"I, Jerome Abbacchio, as the Jack of Heiwa Academy's Royalty, declare you, Alan Higashikata the strongest god-fighter and that you are better than all other players, such as myself, who are just inferor scum..." Abbacchio spoke.

"Attaboy. That does put a smile on your face. And of course, Joe. Sure sucks to leave home because your brother left, doesn't it? I probably should admit that I am the one to blame but that just ain't gonna do it. I'm not the one who has to admit to being the cause of his brother following the wrong path, now am I?" Alan asked.

"Let's go." Gin spoke, after many minutes of silence. He started walking right towards the front entrance of the airport, followed by Karim and Hinata.

"You heard the man. Bye bye!" Alan said as he ran off after his fellow members of the Arcana.

Once Ryuuga lost sight of Alan, he started running for the exist aswell, making it to the outside. He looked around and found Gin just in time. Hinata, alongside Karim and Alan, had already gotten into a car. Gin was about to enter as well, but stopped once he saw Ryuuga's reflection on the door's glass.

"Gin-"

"Life is a boxing match you win by never going down, no matter what comes at you. If you want to fight, then I'll wait for you in my ring." Gin said before getting into the car. "Let's go."

"Driving off." Karim said, pressing the gas pedal with his right foot.

"That was the dictionary definition of pathetic." Alan said, sitted in the front with Karim. Through the interior mirror of the car, he looked at Gin. "Your enemy was standing before you and all you do is stay quiet. I'm surprised you still manage to call yourself the founder of the Arcana."

"And all you did was give the enemy an edge over you. You showed everything you had, anyone who was there is now able to defeat you with one hand behind their back. Give your all when the opponent sees you as an enigma, and you shall win, but give your all before the war starts and you'll be the first to go down." Gin said as he looked out the window.

"You..." Alan grit his teeth. "You're so pathetic..." He muttered.

"Are you done being a sassy pre-pubescent child?" Hinata, after being quiet during the whole airport affair, said, still using her fan to cover her face from the eyes down and, very much like Gin, looking out the window.

"Oh so miss bitch started to talk too. Isn't this chain of events marvelous?" Alan retorically asked, and he too started to look at the window.

"Aha..." Karim lowly chuckled, sweatdropping. "Here they go again..."

"I'm the greatest being ever, not some pre-pubescent child! I'm sixteen already!" Alan exclaimed, looking back at Hinata.

In response, Hinata closed her fan and looked back at Alan with a glare that showed how serious her next words would be. "For starters, your hair isn't orange, which makes you low tier. Let's follow that up with the fact that you don't raise your voice to let everyone know what you want, you raise your voice to be a bigger bitch than any girl I ever met. If you can yell, then yell out your goals and ambitions, not that you are something superior, which you clearly aren't. You're the ultimate at something at least, and that is the ultimate at being a garbage tier male!" She exclaimed back.

"Called it..." Karim sighed.

"Your standards for what is boyfriend material are what is really low tier, I'm god tier at everything!"

"I am high specs. That means everyone else is gravel... Everyone except my other half! And the standards are simple, it's a check list with four points! Orange hair, voice your goals with a loud voice, know how to cook and play at least one clan that has sucked during it's first wave of support! It's a simple thing!"

Karim started raising the volume of the radio as the Emperor and Empress of the Arcana continued fighting verbally. "This is going to be a long trip..." He chuckled, followed by a sigh.

(Opening)

The car driven by Karim stopped inside an underground parking lot, underneath a tall building near the renowned Time Square, a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment center, and neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City, at the junction of the Broadway and Seventh avenues.

After exiting the car, Gin, Hinata, Karim and Alan entered an elevator that took them to the seventh floor of the tower, owned by the Arcana. The doors of the elevator opened to revealed a well lumited hallway that lead to a mix of a living room and a kitchen, with the kitchen on the left and the living room to the right. There was also a balcony on the outside of the floor.

"What is the gosh darn hell is this, Arcand..." 

