It's been a year since the Destined Showdown took place. And now, another tournament looms around the corner. While in Cyber Space, GUI overlooks the final list of players for this tournament. After careful consideration, research, and discussion between Perse, Masanori, and itself, the list was complete. "It's finally time...!" GUI says to itself, clearly excited about what's to come as Perse and Masanori hand out the invites all around Japan, while Jinki was overseas.

As this is happening, Jinki approaches a young woman with grey hair, and presents a letter for her. "You must be Hakan, one of America's top fighters. I'm here to present to you the opportunity to participate in the Deluxe." Jinki says with a smile as the woman takes the letter from his fingers, smiling.

———

Before Jinki had given this Hakan her letter, a tanned figure sat on a bench, holding the card of Demonic Jewel True Dragon, Drajeweled Ignis. They would smile at the card, and claim "I have returned."

———

Meanwhile, back in Japan, Masanori arrived at a TV studio, conducting a brief interview with a lady from a prestigious family of Vanguard fighters, Suzune Rokuoin. He watched with a grin on his face, stepping to the side as the interview was concluding. She takes a seat on a chair, and opens a large jar of caramel hard candies. After munching on one, Masanori walks up to her. "Suzune Rokuoin..." He says, getting her attention. "You're quite famous these days, earning the nickname the "Vanguard Machine", yes? But that can't be right. The way I see it, you don't have the heart of a machine. You're human, after all." He steps up to her, grinning wide in her face in the classic Masanori fashion.

However, despite the strangeness of his attitude, Suzune remains stoic. Unbothered, even. "Can I help you?" She asked plainly.

With a chuckle, the bald monk backed up a bit and pulls out an envelope from his suit pocket. "Your mysterious Santa has come with a present just for you!" He says in a joking manner, holding out the letter for her.

She takes it steadily, and observes it with interest. "Is this real...?" She asked, her voice laced with skepticism.

"If I told you it was, would you enter?" Masanori asked.

"Of course." She says matter of factly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's only appropriate that the Rokuoin family holds the title of Deluxe Champion."

"Hahaha! You may look calm and collected on the outside, but you're just fiery as anyone else!" Masanori grins. "But remember, it's a big world out there! You're not the only one who will be giving it your all."

———

"Rezael Vita attacks Liael=Odium!" Renji declares, beating Athena in a fight. Today was also the Ichinosui School Festival, where Renji's class was hosting a Vanguard Cafe, where customers can have Vanguard fights with the waiters and waitresses. And with that last attack, Athena smiles in satisfaction.

"Not bad. You got me this time." She nods. "You're getting a lot better."

"You really think so, senpai?!" Renji asked, clearly excitedly to get her approval. "I'm surprised you even showed up. University must take up a lot of your time, no?" She asked.

As of now, Renji's class were second years, while Carmen and Carole were third years. Meanwhile, Athena was just getting settled into college. "Haha. Hey, even I need time to myself, you know? Can't be studying 24/7." She jokes, as she turns around to see that her older twin brother, Nanu Kanzaki had just come in as well. "Oh, Nanu. I didn't know you were coming as well." She says.

The tanned male laughs a bit, and smiles. "Well, Amu invited me, so I kind of had to stop by." He says, and looks to Renji. "You must be Amu's girlfriend, yeah? Renji?" He asked.

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, that's me! It's nice to meet you, sir." Renji says with a bow.

"Hahaha, relax. Not need to be so formal. I'm just Nanu." He says, hands in his pocket. "Amu talks about you a lot, you know? I've never seen her so invested in another person before. It's adorable."

"Wait, really...?!" Renji asked with a blush.

"Yeah. Even dad had some great things to say about you. I'm surprised you haven't come to meet the rest of the family yet, so I thought I'd track you and get to know you." He adds. "Say, we're both fighters here. How about we play a game?"

"You want to fight me...?" She wondered, amazed that even someone like Nanu knew about her.

"Of course. A fight reveals everything about a person, after all. Let's see...there's that big stage out in the school courtyard. How about we borrow that for our fight?" He suggests, not even letting her protest as he walked out of the cafe classroom to make the preparations to use the big stage.

Even Athena was confused by this, as she's never seen him so eager to fight someone new like this. Usually he's the type of guy to let people ask him to fight, not the other way around. Either way, Athena smiled and patted Renji's back. "Go kick his butt, my pupil." She says with a giggle.

"Uh, right, okay!" She nods and follows after Nanu, telling her classmates that she was going on an early break, and asking someone to fill in for her.

