Arakai

Episode 1: Take a Chance! Sora Ryuko!

It is the year 2040, in a world much like ours. Of all the games in the world, a card game called Arakai is the most popular. In Kyoto, Japan, we are introduced to a high school student named Sora Ryuko. He wakes up one morning, his room dimly lit. Just another morning, another boring day. He takes so long to eat and get washed that he's nearly late. His mom sends him off, but he's in no rush. He'll just about make it on time anyways. He only wants to get the day over with. A tired, bored, apathetic and overlooked boy, Sora follows his basic routine every day, showing little to no emotion or desire for change. For most of his life, he's seen no point in trying. After all, why should he? He just wants to exist, and live an easy life that doesn't give him too much pointless trouble.

He meets up with Hayate Yoshida, a childhood friend of his who walks to and from school with him every day. Hayate seems like a decent guy, eager to make friends, but a little awkward due to it. His character design always has his eyes closed, which nobody seems to notice or be aware of. He's clearly more invested in the conversation than Sora is, and is trying really hard to get him to participate. They talk for a bit about video games, and we learn Hayate and Sora have been playing a new RPG. Hayate thinks the story is really good, but it turns out Sora has been button mashing through all the dialogue to grind loot faster.

After they arrive at school, the two are separated because Sora and Hayate are in different classes right now. Sora just stares out of the window and daydreams during class, uninterested in anything he's learning. After class, the student council president, Sara, confronts him because he's the only one in the class who hasn't filled in a form about his future career plans. Apparently, she always has to cover for him when he forgets things.
Sora says he'll just figure it out when it happens, but she says she can't accept that. Sora refuses to do it, as he thinks setting any kind of goal will just leave you disappointed.

"Why bother? It's not actually a plan. You can't predict the future, and trying out something is a waste of time if you don't even know it'll succeed."

Sara tells Sora he needs to take a chance and figure something out instead of being lazy and indifferent, because he can't keep coasting along like this forever.
"You're not gonna have anything in life if you don't take some initiative, Sora."
Sora gives up and says he'll do it, but inwardly disregards her words as stupid. He's clearly still thinking about it even after school is finished for the day and he's walking home with Hayate. Where Sora would usually take a left turn to head home, he stops, and wanting to prove a point to himself, decides to take the other way home instead. Hayate questions why, as only Hayate goes this way because it's a pointless detour for Sora, but Sora insists on it.

"If I still get home, does it really matter what direction I go?"

Hayate goes along with it, as it means he can hang out with Sora a bit longer than usual! In fact, he needs to stop somewhere else to do something along the way. Sora says he doesn't mind and shrugs it off, so Hayate leads him to a local card shop called Dragon Child Gaming. Hayate gets in a queue and tells Sora to wait for him, so he gets bored and ends up wandering around the store. He recognizes most of the product as Arakai cards.
Hayate had always been into it, like a lot of people, but Sora's mom gets weird about Arakai. She's usually nice and open, but always insisted Sora shouldn't be playing Arakai. He only knows that it's because his dad used to.

Sora watches as a duel replay unfolds on the TV, showing a duel in a big arena between a gloomy looking guy with purple hair and a black-and-yellow haired young man. The one with the weirder hair, referred to as Stinger, attacks the edgier looking one with insect monsters. Sora knew high level Arakai used holograms, but they look better than he expected. The purple haired duelist, Ryuzo, defends himself with a card called Beelebucter, which appears to be a purple zombie lion monster. Using Beelebucter, he makes a comeback and wins the game, which gets the stadium cheering loudly.

Of course, this all seems like total gibberish to Sora, so he mostly disregards it. Hayate finally returns with his bag, but the woman working behind the counter starts acting overly familiar, and asks Hayate if that's the friend he's always talking about. Sora is surprised Hayate talked about him, and Hayate admits that she's right. She asks Sora if he'd consider giving the game a quick free trial while he's already here, but Hayate doesn't seem confident, as he could never convince Sora to give it a try (and knows how his mom acts).

Sora remembers the reason he took this way home in the first place and begrudgingly agrees to try her stupid card game. Hayate is surprised, and the manager introduces herself as Shiina Suzuki, the owner of this store. Sora introduces himself in turn, which seems to get her attention. She suddenly starts acting suspiciously, rummaging around behind the counter and accidentally knocking over a bunch of stuff in the process. She doesn't apologise, but instead says she'll clean it all up later, and Hayate tries to excuse her strange behaviour.