In the kitchen, a young man of below-average height and medium build with small light blonde hair and blue eyes looked at a pile of nearly burnt bacon, more black than red, stacked as if to replicate the Eiffel Tower of Paris. But back to the young man in question. He was dressed completly in different shades of blue; a blue coat with a collar outlined with fur, blue pants and even blue shoes with western-styled spurs atatched to them. On his head he wore a knit cap, also blue, though covered with small-pink stars and a horsehoe-styled trinket atatched to to the front part. He spoke with a heavy countryside accent, meaning he was originally from one of the northeast states of America, that being North Dakota.

"'Quelle est cette merveilleuse œuvre d'art culinaire?', I hear you ask." Arcand said with a confident smirk on his face. This so called Arcand was a man of above-average height and muscular build. With a receded hairline, he had silvery hair that rose directly above his head, straight, to a height about half that of his head. He had no eyebrows, and he also wore earrings in the shape of jaggedly halved hearts. Clothing wise, he sported a fitted black tube top, shoulderless except for one strap running from his chest over his left shoulder, alongside a pair of light trousers with pouches tied to the belt on each of his hips.

"No you didn't, I ain't even speak french. Hell, I don't even know what you said!" The man in blue exclaimed.

"Well, since your interested is so past the peak, I'll reveal to you the name of my chef-d'œuvre culinaire! It's the Tower of Bacon! Rejoice on this french-american masterpiece, Dallas! It's the symbol of us being bros!"

"I don't even like bacon that much. This just looks like a pig-made heart attack bomb!" Dallas replied.

"Bacon does come from pigs."

"I know it does, I'm a farm boy. Why do ya have to bust out these weird looking things that waste our food? You could have at least not burn the bacon."

"It's crispy bacon."

"It's burnt."

"Crispy."

"Burnt."

"Crispy!"

"Burnt!"

"CRISPY!"

"BURNT!"

"Hey shut up, I'm trying to catch the GEN war broadcast on TV! I have to know if my awesome Mikitaka-aniki is playing today!"

"Joshu, look at this and say if it's crippy bacon or burnt bacon." Dallas requested.

Joshu wasn't the kitchen part of the room, but was rather on the couch looking at the television. Arcand and Dallas had a questionable fashion sense, but Joshu didn't stay behind, having his own questionable fashion sense. For starters, he had long and wavy purple hair, with a purple mark shaped like a lightning bolt on the left side of his face, going from his forehead to his jaw, even going over his left eye. Clothing wise, Joshu had an orange shirt under a dark vest, and over that, a dark jacket with golden buttons and Xs, and the words 'AC' and 'DC' on his right and left sleeves respectivally, pants orange like his shirt and boots. He sat on the couch with his legs crossed, with a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar on his lap.

"What?" Joshu looked back at the kitchen, at Arcand's so called cullinary masterpiece. "Isn't that just charcoal?"

"See? I told you! It's burnt!" Dallas exclaimed.

"Well I say it's crispy and I'll prove it!" Arcand replied, taking one of the slices that composed his Tower of Bacon and biting into it. "It has some crisp to it."

"That's because it's burnt!"

"Or maybe, and just peut être, it's crispy."

"Gah! It's not crispy, it's burnt! You can't compare a charcoal-black piece of bacon to a fried piece of chicken!"

"Of course I can't, bacon is made out of pig, not out of chicken."

"No wonder you called it quits on the french league." Joshu said, turning back to the TV.

"Oh come on, I walked out a fight just to come into another..." Karim sighed as he, alongside Gin, Hinata and Alan, arrived at the living room.

"I'm going outside. I can't stand the smell of low tier males near me." Hinata said, walking straight into the balcony and disregarding the other three members of the Arcana there present.

"So. Alan spoke too much again?" Dallas asked, looking at Karim.

"What do you think..."

"Huh, I'll have you know I was in the right like always!" Alan exclaimed.

"Oui oui." Arcand nodded.

"Be in the meeting room in ten minutes, please." Gin said as he left the living room.