Surprisingly, Nanu was already in the courtyard, chatting with Carmen Nakamura about using the stage for his fight with Renji. From the look of it, she agreed, and it seemed like they already knew each other somehow. Either way, Renji makes her way down and steps up to the fight table. "Hey, just in time." He greets her, as a crowd started forming around the stage.

Renji nods, and starts to set up her cards. Nanu did the same. As she shuffled her cards, Renji looks at him, recalling what she knew about Nanu Kanzaki already from Amu and Tohru. He plays a Dark States deck, and his vanguard is the Demonic Jewel Dragon, Drajeweled. From what she knew about it, it was a tricky deck to defend against, reducing the enemy's power to 1, or 0 depending on if he was Grade 4 or not. With this in mind, she starts to formulate a plan of attack to best handle him.

"Ready?" Nanu asked as he did his mulligan.

"Yeah, I'm ready." She nods.

"Stand up!"

"Stand up! The!"

"Vanguard!" Both flip their cards, as Renji's eyes widen in surprise.

"Envoy of the Moon, Repsold." Nanu announces. This wasn't right. It was supposed to be a Dark States deck, not Brandt Gate.

Despite this, Renji got her act together and focused. "Wings of Aspiration, Soel!" She says. Nanu let Renji go first, so she rides up to Grade 1, sets her energy generator, and ends her turn there.

"I draw, and ride Follower of the Moon, Fresnel." Nanu plays his Grade 1. "Her skill when she rides over Repsold, I reveal the Grade 3 in my ride deck, then place the Moon Gate Set Order into my Order Zone. I draw a card from Repsold, then charge three energy. I then call Heroic Deeds Dracokid, then attack with Fresnel."

He was boosting on his first attack to discourage her from guarding. If she used the Front Trigger in her hand to block, he would just need one Trigger to break through it. It was a pretty common strategy that she employed from time to time. However, did he really want to give her the damage? Rezael gets stronger with every damage he takes. Although this is their first time fighting, so she figured he didn't know that a single damage could swing the tide of the game. "I won't guard." She declares.

"Drive check. It's a Critical Trigger. All effects to Fresnel." Nanu smiles and deals two damage in an instant.

"Damn..." Renji says to herself. He's good. Too good. Renji might just be out of her league, but she knew she couldn't just concede. "I draw! I ride Knight of Great Advance, Ascensior! I call Ventesta from soul and soul charge one! I play the Order Card, Wisdom of Beginning That Cleared The World! I draw two cards and call Cerrgaon and Teithfallt from my hand! Teithfallt's skill, I soul blast and call Nilberis! Teithfallt attacks with support from Cerrgaon! 23k!"

"I don't guard." Nanu takes the first attack happily.

"Cerrgaon retires and I add a card from the top two of my deck to hand. I attack with Ascensior!"

"Guard."

"Attack with Nilberis!"

"Guard." Nanu smiles as he only takes a single damage this turn.

"I end my turn..." Renji looks at her hand, as she's prepared for any kind of early rush he would want to counter with.

"Stand and draw. I ride Vassal of the Moon, Ramsden. Using his skill when he rides, I check the top seven cards of my deck, then target two Mythisch cards and reveal them. One of them goes to my Order Zone, while the other is called to rearguard. I call Crowring Mythisch, Ravenorowg. I then activate the Moon Gate. I pay three energy and rest it to check the top seven cards of my deck again, then call a Mythisch card. I call another Ravenorowg." Nanu plays his cards expertly, stringing together card effects and building a board to attack with. Renji was starting to feel a little concerned with all this pressure now. "I attack Teithfallt with Ravenorowg."

Renji's eyes widen. He was aiming for her rearguards? Why? Probably to force her to commit more cards to her board from hand. If that was the case, there was no point in using her valuable shield on a rearguard. "No guard!" She declares, letting Teithfallt retire.

"My other Ravenorowg attacks Nilberis." Nanu smiles.

"I guard!" She couldn't let Nilberis go. He was too important.

"Ramsdem attacks Nilberis with a boost." Her opponent seemed intent on taking out that rearguard. And with a boost, it made things much harder. She was only working with one counter blast, and had no Aerial Sages in hand to counter blast. So because she didn't want to use too much shield, she had to let him go. "Drive check. No trigger. I end my turn"

Renji sighs, looking at her hand. She had plenty of shield, but no offense. The best she could do was use that to her advantage. "Wings of salvation, descend from the heavens! I ride the Fated One of Miracles, Rezael! Using Ascensior's skill, I call Cerrgaon from the drop! Then I call Nilberis! Ventesta attacks with support from Cerrgaon, 21k!"

