"Joe, breakfast is ready. Hurry up and come down!" Izuru exclaimed, opening the door to Joe's room. Upon seeing Joe, he sighed. "Again..?"

Joe was standing up in front of the mirror in his room, going over his tie, which was more tied into a knot than a proper tie. "I've gone to a japanese school for over three month, why is this still so hard..." He grumbled.

"For the tenth time in like forever, look at the top right corner of your mirror, we glued a tutorial to it... Just come down to eat when you finish that."

Joe looked at the top right corner of his mirror, where a piece of paper depicting how to put on a tie in a few steps through images was glued to. "Oh yeah, I always forget about this. Let's see..." In a few second, Joe had untied the knot he made and properly tied his tie. "Score!" Snatching his jacket from his desk's chair and throwing it over his shoulders, he grabbed his school bag from the floor and headed out of his room. As he walked over to the stairway leading downstairs, he stopped in front of the door to Ryuuga's room, giving it a light knock. "Hey big man, I'm leaving for school. Are you coming today?" He stood there for some seconds, but only ended up sighing. "Guess not..." He muttered, putting down his school bag to properly put on his jacket.

He made his way downstairs and into the kitchen, where he grabbed three peices of toast off a plate. "Thanks for the breakfast, uncle and auntie, but I have to eat on the go. Me and Abbacchio got Royalty stuff to finish before classes start today."

"Well you go and get that finished. Have a good day, Joe!" Yu exclaimed, smiling at her newphew.

"Again, thanks for taking care of the Royalty things while Ryuuga is... Well, you know. It means the world to us." Shoto explained, palcing down his newspaper.

"It's not big deal. It's the least we can. Well, I'm off. See ya later!" Joe said as he headed out of the house. As he walked from the entrance door to the house's gate, he laughed at a particular thing. Abbacchio was waiting outside the house, but was looking away, which alloawed Joe to look at a spot of purple hair on the back of Abbacchio's head. "You have a weird purple spot on your hair, you know that?" He asked, tossing a piece of toast at Abbacchio.

Abbacchio caught the toast and took a bite. "It's genetics. All the people in my family have it, including my father, my grandfather and his father before him, and so on and so forth." Abbacchio looked at the toast. "I thank Payic for many fo the things she does, but her toast-making skills are garbage compared to Ryuuga's mom."

"One milf at a time, buddy." Joe laughed.

"You piece of shit." Abbacchio took another bite of the toast. "So, how is he? Still locked in his room?"

"Pretty much." Joe looked over at the closed window that belonged to Ryuuga's room. 'Today is friday, and it's been over a week since the Tokyo's Finest happened. Just for how much long will you stay like that, Ryuuga?'

(Opening)

"Tell me again how Ryuuga managed to keep himself up after spending days doing this crap..." Joe asked, sitting down on the circular table in the center of the Royalty room in Heiwa, with some papers in his hand. "Why are we in charge of deciding which club gets a bigger funding?! That's stuff the higher ups in school should decide, not us! This is some economy shit! I don't learn this crap in class!"

"Stop bitching about it, you're not the only victim here." Abbacchio replied, looking over some papers himself. "I think the safest bet is to raise the funding of the gardening club, with summer starting and whatnot, and lower the funding for clubs that don't do much on summer."

"Name me a club that doesn't do much on summer. All sports clubs have things to do on summer, specially since we lack clubs of winter sports. Oh, and it's summer, so the swimming club is gonna go wild. That's a thing to keep in mind. And it's not like we can lower the budget for the science club... Those nerds can be angry in dangerous ways..."

"Reminder that you were the one who nearly blew one of the labs with your Dr. Stone-like experiment, of course they're angry and made us boost their funding." Abbacchio sighed.

"It was in the past, forget about it."

"It was not even a week ago!"

"Oh eat shit, asshole." Joe sighed, putting his papers down and grabbing a new one from a pile of paperwork on the table. "How has Aijou been?"

"Still the same. She doesn't want to return to this room yet, which means we won't be getting any help from her anytime soon. But it's fine. She needs this time away."

"Agreed. We also need a time away from this paperwork." Joe sighed, throwing the sheet of paper he held onto the table. "I thought Ryuuga had taken care of this already. The funding bullshit."