"But the GEN war!" Joshu exclaimed. "This isn't very cool, I wanted to watch it for my Mikitaka-aniki!"

"Why don't you just record it? Oh hell, why don't you just go see if his class is playing online?" Arcand asked.

"That ruins the surprise."

"Boys are stupid." Hinata said as she sat down on one of the white couches on the balcony. By her side was the platinum blonde ex-Queen of the Heiwa Royalty, none other than Fujiko.

"Tell me about it." Fujiko answered, in a monotone manner. Her eyes didn't move to look at Hinata. In fact, her eyes were always placed on the city's skyline. They also seemed to have lost some of it's colour ever since she left Japan.

"I see you're in a good mood as usual. Have you left the balcony ever since this morning?"

"Only to go to the bathroom."

"So the usual, you keep being stuck here. I don't have any good news for you. It checks out, he really is in New York." Hinata said.

"Yeah... I knew he'd come eventually. Was Aijou there?"

"The only girl there was that other orange hair girl, the one with the big boobs and the... I want to say angry mood but she was very mellow. Must have been jetlag. Come on, Gin wants some dumb meeting as usual."

"I'll be there in a sec."

"Suit yourself."

In the ninth floor of the building was mostly used for storage, execept for a room at the end of a long hallway that could only be accessed by three elevators: one in Gin's room, one in the fourth floor and one in the sixth floor. The room at the end of the hallway was wide, and for the size it had, it was mostly empty. On the center was a boxing ring, and on the right side of the room was some box training equipment, mainly punching bags. There was also a digital clock over the only door of the room.

Gin entered the room by himself, now in a pair of red shorts and a jacket, aswell as a small gym bag over his shoulder. After closing the door behind him, he put the bag down and took out a pair of red boxing gloves which he would put on after warming up. 

After running some laps around the ring, he took off his jacket and threw it over his bag, only to then enter the ring with his gloves on. He started by simply punching the air as he moved around before getting into a fighting stance and started a battle with nothing but air. He punched and he dodged, just as if his opponent was there, but he was nothing but alone.

"If we look at the present like a construction of domino pieces, then the first piece to fall and start this domino effect was not in Japan or New York, but in the african continent when I was just a child."

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

Two adult men, one with a somewhat short brown hair and one with a slick greyish hair, leaned against a safari track, both drinking water from a bottle. The white haired man laughed as he drank, ending up spitting out some water into the light brown soil.

"Do you remember the look on her face when she lost the case? It was just the best thing ever."

"Don't think about it while you drink, Fukada. You'll end spitting out all the water." The brown haired chuckled.

"Come on, Fuchigami, you know I'm right. You know I never liked your ex-wife alot so seeing her lose the court case for the kiddo's guard was what made my week. After we lost our best boxer, I really needed something to cheer me up. And hey, we also got a kick-ass trip to Africa. I call this a major win." Fukada laughed.

"To be fair, she really had one of those emote-worthy faces, I won't lie about that." Fuchigami laughed aswell. "Nothing in this world will take away my son from me. I'll protect Gin no matter what. Speaking of Gin- Hey Gin, don't go too far from the jeep!" He yelled.

"I won't!" A small boy with short brown hair and red eyes waved at Fuchigami, his father. This boy was Gin, before his face gained the dark scars he now carried on his face. Moments later, the event that would be the base for the Incomplete Arcana's creation would occur. Gin covered his face with both hides to hide the two scratch marks on his face, and through the spaces between his fingers, he could see a small lion cup dashing away from him.

"My father and mother divorced when I was only six years old. After my father won the child custody case, we, alongside his best friend and a man I call both uncle and coach, Fukada, travelled to Africa. This was the day where I gained those damned marks, the marks that reshaped my life. Because of them, I spent the following years as a social outcast. My marks scared away other kids, and eventually, became the reason of mockery during my middle school years. This would one day change during the first few weeks of my first year as a high school student. I was still in Japan during that and I was a student of a high school in Tokyo. I heard that that school closed during the years after. This was also when I met the person who helped me build the Incomplete Arcana, Karim."