"No guard." Nanu took this hit as well.

"Cerrgaon retires and I add a card. Then I attack with Rezael! Using his skill, I counter blast and call Cerrgaon and Chivalmya from my drop!"

"I guard." Nanu blocks this attack with a Critical Trigger to stop this hit.

"Twin drive! First! No trigger. Second check! Front Trigger! 10k to my front row! Chivalmya attacks with support!"

"No guard."

"Nilberis attacks!" She declares after using Cerrgaon's skill again.

"No guard." With that, Nanu is now at 4 damage, while Renji had 10 cards in her hand after Nilberis's effect.

She was confident that she could survive the coming push. Meanwhile, Nanu remained perfectly calm. He seemed to be thinking of something, probably on how he can win in this situation. He nods, and smiles.

"It's my turn. Stand and draw." He says, and discards a card. "The moon's surface shimmers of silver...! The time has come, for the trial of the Moon! Ride the Vanguard! Keeper of the Moon Gate, Veissrugr!"

As Nanu placed his card down, the world around him and Renji seemed to have changed to that of the surface of the moon. Of course, this was all just in image in both of their heads, but the fact that they both experienced this sensation was exhilarating. Up above the two was Nanu's Moon Gate, a cone shaped structure with a pair of orbiting rings with a blue portal at the very center of the cone's opening. Nanu's new vanguard, Veissrugr, descends from said Moon Gate, its body shining silver and red. And behind Renji, Rezael lifts his sword, preparing for combat.

"During my turn, when I have a Veissrugr vanguard, my Ravenorowgs get the ability to boost. I activate the Moon Gate! Pay three energy and rest it to check the top seven cards of my deck. Since my vanguard is Veissrugr, the effect changes. Instead of choosing and calling one Mythisch, I can choose up to three, placing two into the order zone, and calling one! I play two more Ravenorowgs into my Order Zone, then calling one Mythisch a third!" Nanu says.

"Huh...? But I thought you can only have four copies of the same card. You have five Ravenorowgs." Renji says.

"Ravenorowg is special, as it lets me run up to 16 copies instead of just four." Nanu explained.

"There are cards that can do that...?!" Renji's mind was blown. She's never heard of those kinds of cards.

"That's right. It's rare, but the game of Vanguard is vast. Next, I activate Veissrugr's skill! I soul blast two cards to reactivate the Moon Gate! This time, I place two Ravenorowgs into Order Zone, and call out the Mythisch beast king! The First Mythisch, "Wolfszahns" Roztnir!"

Veissrugr focuses his power, raising his arms as he seemed to be summoning this wolf like creature from the Moon Gate. A clawed paw reaches out, and leaps from the blue portal, landing on the moon's surface and letting out a mechanized roar.

"When Roztnir is placed, I can target one of your front row rearguards, and when Roztnir battles, it battles your vanguard and the targeted rearguard! I choose Chivalmya! I pay one counter blast to play the Order Card, Eilift Gullmani! This gives Veissrugr an extra skill that gives all my Mythisch units 5k power! Lastly, I call Bobalmine! Roztnir attacks with Bobalmine's support! Using skill when it attacks, I counter blast and draw a card, gaining 5k power! 28k!"

Renji grits her teeth. This thing was attack Rezael and Chivalmya, which wasn't that big of deal, but it was still annoying as it took a body of the board. "No won't guard!" She declares, taking her damage.

"I put Bobalmine into my soul and counter charge one! I attack with Veissrugr! Using his skill, I counter blast and call two Mythisch units from my Order Zone to the same column, and giving my front row 5k power! I call two Ravenorowgs! Then, Heroic Deeds Dracokid gets 5k power when he boosts, and if he boosts Veissrugr my vanguard, he gets another 2k, then I soul blast one and return a Mythisch from drop to the bottom of my deck to energy charge three! On top of that, the extra skill Eilift Gullmani provides gives Mythisch cards called via Veissrugr's skill an additional 5k power! 33k!"

Renji gulps, looking at her hand. She had ten cards in hand, as well two sentinels ready. But did she really want to use them now? She only had three damage. Even if he checked a critical, she would survive and push next turn. But even still, she didn't want to just leave herself open. "I guard!" Renji stops the attack using the Front in her hand for a 20k shield, then guards with a Critical Trigger for a total of 48k block.

"Twin drive! First check! Critical Trigger! All effects to my left side Ravenorowg! Second check!" Just before Nanu flips the next card, he smiles, and turns it over. "Over Trigger!" He declares, shocking everyone. There's that Kanzaki protagonist effect kicking in once again. "I give the 100 million power to Veissrugr, and the then the power and Critical of my front row units is doubled until the end of this turn!"

