Conquering the Crests of Life

Turn 3 | The Little Things

Turn 3 | The Little Things

You've finally found the color! Hands up on your hips, you turn and the skirt swishes in the same direction. You're pretty proud of yourself. The deep burgundy tie brings out your eyes.

There is a rainbow of solidly colored ties on the bench of the changing room. They are either too bright or too dull, or clash with either the uniform or your natural purple highlights. Den City's most popular shopping center, Hateshinai Mall, just has so many options to choose from! But you think you're satisfied with the style and amount of clothes you've chosen to buy.

You exit the changing room and move towards the counter for checkout, three full bags in hand. Once you've paid, you leave the store to wander around the mall.

The mall is dense , especially in the shopping area you're in. So many people shuffle in and out of stores that sell clothes, devices, antiques, and jewelry. Speaking of jewelry, you pass by a small kiosk selling pins. You glaze over the options and pick out a simple, silver star shaped pin. It kind of resembles the stars in your room.

While you hand small cash to the nice-looking lady manning the kiosk, you side-eye a store across the mall packed full with customers. Up above, the name 'SOL Technologies' lies under a blue and black mobius-looking cube. If you remember correctly, your mom used to work there. Back then she used to develop AIs for VRAINS NPCs and newer duel disks, you believe. You walk over to see what they're selling that's so in demand.

In the display window you can see watch-like devices with screens. Your eyes trail over the sign that advertises new cards, duel disks, and Link VRAINS cosmetics.

A twinge in your chest makes you wince. You weren't expecting SOL Tech to still be leading in the VR dueling industry. Of course there's a big crowd at a VR dueling store.

Moving along... You wander around aimlessly and window shop, but nothing really appealing prompts you to go into any store for a few hours. You almost decide to go back home, but in your peripheral vision a glint catches your attention.

Swiftly, you backtrack and briskly walk towards it in utter disbelief.

From the span length of the display windows giving a view inside, it's a pretty small store. What caught your attention was the shiny monster, trap, and spell cards facing you.

No way!

You delicately put a hand against the glass as if touching any of the cards will make them disappear. Beyond your reflection and the cards on display, you see a multitude of cards on racks, just asking, no, begging to be played!

You haven't seen a duel shop in ages ! You rush in like it's your birthday, and it may as well have been with the way you gawk at the cards. Most are in packs with other support cards of a deck archetype. A few rarer ones sit majestically on the top shelf, standing alone. Their shiny sheen separates them from much more common cards.

"Can I help you?"

You jump a little. Looking around, you can't clearly see where the voice originates from. Now that your tunnel vision is off the cards, you notice no other customers are here. You peek around one of the racks and see an older man with salt and pepper hair sitting behind the counter. "Oh! Hello! I'm just browsing."

He leans in his chair while you flip over a pack to read about its contents. "Ah, I see. Nice to see a young duelist interested in the old physical cards. It's all data now."

"Yeah," you simply acknowledge. Playing the game with the physical cards was already an uncommon occurrence when you were born. By the time you were able to pick back up the game last year, most people kept their decks on online dueling platforms. You and your mom had to buy cards online and get them shipped, or sometimes find that one rare duel shop like this. "I suppose you don't get many customers."