In a sunny day with a clear blue sky, on the rooftop of his high school, Gin sat by himself on a bench, drinking juice out of a juice box. He was looking at the floor with boredom in his eyes, but soon enough the part where Gin's eyes were focused on, grey at first, would become black due to the shadows of people.

"Badass. I told you, it's badass!"

"Huh?" Gin looked up to see a group of five students of his class. One was a boy with white hair, with some parts of it shaped like arrows pointing down, another was just a boy with short brown hair and glasses, and the other boy in the group was actually Karim. There were also two girls, one with long blonde hair and one with curly brown hair.

"See, these four idiots said those marks didn't look cool but they were wrong. They look badass as hell and they stand wrong as hell." The white haired carried a cheeky victorious smile.

"We get it Sakuya, no need to be dumb about it." The blonde girl said.

"I agree with Yukino and I didn't said they didn't look cool, I say they looked hot." The girl with the curly brown hair stuck her tongue.

"Sheesh Lia, we didn't had to know that." The boy in glasses sighed.

Karim pat his back. "You know how Lia is, Taishiro. She watched Shimoneta, what can we do?"

"Anyway, you wanna go play some card games with us? We have oru own club for it!" Sakuya, the white haired boy, said as he extended his right hand to Gin. "Come on, it'll be cool. I'll teach you how to play Vanguard and everything!"

"I... Sure."

"Meeting Sakuya, Taishiro, Yukino, Lia and Karim was the first moment in my life where having these marks wasn't a curse, but a gift. It was through Sakuya that I learnt how to play Vanguard and it was thanks to Karim that I chose the Link Joker clan, though I liked Royal Paladin for the warrior aesthetic. We fought together, we had fun together, and we even formed our own little team called Bangaichi. We won some local card shop tournaments, but didn't tried to go past that. We were in it for the fun of playing. However, things would start to fall apart during January of the following year. During that month alone, my world would be broken but then rebuilt."

"He isn't gonna drive check it! He only has one left in deck and only one drive check to go with it!" Taishiro exclaimed.

"Shut up, virgin boy, you're starting to annoy me!" Lia answered, pressing Taishiro's head down.

"Go get him, Sakuya!" Yukino cheered, waving both hands.

"He didn't get it from the grade 1, and he already rode three of them this turn... I can't calculate these odds! It's like one to his deck!" Karim said.

"He's going to drive check! I'm sure of it! Go for it, Sakuya!" Gin cheered.

In the center of the rooftop of the school building, Sakuya was cardfighting against another student, a third year student that carried the King pin on the front of his jacket. The game was five to three, with Sakuya on the lead. The King was pushed back into a corner, with only one card left in his hand after nullifying Sakuya's attack. Meanwhile, Sakuya still had one drive check left.

"This is it!" Sakuya yelled out. "Drive check!" The white haired boy flipped the top card of his deck face up. As his eyes widen by the revelation, the crowd gathered around to see the fighting began yelling. "Son of a bitch... Darn son of a bitch... GET A LOAD OF THIS! I DROP TWO CARDS FROM HAND AND SUPERIOR RIDE FOR THE THIRD TIME THIS TURN! TOP IDOL, RIVIERE!" Sakuya exclaimed.

"I did it! I became the King of the Royalty!" Sakuya said, lifting the King's pin. He, alongside Gin, Karim, Taishiro, Lia and Yukino were in the school's Card Game club, celebrating the win.

"That settles it! I'll become the next one to join a Royalty!" Gin declared as he raised his glass.

"I'll follow that!" Lia rose her glass aswell.

"There's six of us and five spots in the Royalty. But again, in some games played with normal cards in Europe, the Seven is the second strongest card. I'll join too!" Taishiro said.

"We too!" Karim and Yukino said.

"Sakuya became the King, and during that single month, so would everyone else. First was Lia, who became the Queen."

