Sure, 2052 was good, and 2053 started pretty well, but the present is overrated anyways.

There's a danger on the streets who has a brother who cucks honest men who worked hard for their place in the corporal ladder, so let's take a look back.

Let's take a look to seven years ago, at the end of an afternoon, where a black haired boy watched a fight going down.

The match was seven random ass gangsters against one hell of a bulky figure, worth of the title "Built Different". He even proved that numbers meant nothing by annihilating whatever shred of self-esteem those seven guys by kicking and punching them around.

"No way... He... He beat them all!" The boy muttered to himself.

He didn't know it yet, but in a few years, he'd be one of Tokyo's most known delinquents.

"Of course I did! Accept all challenges, and have a blast taking them head on! That's the way of living I chose for myself!" The man laughed.

"Who... Who the hell are you...?!"

"My name is Yu! Liang Yu! But you!" He pointed at the boy and smirked. "You can just call me Li."

But that's enough with the past. Let's get back to the present, where all the relevant characters are.

The day was sunday, and the location, thank god, was far and away from the protagonist with the gacha problem.

The location was Ikebukuro, but to be more precise, the bedroom of a small apartment, where everyone's favourite Nakano-senpai sat up on his futon after turning off his alarm clock.

Nakano looked around the room for a brief moment, then shivered and hugged himself.

"I hate the winter season..."

Oh Nakano, you're too good for us...

After getting dressed and throwing a few things into a backpack, Nakano left for the kitchen, where he spent the next hour preparing breakfast for younger sister- You know, the one who likes Ryuuga for some reason- and lunch for the rest of the family. Their parents had gone off to work in the middle of the night, so they'd be returning just around lunch time.

As for himself. Nakano just downed a whole piece of toasted glutten-free bread like a champ and left the house. Though he cared alot for his younger sister, today was a special day.

It was the day that'd prove Ibuki that yes, Nakano does indeed have friends outside Shinjuku.

Or at least, outside Shinjuku that doesn't include the Heiwa idiots but minor.

From home, Nakano made his way to the nearest train station, where he'd catch the train that would take him from the Toshima Ward to the Katsushika Ward, and from that station, he made his way on foot to the... Tokyo Detention House...?

You know, that really big, kinda star-shaped on second thought, giant ass prison in Tokyo... It also holds one of the seven death chambers in the entire country. Yes, we know how to use Google here.

But back to Nakano. He stood in front of the prison's front gates, listening to music on his phone while he waited. Band-Maid, man of taste.

Sadly for him, the banger sound that is "Choose Me" got interrupted by a phone call. Despite the contact's image being one of Nakano sleeping with his eyes open, taken without him knowing and then being set as the contact's profile image by the person who took said picture, the contact's name was Ibuki.

"You..."

Sighing, Nakano answered the call.

"Good mor-"

"REN! REN! WE NEED YOU TO BE OUR FINANCES GUY!"

"...ning, Ibuki."

"Hello. So, you in or you in?!"

"Hey, Nakano-senpai. Let the guy sleep, Ibuki... AND LET ME SLEEP TOO!"

"Hello to you too, Izuru-san... What is it now?"

"See, we managed to trick Izuru's brother into being Ryuzaki's bitch so that we could move back to our old house to escape their weird mom, right?"

"My mom isn't... Moving on."

"But you see, we're having trouble figuring out our budget, since, well, you know-"

"I wish I didn't... But go on."

"No shit they're so expensive. The government wants to get the citizens to shit out as many brats as they can. Why do you think there's so much porn anywhere you go? That's why they keep inflating the price on-"

Card sleeves.

The japanese government keeps inflating the price on card sleeves.

No this isn't a joke meant for the harem winner reveal that got forgotten and is being used now.

"Shut up, Izuru! Go back to not rolling high rarity images! So, here's the gist, since we're together and all now, I'm also providing this lazy ass with his gacha money, so we need your mathematicals brains to do our monthly budget, since that bitchy mom of mine only pays me monthly!"

"L-lazy ass?! I'm the one with an actual job here!"

"Do you want that playset of red border Falls or not?!"

"...yes... sugar mommy Ibuki..."

"...I see." Nakano said, internally groaning. "Have you considered not wasting vast sums on money on those gacha game things?"

"What? But how am I supposed to flex on the poor idiots who spend whole years saving for one specific guy and then not get him?!"

"You don't. Stop paying for two people's gacha problems and your budget issue will be solved. And get a part-time like Izuru-san while you're at it."

"She's out of line but she has a point, Nakano-senpai. How can we be humble gacha players without sparring a few fifties every month?"

"Every banner for me but yeah! Come on, Ren! Just make a quick budget for us!"

"...fine. Cut on the food and eat fried bell peppers with beaf for the rest of your lives."

"But steak isn't that cheap!"

"That's the fun part. Anything will taste like beef if you think hard enough about if spending that much money on game characters was worth it."

"But-!"

"See you tomorrow." Nakano said, ending the call, and then letting out a long sigh. "First there was Yasuke with his virtual entertainers thing, then Junpei with his weird closet obsession with Super Sentai, and then Ibuki with her gacha games... Is being that into your hobby a trend nowadays?"