"Shiina is a little clumsy, but she's been running this store independently for years, which is admirable, right?"

Shiina returns with a strange deck box that she has to blow the dust off, before handing it to Sora, who questions its contents. Shiina winks at him and insists that despite appearances, it's a totally normal starter deck. He doesn't react so she winks again to make sure he got it.
"This is a special occasion, so might as well throw in a little something extra, right?"
Sora ignores her and simply says that the deck will do. Hayate grabs one of the red starter decks to match Sora, and the two sit down at an empty table to open the decks and play.

"I'm usually a Tidal main, but Blaze is easier for newbies to understand."

Hayate explains the rules to Sora so they can start playing, and we learn most of them during the game. They play Allies using Spirit, Spells without using Spirit, and win by reducing the other player's Life total from 20 to 0 by attacking with their Allies. Allies can attack the opponent's Allies, or attack the opponent's Life directly. Shiina occasionally interjects to explain things, and although she's goofy, she seems to know what she's talking about. Sora makes some obvious misplays, but gradually starts to get the hang of it. Now that he doesn't need things explained, the duel starts to speed up, and we see flashes of the Allies battling each other in imaginary fight scenes as the turns pass.

After a while, Sora has very few cards left in his hand, and no strong Allies to play. Hayate Invokes the mighty Incinerator of the Innocent, Igneel, and it seems like the game is over for Sora, as this powerful Dragon Lord has an effect that destroys Sora's remaining Allies. Sora doesn't have anything left that stands a chance against Igneel, and when he starts his turn, draws a weak Ally that can't help him. He decides to forfeit, and Hayate says not to feel bad.

"Well, it was only your first game, so it makes sense that you wouldn't win against-"
"Sora, you forgot your Spirit again!"

Shiina interrupts to remind Sora that he forgot the rules again! After he draws at the start of his turn, he can draw a second card and then put a card from his hand into his Spirit! Sora is certain that whatever he needs to win can't just be 1 draw away, but as he's considering giving up, he feels a sudden sense of... discontent, as if he was actually having fun, or just really wanted to win. There was no way he could let his first and last duel be a loss, right?
He knows the outcome doesn't matter, but something inside him can't stand it!

Sora says out loud that it's probably not gonna change anything, but why not? The next card he draws almost feels... familiar somehow, and it has unusual foiling compared to the rest. It's an Ally named Blade Dragon, NEXUS. It has low Power, and is lower Level than Igneel, but Sora realizes its effect might change that! He Invokes NEXUS and all of his remaining weak Allies, as the effect of NEXUS gives it more Power for every Ally in play! It still won't be enough to defeat Igneel, until Shiina points out that it also gains power from Hayate's Allies too! NEXUS is able to defeat Igneel in battle due to this, which we see in epic fashion, turning the game around for Sora. Hayate finds himself unable to get rid of NEXUS with the cards he has left, which leaves Sora to attack directly with all his Allies and win the duel!

"I don't remember that card being in the starter decks... Shiina, did you help him?"

Hayate seems to feel cheated, although Shiina just whistles and does her best to act clueless. Sora decides it doesn't matter. After all, he still won... So in the end, it doesn't really matter which deck it took to get him there, right? Hayate and Sora decide it's time to leave, but Shiina reveals her true intentions, excitedly asking Sora if he's interested in buying the deck he just used. You can practically see the money sparkling in her eyes... Sora uses some emergency money his mom gave him to buy the starter deck from Shiina. It was meant to be for food or transport just in case, but he never has to use it anyways, and he's sure that won't change any time soon. Sora makes a quick exit, and Hayate has to say goodbye to Shiina for the both of them. Shiina seems pretty smug and satisfied with herself.

The two friends continue on their irregular way back home, and although Hayate is convinced he would have won if not for NEXUS, he's just happy that Sora is finally expressing an interest in Arakai. The two say goodbye as they split up, and Sora gets home a little later than usual. His mother, Hayami Ryuko, questions where he's been, so he makes an excuse for himself. He then sneaks the deck up to his room and takes a look through it, only for that NEXUS card from earlier to stick out to him. He remembers what Hayate and Shiina said about it... Compared to his usual life, playing Arakai had made him feel different, as if he'd found something new inside himself. Maybe that seemingly insignificant choice to go home a different way really had changed something?

"... nah, that nag is still wrong either way."

Featured Card: Blade Dragon, NEXUS