"Thanks to Meomaru's soulblast, all my units will get 5k since they're all HYU-GA! Eternal Samurai Striker!"

"Then Yukino, who became the Jack."

"Huh... Hm! I'll attack with Coral! With Miera's skill, you can't guard using grade 0 units, and because of Piaoliang's skill, you'll have to guard with two from hand if you want to guard! Freezing Melody!!"

"Taishiro, the Ace."

"Chronotiger Rebellion attacks! The fewer the cards in my hand, the more abilities will activate! With less than five, your two front row rear-guards are retired; with less than three, add 10k to my front row; and with less than one, I turn all my damage face down to make all your guardians lose 5k shield! Guard with a grade 3 and your vanguard will lose 5k power! Chronofang Blockade!"

"And then Karim, who became the Joker."

"Given's skill! I retire him and three other rears, aswell as drop two from hand, to restand Greidhol! Now Greidhol, attack! Black Star Deletor!"

"As each day with the new Royalty in command went by, everything started to drift apart between me and them. The final straw was somewhere around the 25th, give or take. Every morning before classes began, we would all meet up clubroom, which served as the new Royalty room. I was always the last one to arrive. It was Sakuya who said it, for I remember it as clear as day. The person who made my marks be a gift made them be a cursed once again."

Sakuya looked at Gin as he entered the clubroom. "Ah, scar boy. Who're you again?"

"Somewhere within me, I knew that this would happen. I wasn't with them for aslong as the others, I didn't became part of the Royalty no matter how much I tried, I was the newbie. But I chose to ignore all of that. I believed that nothing would change. I believed too much in people and then I paid the harsh price."

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Gin yelled as he punched a red punching bag with his bare hands until his knuckles became red. He was inside a boxing gym owned by his uncle Fukoda, who stepped in to stop him before he could do any further damage.

"There's more in life, Gin. Life is a boxing match you win by never going down, no matter what comes at you. Don't let this be what puts you down, let it instead be what shows you the victory."

"In the start of February, I learnt the truth about the new Royalty. I thought I was shunned out because I wasn't part of the group for as long as them, but I learnt they'd throw out just anyone they wanted in exchange of someone better."

Gin walked through the halls of the second floor of the high shcool building by himself. As he reached a corner, the Royalty walked past them. They didn't noticed he was there, and he ignored their presence. But there was a difference. One of their members had been replaced.

"Get up." Gin said, extending his hand down to Karim, who was on the floor.

"Y-you... We treated you like if you were no one, why are you helping me..." Karim muttered as he grit his teeth. "I-i lost, didn't I... I deserved this..."

"If you want to believe that, suit yourself. But there's a vast world of people like us out there. People who's life have been thorn apart because of these Royalties. We aren't alone, but there's also no one fighting for us. It's fine, Karim. I don't want you to blame yourself for me, I want you to blame them, who threw you away like trash the moment they stopped needing you. You now know how my side of the story is, but don't let that be your destiny. We can fight for us and for those who went through the same as us. Please, fight by my side for what's right."

"Gin... Gin..!" Karim cried out, grabbing hold of Gin's hand.

"We wanted change, but we didn't know how to cause change. During the rest of our first year, we hopped from school to school across Japan with the goal of somehow putting down their Royalty, but we failed to destroy it. Our first victory was near the end of the school year. Me and Karim began fighting each other because of how we couldn't do anything. He wanted to give up, but I stood against it. While that happened, he had gotten into a Royalty in Osaka. While me and Gin never argued about giving up near the other Royalty members, we'd argue over the smallest things until one day, the Queen left because she couldn't watch us fight anymore. We left that school soon after and it's Royalty crumbled to bits. It was never the same again, it was just crap. And then we understood everything. We can't destroy Royalties, we don't have that power. But what we can do is damage them enough until one day people start noticing us and join in the fight."

"It was during my second year of high school, where I was working hard on an academic level to finish my second and third years of high school in just year that we got out first sign of recgonition. Since I couldn't go from school to school like Karim, I ended up going to a high school in Kyoto. There, I met our third member."

