to her rather sharply, as if he had been musing on it a bit. She's not wrong, though, and he hums slightly as if in reluctant assent before moving his hands to sign back. He's found it's sometimes easier to do that instead of speaking, when it comes to difficult subjects.

"It's been good talking strategy here. I'm still just worried about coming back to my world in the wrong mindset. Like I shouldn't be doing this sort of thing until the war is over."

On one hand, he's largely gotten past the idea of thinking the people he's lost don't want him to move on. On the other, moving on is still difficult when the thing he's trying to move on from still isn't over.

"I think you're underestimating how much relaxing could do for yourself as well as cutting yourself short in your ability to dive back into action when you return home."

It's an argument they've been over before and she still thinks his arguments against getting soft are ridiculous. He's been here for over a year now. He could go back as soon as tomorrow, he could be here for ten years. Who can tell these days. He might not even remember this in the end if he's pulled back home out of the blue.

"Don't act like you're the only person who can end the war too."

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