"He had a meeting with the club presidents about it on May, but that was that. He still had to decide which clubs would get their budget raised this season and which ones would get their budget lowered. Then the festival and a bunch of other stuff happened. We're the last line of defend of this Royalty."

"That's a fancy way of saying we're the only people left to do all the work."

"Yes."

"Figures." Joe said. "I don't think I've ever wanted to have classes so much. How much more until classes start?"

Abbacchio looked at the watch on his wrist. "Twenty minutes."

"Oh man..." Joe wheezed. "Do you got good news..."

"The football club seems a promising invesment."

"Which football?" Joe asked.

"What type of question is that?" Abbacchio asked in return.

"I came from the United States, my football isn't your football, so again I ask, which football?"

"The one where you pass a ball."

"Be more specific."

"The way you play with a ball."

"More specific..."

"You can use your feet to play."

"YOU LITTLE SHIT, BOTH OF THEM USE THEM AND YOU KNOW IT, YOU'RE JUST TRYING TO BURN WHAT'S LEFT FROM MY BRAIN CELLS!"

"Why would I try to burn what isn't real?"

"I- JUST GIVE ME THAT!" joe exclaimed, snatching Abbacchio's paper from his hands. Upon closer look, he sighed. "Abbacchio, this is for the volleyball club..."

"I'm aware. I just said the football club looked like a good invesment. Pure instinct."

"You're a cunt and I hate you."

"Tough luck."

Maverick sighed as he placed down some papers on Ryuzaki's desk, rubbing the back of his neck. "Having to search for a new engineer is such a pain in the neck. And having toc arry so mcuh dumb paperwork is worse!"

"Don't sweat it buddy, it's not your fault. Honestly, I don't know who's fault it is anymore. Can't believe that Gin was this leader of some group or whatever that wrecked Royalties. I did the best background check I could, but when I tried to cross reference it with all the Incomplete Arcana stuff I could find after Hikaru told us about it, and there was no connection. There is no mention of Gin Fuchigami, there is just The World, The Lovers, The Star, yada yada yada. And then I welcomed him with open arms into this company, letting him have the chance to get close to Ryuuga." Ryuzaki explained, crossing his arms as he laid back on his office chair.

"Well there was nothing we could do. You had been searching for an extra engineer for the RIVS for ages and you came across Gin months ago. Gin was the best of his class in college, he was the better candidate for the job. I don't think there's anything we could have done."

"I should have been able to do something... Now because of me, one of my students is lost. And the other is the worst student of his school so I have failed as a mentor in both ends of the spectrum."

"I'll quote you and say don't sweat it buddy. I hafta go get more paperwork for you, see ya in a sec." Maverick said as he left the office.

"See ya." Ryuzaki watched as Maverick left. Once the door was closed, he looked at his laptop. 'When we came across our first issue with the RIVS, I tried to get an extra engineer for the project. I thought Inu and the current team weren't enough. In a bunch of candidates from different age groups, one stood out in a bunch of boomers. Gin Fuchigami, only eighteen years old and top of his class. He ended high school and college sooner than others and was an ex-high school wrestler, one of the best in Japan. When my eyes laid upon his profile, I started doing the best background check I could. I looked into every tiny detail, I analyzed and overanalyzed everything there was to him for at least four months, I was like Fox goddammit. But even in doing so, nothing from his past ever connected to the Incomplete Arcana, not one single thing made him The World. When we first met in person, I could see his wish to join the company and to work here was real. In my eyes, he was just a prodogy who wanted to do more... I was a fool. I was the biggest fool. I was like the guy who couldn't guess how much yen A had, I was that dumb. As The World, Gin had thought ahead and never used his actual name so that when people started talking about the doings of the Arcana, nothing could be backtracked to him. I was a blind idiot and one of my students paid the price.' Ryuzaki grit his teeth. 'I'm the shittiest mentor out there.'

"So, what do you say? Box split? I keep the Great Nature stuff, you can keep the Gold Paladin and Neo Nectar stuff and sell them if you want." Abbacchio explained as he entered Hage, taking a seat on one of the tables closest to the front door.

"Sell NN stuff? What are you, crazy? I'm tryna get on with a NN player, I can give her the NN cards as a present and call it a day." Joe boasted, tossing his bag on the table.

"I don't care, I just don't want to pay for a full box." Abbacchio replied, taking out his wallet. "A box is usually 3000 yen, just pay the other half and keep the cards I don't need. You're american, you should be excited for business like this." He explained, placing down 1500 yen on the table.