"Hm. I don't have any particular hate for Royalties, but I also don't fit here or anywhere else. All I see is a bunch of gravel wishing the one thing those scrubs will never get. I'll fight for your cause, but I'll leave the moment I find my other half." Hinata said.

"Hinata was the first to join. Soon after Mayuri joined, and after I ended high school as a whole and took a trip to New York, I met Iris and Rose, two sisters who wanted to protect one another for the cruel world around them. Karim was also in New York at that time and through him, two more people joined."

"Meet Jean-Pierre Arcand and Austin Dallas! I met them at a card shop nearby and they want in!" Karim exclaimed.

"Jean-Pierre Arcand... Wait, the pro french player?!" Gin asked.

"Oui. Monsiur Fuchigami, in a way, the french league is like Royalties. The amount of pressure they put on one's shoulders isn't healthy and has ruined many lives before. That's why I gave up on the french league before evergone put their hopes on .e and came here. Vanguard shouldn't be able to ruin people's lives, it's a game of fun and I will fight to make it happen!" Arcand declared.

"Eh, you're an honourable fella, Arcand. On the other hand, I don't have anything against Royalties. Hell, we didn't even had one of those back in my home in North Dakota." Dallas said, rubbing the back of his neck. "As far as anyone was concerned, I was just another farm boy from the north. But I saw a fighter on TV and he inspired me to break out of my shell and follow my dreams. And one day, I hope I can fight him."

"I only have un petit question." Arcand said. "Do this have a name yet? If not, can we be the Badass Red Dragons?"

"I spent like a whole hour tellin' ya that was a dumb name, Arcand." Dallas sighed.

"Now that you mention it..." Gin muttered his chin. "Royalties are built out of the main cards of a deck. You have the King, the Queen, the Jack, the Ace and the Joker. But there's a deck out there where all cards matter. That's what we are. We are... The Arcana."

"Arcand was someone who saw things in a way similar to mine, and on the other hand, Dallas was just a person with a dream. Me, Karim, Mayuri, Hinata, Iris and Rose, Arcand and Dallas formed the original Arcana. We built the Arcana as a group where anyone can enter and leave at free will, including myself. We wouldn't had new members, or even set base at New York, until March of 2048. That was when we met Alan on his lowest, before he became the self-centered ass he is today. He came to us crying, searching for a place to fit in. He was abandoned by the person he most looked up to in the whole world, thrown way like the most of us. Soon after, Joshu joined. Joshu doesn't talk much about his life except his little brother Mikitaka, which is the reason why he joined. However, I know that he has one of the purest souls between all of us. His goal isn't to end Royalties, but to force change on his brother's school before it affects him. In the world we live today, whenever the Arcana is recognized by the public, we will be seen as the bad guys and Joshu is fine with that, despite wanting to become a famous guitarist one day, aslong as his brother keeps smiling. Our final member joined not even two weeks ago. Fujiko... I tried my hardest to not get her into this. I tried my best to not drag her or Ryuuga or anyone I had met while I worked at Ryuzaki & Co. into this... But I failed."

"Months before we ever met Alan, I took down a Royalty in Osaka. It took me four months, but it was just another Royalty for me. During those four months, I built relantionships on top of lies and then crumbled them until the Royalty was dragged down with it's members. Months of doing this over and over again and not one single time have I ever doubted myself... Until then. For once, I felt regret for what I did. For once, I wished I hadn't destroyed a Royalty. I saw the consequences of what I did and the idea of leaving the Arcana started crossing my head many times... But I couldn't leave. If I left, it'd be like doing to everyone who joined me what Sakuya and the rest did to me, I'd be throwing them away like trash! The cycle would continue! It was around this time that I sent my application to Ryuzaki & Co., I wanted to build a life outside the Arcana so that I could one day leave, I wanted to make a future I desired, outside the 'perfect future' the Arcana was trying to create. And then, I met him. I met Ryuuga. On that day, I met the friend I most cheerished in my roughest times."