Thanks to this, Veissrugr shines gold and smashes through Rezael's guard attempt, slamming his arms into Rezael and sending him into the moon's surface. Renji is forced to take two damage now, as she's suddenly pushed to 5 damage!

"My right side Ravenorowg attacks! 70k with two Critical!"

"Perfect guard!" Renji needed to stop these next attacks, no matter what.

"My second Ravenorowg column attacks for 45k and two Critical!"

"Perfect guard!!" She blocks the second attack, but not with losing more cards in her hand. She was now down to four hand cards, while Nanu was still sitting pretty with a good amount of cards in hand, as well as two intercept units. She had to end this game, here and now. "O King who reigns over the Fated...! Lead their lives with your white wings! My avatar, Fated King of Miracles! Rezael Vita! From my hand! I call Azure Sky White Scale, Aspronia&Sapphira! Using their skill, I check the top card, and discard it! Then I counter blast to call Nilberis from the drop zone! I activate Rezael's Divine Skill! Let the miracle descend! I return all Critical Triggers in my drop to the deck and get plus one drive and an extra skill! Nilberis attacks first!"

"I intercept!" Nanu stops this attack, quite easily. "With Veissrugr's skill, I return a Mythisch unit in my drop zone to give the Ravenorowg plus 5k shield!"

"Damn...! Nilberis's skill! I put him to the soul and energy blast three to draw a card and check the top card, leaving it on top! I attack with Aspronia&Sapphira! 20k!"

"Intercept! The same skill activates! Return a Mythisch unit to give plus 5k power!"

"I attack with Rezael Vita! His skill, I counter blast to call Teithfallt and Cerrgaon!"

"Perfect guard!" Nanu throws down a sentinel to block the hit.

"Ugh...! Triple drive! First check, Front Trigger! 10k to my front row! Second check! No Trigger! Third check! Heal Trigger! I heal one damage and give 10k power to Teithfallt! Attack with support from Cerrgaon!" Even though the attack wasn't much, since Nanu had the same number of rearguards as she does, and she doesn't have 4 rearguards, Teithfallt doesn't get 10k power. So she was probably better off calling two more attacks. Realizing she messed up under the pressure, she grits her teeth.

"No guard! Damage check! Heal Trigger! I heal one damage and give 10k power to Veissrugr!" Thanks to Renji's Heal Trigger just now, both players had 4 damage, which means Nanu essentially took no damage this turn, staying at 4. This upset Renji, but she wasn't in a bad spot. It could be worse.

"I end my turn." She says, looking at her hand. This was going to be a hard turn.

"Stand and draw. Persona Ride, Veissrugr!" Nanu declares, as Renji's match turns from bad to worse. "I activate the Moon Gate! Rest and pay three energy! Call "Wolfszahns" Roztnir, placing a Ravenorowg and another Roztnir into Order Zone! Paying two soul to activate the Moon Gate again! Calling Ravenorowg and placing a Roztnir into Order Zone! Finally, I play the Order Card, Eilift Gullmani!"

And now, things have gone from worse to the worst possible scenario. There was no way she was surviving this turn unless she checked her own Over Trigger.

"Roztnir attacks Rezael Vita and Teithfallt simultaneously!" Nanu commands. "45k!"

"Ugh...! I guard Rezael with Alpacc and Chivalmya!"

Teithfallt is retired from the battle, as Nanu turns his next card. "Veissrugr attacks! Skill activates! I counter blast to call my second Roztnir and a Ravenorowg, both gaining 10k power upon entry, then Roztnir gets another 5k! 43k!"

"Perfect guard!" Renji says, blocking the attack.

Before Nanu does his Twin Drive, he smiles and looks at Renji. "Tell me, Himekawa. What do you think a miracle is?" He asked.

"Huh? Well, I think of...check a Trigger at a crucial moment. Is that good enough?" She answered.

"Mhm. You're pretty spot on there. However...I want you to take a good look at my deck." He says, and she does so, noticing how thin it was. Realizing this, she starts to recall how many Triggers he's checked throughout the fight, then looks at the Order Zone stuffed with Mythisch cards. "Deck thinning is deck winning, as they say. A miracle isn't just something that can pop up randomly. They can also be created. First check! Front Trigger! 10k power to my front row! Second check! Critical Trigger! I give all effects to "Wolfszahns" Roztnir!"

"Dammit...!" Renji was surprised he actually pulled the double Trigger out, as Roztnir goes