"Hai hai, I'll cover the rest, no worries about it." Joe said, picking up the money. He walked off to the store counter, placing down the money he got from Abbacchio, aswell as some of his own, for a grand total of 3000 yen. "Big boss, a box of that set with furries, tree huggers and golden armored tryhards."

"One box of furries, tree huggers and golden armored tryhards coming right up." Kamishiro, the store manager, said as he reached for a booster box from a shelf and placed it next to the money. "Furries, tree huggers and golden armored tryhards. All the world needs." He laughed as he grabbed the money and opened the cash register. "So, you fellas got here earlier than usual. I thought you two were the only people in the Heiwa Royalty to still be doing their job."

"We are." Abbacchio replied.

"Yeah. But we finished all we had to do during lunch time and called it a day earlier. Besides, it's friday, we deserve extra free time." Joe said, sitting down across Abbacchio. "I present you a box of furries, tree huggers and golden armored tryhards."

"Everything the world ever needed." Abbacchio said, grabbing the box.

"Wasn't this week's super special awesome task dealing with club budgets and all of that? How did you two alone end up figuring that mess up?" Kamishiro asked, taking off his shades.

"We boosted the football clubs, the gardening club and the swimming club. Then we called it a day." Abbacchio answered, removing the plastic wrapped around the box.

"What about the rest of the clubs?"

"We lowered their budget for the summer season."

"Why?"

"Why? 'Cause fuck 'em, that's why." Joe said, grabbing half of the packs within the box. As he took them out, his hands suddenly let the packs fall on the table, reaction to the feeling of a gaze falling down upon himself. "Still no swearing in the store, huh..."

"Exactly." Kamishiro replied. "But let's move on from that. How's Ryuuga been? Fujiko may be my sister-in-law but Ryuuga is still a friend."

"He's still the same sulking thing he's been since last week." Joe said as he opened one of the packs he dropped. "I got you a Mathilda and a very questionable pink crocodile."

"And I got you a bunch of plants of knights." Abbacchio said, putting down all the cards on the pack he had opened. "Somehow, not even one Great Nature card on that pack."

"To quote you, tough luck."

"Has he gotten better at least?" Kamishiro asked.

"Well, he isn't repeating the number 37 over and over again anymore. He came home on monday repeating that number and didn't said a thing since then." As Joe explained that, he opened a pack. His reaction to the cards within the pack were sudden. His mouth and eyes became wide open and the cards just fell from his shaking hands. "An Esuka Pack..."

"Oh sweet, I'll keep that if you don't mind." Abbacchio said, grabbing the card off the table. As he looked through them, he smirked.

"Even if I minded, you'd keep them..." Joe muttered.

"Props for paying more than I should only to keep the Great Nature cards. You still keep about two thirds of the box. The least I can have is keep this special rarity pack." Abbacchio explained. "Welcome to capitalism, my shitstained friend."

"You're spending too much time with Ryuzaki."

"He owns the house where I live whilst being in Japan."

"Stop smacking me with logic, dipshit!"

"Language!" Kamishiro roared.

"Sorry...." The two teenagers muttered.

"Attaboys. Continue with your box."

"Yessir..."

Fifteen minutes later, Joe placed a pile of cards on the store counter, with a face depicting annoyance. He sighed as he looked at Kamishiro, who looked back at him. "I-"

"All the high rarity stuff was Great Nature and ended up with Abbacchio, and you got much more Gold Paladin stuff than Neo Nectar." Kamishiro assumed.

"Yes. I wish to sell all of the golden armored tryhards that appeared to me within a cardboard capsule. They do not contain any value to me, except the fact that I can use them to make profit in a trade with a gentleman such as yourself. They cannot even fufill a work within the corporation that is my deck."

"That sounds like slavery with extra steps." Abbacchio said, looking over the cards he got from that box split. "Oh yeah, it's all coming together."

Joe sighed. "Buy me these cards, manager. I don't have any use for this trash and online selling is slowly becoming the Great Depression."

"Let me see what I can do for you." Kamishiro said, looking through the cards. "Oh man... Oh god... Oh dear fuck..."

"You swore, they are that bad!"

Kamishiro cleaned his throat and placed the cards down on the counter. "How does 1000 yen sound?"

"One thousand sounds like a big number, I take it."