"On the day I called Ryuuga at night to tell him to I wouldn't be able to go watch the Tokyo's Finest in person was the day when I crossed paths with Fujiko and got to talk to her directly for the first time."

"I tried so hard to make this work... But that selfish asshole always found a way to ruin everything I did...!" Fujiko cried out. "I lied so that he wouldn't have to feel bad, but he never tried to change one bit... Everything always went his way... Dammit, when's my turn to have things my way?! When's my turn to not be the one who has to suffer for the two in this damn relantionship..."

Gin was about to say something, but covered his mouth. 'No... I want to get out of this, not drag more people into it! I don't want to drag Ryuuga into this!' "The Royalty was what ruined your life." 'No, stop! Stop!' "There's alot of other people who feel the way you do." 'Don't go any further, don't tell her anything!' "Including myself. But there's someone out there fighting for everyone who was ever hurt by Royalties." 'I... I'm sorry, Ryuuga...' "Join us."

"I started the Arcana because I want to help people who suffered at the hands of Royalties, but for each Royalty that he take down, I become closer to turning into what I'm fighting against."

"Gin."

"Huh?" Back in the boxing ring, Gin turned around and shot his right fist forward, only to lose balance and fall on the ground. "Ryu... No."

The meeting room of the tower owned by the Arcana was a wide circular room, with a large circular table on the center. There were at least twenty three chairs around the table, one per card on the Tarot deck, with the exception of two that belonged to the two people that composed The Lovers, though only eight were being used currently.

Gin sat with Karim by his side in front of the large pannel of windows that occupied half of the room; Hinata and Fujiko sat near each other, with only seat between the two; Alan and Joshu sat by themselves, with Joshu being two seats away from Arcand and Dallas, who sat side by side, and Alan keeping a distance of five seats between himself and Hinata. Two of the seats were closer to each other than the rest, those being the ones that belonged to The Lovers, but they weren't present.

"Where are Iris and Rose?" Gin asked as he looked around.

"The familiar diner near the cruise terminal." Joshu said as he looked at his guitar.

"What's this all about? I have better things to do than being near the wrost team leader since Sun Tzu." Alan asked.

"Hey, Sun Tzu was good at his job, he even wrote a book about it." Karim answered.

"The Art of War is overrated anyway. What's this all about?"

"Very well. I think everyone here knows our current situation. Ryuuga Sawada and other fighters have come from Tokyo for us." Gin said.

"Huh?" Dallas muttered, now playing close attention to Gin.

"We know some things about his side. We know the fighters and the decks their use, and we know what info they lack. The only Arcana members they know are myself, Mayuri, Alan, Hinata and Karim, with Fujiko being an unconfirmed case. They also don't know where we are within New York. However, there is one sure way to find us, and that would be through Mayuri, who stayed in Tokyo. While Ryuuga and a large number of fighters came to New York, alot more of fighters stayed behind. Ichigo Akio, Aijou Fukai, Renji Akiyama, Yuri Hayashida, Bruno Ghirga, Han Kaminari, Izuku Akira, Hisano Kakogawa, Tenma Onibitebu and so on and so forth. Should Mayuri, being the reckless kid he is, try to get revenge over losing to Ryuuga, then there's a big chance that our lcoation will be revealed." Gin explained.

"That's simple to fix. Just tell him to return." Alan said.

"No. I have decided that Mayuri shall remain in Japan. We won't get anywhere if we are too busy dealing with this rebellion, so we'll just take care of it as soon as possible."

"Wha- You can't be serious! That's dumber than dumb! Tell Mayuri to return right now!" Alan demanded. 

"I've made up my mind. While you may be The Emperor, you don't have the power to order Mayuri to return, nor shall you do it. That's final." Gin said as he got up and started heading towards the exit of the room.

"I don't have anything against them, but those who have put themselves between me and fixing GEN for Mikitaka-aniki will have to deal eith the consequences of their actions." Joshu said, striking the strings of his guitar, though no sound was made.