"That's like ten bucks." Abbacchio said.

"I don't care. And I can't sell the NN cards, my chances with Yuri are on the line. At least my cards are being bought for a value that is bigger than two digits."

"Aren't cards in America sold by values of two main digits?"

"Well, yeah, but this is Japan so- Two digits..." Joe muttered.

"Where did that come from?" Abbacchio asked.

"Wario, you come from Italy and go to all these cons and whatnot, you ride planes alot don't you?"

"Basically, yeah."

"How many digits do fligths usually have?"

"Three, no less than that. Why?"

"37 wasn't just some number." Joe said, walking around the counter. "Lemme use the computer real quick." He said, starting to typing into the store computer.

"What point are you trying to make?" Abbacchio asked, getting off his chair.

"Jackpot! Check this." Joe said, turning the screen around.

"What am I supposed to see?"

"Ryuuga wasn't saying 37 out of nowhere, he was saying it since it was part of the flight number from Fujiko and Gin's plane. On June 11th, the day they left, there were twelve flights who's flight number had 37 on them, being three and seven the first and second or the second and third digits. Ryuuga hasn't spent the last few days sulking, he's been planning, tracing the two!"

"What are you trying to get at?"

"Jesus christ Abbacchio, I'll admit that you're smarter than me, you should understand this!"

"Ryuuga is trying to find them, so what? We don't know when or where they left the plane. Besides, they may have switched planes during the flight, it has happened to me before. If you're suggesting that Ryuuga has been locked up in his room for over a week locating Gin and Fujiko, then you're just being stupid. Not crazy or being a visionary, you're just being outright retarded. I have spoken." Abbacchio said, turning away from the computer and starting to walk back to the table.

"For fuck's sake, I don't have time for your damn mood!" Joe exclaimed, grabbing hold of Abbacchio's attention, who stopped walking and stood in the middle of the store, never turning around to face Joe. "It's our turn to act! To do something useful!"

"We've been managing the Heiwa Royalty, that is help enough from our part. It's a miracle it's still standing, considering we're the last two people doing their jobs and all we do is fight. I get that you want to help, but this is none of our business. Trying to keep our Royalty up and running is our business, not fighting some group that probably is just a made up excuse that Gin made on the last second."

"Screw the Royalty!" Joe exclaimed. "The Royalty isn't what matters right now! What matters is that we have to help Ryuuga on this! The Incomplete Arcana is a real thing and it's the reason why I came to Japan!"

Abbacchio looked back. "Explain."

"My younger brother... You probably heard me mention that I have a younger brother here and there. You're doubtful about the Arcana's existence, and I can understand why. Afterall, a group that turns Royalties to crap, basically destroying them, and no one is talking about them. I understand your doubts. But they are real. My brother became one of them. Me and him have never had the greatest brotherhood. The little shit always saw himself as an upper being whenever I was around, all after he joined those damned bastards. Alan..." Joe clenched his hands into fists. "Alan joined the Incomplete Arcana and so I left. I came to Japan because I blamed myself not being a brother good enough for Alan the reason why he abandoned us and joined them. But as far as I'm concerned, I don't want to fight against the Arcana because Alan is there or because I blame myself for his departure, I want to fight because I'm on Ryuuga's side! AND YOU'RE ON RYUUGA'S SIDE TOO SO STOP ACTING LIKE A LITTLE BITCH AND GET READY TO WORK!"

'The determinated flow in his eyes, shining like a diamond... And his reasons, where he fights for others instead of fighting for himself...' Abbacchio thought. He sighed. "What do you want me to do?"

Joe grinned. "In a weird sense, the Arcana is an army. So I say we make an army of our own."

"Emon and Homura left Fukushima by now. I know where her dad's store is, and Emon and Akira usually hang out on an arcade near the store on fridays." Kamishiro said out of nowhere.

"I know the quickest path from here to Hagiwara. Taira's Royalty is probably still there, seeing as none of them is here." Abbacchio said.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Abbacchio, you go for Hagiwara, I'll go get Fukushima. I'll explain everything to them later." Joe declared.

Abbacchio nodded. "Yeah... Let's go get them!" 'Banjoe Higashikata, or should I say Joe Zaizen, I believe today my respect for you might have grown.'