"I'm all up for this. But I'll say this: Most of these people have baguettes stuck up their asses, words of the one french guy around." Arcand laughed.

'The fighter that inspired me to follow my dreams is here... This might be the only shot I have at fighting him!' Dallas thought, clenching his fist. "Hear hear, Arcand. Hear hear."

"Hm. I don't care if they come or not, but if all of them are imperfect gravel then they can go back to the ground." Hinata said, opening her fan.

Alan grit his teeth as he saw Gin leave. 'You... You don't know anything about what you're doing, I'd be a way better leader than you!'

'I can't say for sure.' Gin thought as he left the room. 'I can't say for sure if I want the Arcana to survive this war or not. We've been fighting for months to fix things, but we have destroyed so much in the process. With each win, we lose too. With each Royalty that goes down, we grow closer to becoming like them.'

(Ending)

Next Week-

#24: The Lovers - Rose & Iris

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MINI SOUL: "High Standards"

Hinata: Welcome to High Stands, featuring Empress Hinata from the Arcana!

Fujiko: *applaudes*

Taira: High standards for picking a soul mate? This' my type of stuff. *applaudes too*

Hinata: First off, orange hair!

Alan: Mine's very light brown.

Hinata: You're the closest example, bitchboy, so suck it up. Next up, shout your ambitions all the time!

Joshu: MIKITAKA-ANIKI!

Hinata: And you fail at all other categories! Third step, be good at cooking!

Arcand: I present to you the Tower of Bacon!

Hinata: I'd rather die. And the final category! Play a clan that sucked during their first wave of support!

Arcand: Aw man, I played Spikes.

Hinata: Spikes suck in any wave of support. Well, guess there's no winner here. See you next week!

Ryuuga: What'd you say about Spikes? :tryme:

-----

Joshu: Fuck GEN.

Kaido: You don't like GEN too?

Joshu: Fuck GEN.

Kaido: Did we just become best friends?

Joshu: Yes.

Sakate: YOU SON OF A BITCH, IT TOOK MY WEEKS TO GET THAT TITLED! *tackles Joshu*

Arcand: Oui oui, bitches.

Dallas: I'm american for real.

Hikaru: We can finally have stereotype memes, this is the greatest day ever.

Hinata: I have high standards.

Hikaru: Can we get Taira vs Hinata for the high standards fight?

Kaido: I appear next chapter to fight small girls. Basically it's just another GEN chapter where I appear. *dabs in roasting Yuuto*

Joshu: Did someone say GEN? :woke:

Hey look, monologue town featuring a Link Joker player, Gin > Sin, ignore how their names are one letter apart. Gang gang, let's flex my work ethic, it's January 31st today. Get ready because from here on out, all chapters will have fights but not all of them will have Haruka Mirai.

Speaking of Haruka Mirai, did you saw that nutty Haruka Mirai moment in Black Clover? Goddamn, the anime's version of Yami using Mana Zone is so much better than the manga. This is one of the rare instances where the anime looks better.

Also in case you want a better look at the people who caused Gin to start up an anti-Royalty team.

Sakuya: I have a big penis and only play what's meta. *flexes on Riviere*

Kaido: How are you not in GEN yet?

Joshu: GEN?! :woke:

Yukino: Im the bubbly blonde with big boobs who plays mermaids.

Taishiro: Im the most likely to have ended up with Lia and play the deck that Shida doesnt hate anymore.

Lia: Im not a furry but play a furry deck.

And they were never relevant again in the CCEU.

My name's Shida, thanks for reading and I will see you later. Bye bye!

Ryuuga: Are we going to ignore the one guy who actually did the smart thing and became King by using a meta deck?

Akira: Yes.

Tenma: Yes.

Taira: I sacked fronts against Renji and Ichigo to become King.

Homura: I'm the real King of Fukushima.

Ryuuga: Works for me.

Ryuzaki: I hope you remember me, I still exist and am being cucked by two european writers.