The day came to a close, leading into the night. It was past midnight, but not by much. Ryuuga, navigating himself through the shadows that filled his home with the flashlight of his phone, made his way from his room to the house's entrance hall, carrying a suitcase. As he reached for the door handle, the lights of the hall were turned on with a flick, leading Ryuuga to look back as a reflex. His eyes fell upon Joe, standing near the light switch pannel.

"Joe... What are you doing up this late?" Ryuuga asked in a weak attempt at making his cousin not notice the obvious situation.

"Same as you. I'm leaving to find the Arcana. Only difference is that I'm going with you." Joe said. In the hall, there was a small cabinet, which Joe opened to reveal a white suitcase, which he took out and closed the cabinet's doors. "So, where we heading?"

"I'm guessing my parents told you..."

"No, I actually figured it out on my own, with a bit of help from Abbacchio here and there. But when I asked uncle and auntie about it, they took no time in spilling the beans. I'm not letting you go alone, Ryuuga. In fact, none of us are."

"I don't need your- Us?"

"I thought ahead. Something you should consider start doing." Joe said as he walked forward and opened the door.

Upon the door's opening, Ryuuga's eyes fell upon Abbacchio, Emon, Homura, Hikaru and Taira, all either holding their own suitcase of having it on the floor. Hikaru, in particular, had a suitcase behind his.

"'Sup big boy, you wanna raid some Arcana shit?" Hikaru asked, putting his hands inside his pockets.

"I hope you haven't forgotten about how it is to fight alongside your old teammates." Emon said.

"Emon, Hikaru... Wait, Taira and Homura... But your Royalties-"

"Kaminari and Bruno will keep Fukushima up and runnin', and Akira will be helping out Heiwa, thanks to Joe and Abbacchio leaving with us." Homura explained, crossing her arms with a grin.

"And as for Hagiwara, Ichigo and Renji will keep the place working. Hisano offered herself to help out Heiwa and Aijou in any way she can." Taira said, smirking. "I'm gonna help you this one time, protag!"

"Only thing is that we lack a plane. And a proper location of where the Arcana is located." Abbacchio mentioned.

"Good thing I planned ahead, Abbacchicchi." Hikaru said, aiming at Abbacchio with finger guns. "I went to Ryuzaki."

"That's-"

"But he said he wasn't gonna help us this time and that we had to find our own rich friend with a private jet."

Ryuuga deadpanned. "You should have started with that, you asshole!"

"That's where I come into play."

"That voice... You bastard." Ryuuga chuckled.

Walking out of the shadows was a boy, about the same age as Emon. He was tall and his hair was white and orange, slicked back. He wore a white and black tracksuit with all zippers in gold. The boy and Ryuuga shook hands, smirking at each other.

"Hope you haven't forgetten about me, you national championship winning bastard." Masato said.

"How does one forget someone who comes up with such shit nicknames?" Ryuuga asked in return. "But the fact still remains. I don't know exactly where the Arcana is. All I found online didn't mention an exact location."

"That's where Tenma's help come sinto play. Until we find out where they are exactly, he got his family to let us stay in his house in New York." Abbacchio said, pretending to toss up a pair of keys.

"New York will work as a fine center of operations. All things considered, I know the place like the palm of my hand." Joe said.

"And that's not all! That guy that slayed you before I did and his pink haired girlfriend are also coming to help!" Taira exclaimed.

"The Arcana is like an army, so we made an army of our own. We just lack a name." Homura said. "I call dibs on Spiral Knights. It's cheesy enough for us."

"It is a cheesy name..." Ryuuga chuckled. He looked around at his friends and let out a sigh, followed by a nod. "All of you, thank you. But now, there's only one thing left to do! Everyone!" Ryuuga exclaimed as the front gate of the house was slammed open.

'If you ask me if I'm fighting to bring Fujiko back, to save other Royalties from the Arcana's actions, to face Gin one last time and try to bring him back, I won't be able to give you a proper answer... So I'll just fight! We'll all fight! This is our declaration of war against the Incomplete Arcana!'

(Play the media)

Ryuuga, Joe, Abbacchio, Masato, Homura, Emon, Hikaru and Taira, all at the same time, slammed their left foot on the ground outside the gate, creating a sound that echoed throughout the street, a declaration of war against the Incomplete Arcana.

"We're heading out!"

Cardfight!! Vanguard: Spiral Soul - Tokyo's Finest Arc: Completed