"I wouldn't know. Hobbies aren't that weird inside prison but we do it in moderation."

"Thank you for your insight, Li-sa- LI-SAN!" Nakano screamed, looking back.

And there he was. That statue of a man built to fistfight bulls, the one and only Liang Yu, who will be called Li for the remaining of the special. The only thing between him and Nakano was the prison's front gate, which had began to open.

"I know you said you'd meet me on the day I got out, but waiting for me was too much, Waka." Li laughed, stepping through the open gates. He looked back at a guard that was observing, and waved at him. "Tell your son I wish him luck for college, Kantaru-san!"

"Thank you! Stay out of trouble, Li!" The guard replied.

"Why wouldn't I stick to what I promised?" Nakano asked, recomposing himself after that slight scare. "I'm glad you're doing well, Li-san."

From there, the duo walked far and away from the prison, and ended up walking through a park that served as a shortcut to a ramen place Nakano happened to know. Besides, it gave them a chance to catch up.

"So... Dyed your hair back to black, huh? Guess black haired guys is all the craze these days." Li joked.

"How would you know? You spent seven years behind bars." Nakano sweatdropped.

"Tons of the guys that ended up in there had black hair. Kenji, Genji, Matsudaira, Nobuyaku, Kotaro, Shinji-san, Sousuke, Yousuke, Obara- Specially Obara. Man, what a weird guy that Obara was. He was already in there before I got sent there." He laughed.

"Obara?"

"Oho? Jealous I made a new best friend in there? Don't worry, Obara got the rope last week, it only took seven years since the police took their sweat time finding the bodies."

"That's too grim for this time of day!"

"Why? We're walking to go get food, he walked to go get his next meal."

"Li-san..." Nakano sweatdropped.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I hope. He never confirmed if he did eat them or not. But if you ask me, he got the rope for being a dirty Prism player."

"LI-SAN!"

"I'm just messing with you!" Li laughed, smacking Nakano on the back. "Trust me, nothing really interesting happened in there. But look at you, all grown up and smart looking. So what's new with you, Waka? Still fighting a bunch?"

"When are you going to drop that name... And no. I stopped fighting ages ago. It just wasn't in the cards for me. Now I'm a straight A's studen-"

"I saw your math homework once, it was all wrong."

"I studied!" Nakano deadpanned. "The age of delinquents ended ages ago. I got out of it before it all came crumbling down."

"But I heard you threw a few good punches before saying youur goodbyes. The Black Hounds, the White Angels, Karaikai, word travels fast in this place."

"How did you figure out that was me?"

"Who else would go around calling himself Li besides me?" Li smirked. "We ended up hearing tons about all the different big name delnquents around town. Li, Shinigami South, that weird guy who beat people with churros, that middle school berserker guy- It was like listening to a really crappy radio show!" He laughed.

"Oh yeah, Churroman... I heard he went back to Brazil after a poorly timed encounters with some other-"

"Did you beat his ass?"

"No comment."

"Hahaha! No wonder the age of delinquents ended, you kicked all of them in the nards before they got a chance to a leave a mark!"

"That's not true. I never fought South... Even though I'm pretty sure he's the council president at my school. And the berserker... The Macaque would probably be a better name..."

Nakano had no mercy for Izuru after the five minutes he and Ibuki made him waste earlier. Understandable, really.

"Oof. What about the outside world? Something cool has to have happened, right?"

"Well... Huh... We had this holographic card game thing for maybe a month and a half until we just... Didn't anymore... Man, nothing really happened in the world in seven years." Nakano sweatdropped.

A small part of him thought there would be some futuristic crap by now. It's 2053 for crying out loud. The third gen will still be playing card games in tables at this rate.

"Oh, card games! That was all the rage in prison!"

"W-wait, huh? Why? How?"

"Some guy saying he worked for this big company smuggled cards into jail and paid the guards to ignore them. I built a whole deck without anyone batting an eye!"

"That..."

Looking back at all the things he heard from Izuru about a certain white haired rich guy who kept shoving money down Vanguard's throat, Nakano wasn't all that surprised by him paying a guy to have inmates play Vanguard.

"Doesn't sound all that surprising..."

"I'll have you know you're looking at the two time Tokyo Detention House anual champion. From winning the locals at hallway 20 to the regionals at block F, I took two whole trophies back to my cell."

"Why only two?"

"They choice restricted Luard and Nemain on the third year."

"Yikes. Wait, Luard and Nemain... Those are the weird panda and pink fox teachers from Great Zoo, right?"

"...t-there was slang that didn't make it inside?" Li asked.

Nakano, go read the Vanguard wikia, jesus.

"Anyway... Li-san, about seven years ago, I-"

"But if you know about Luard and Nemain, that must mean you play it too, right?" Li asked.

"W-well, sort of, but I started playing around summer last year, I'm not that good at- Besides, that isn't important right now! Li-san, I-!"

"We play Vanguard, we're all shit at the game amyway, let's play anyway!"

"L-li-san!"

In the end, Li dragged Nakano over to a table at the park and set down some playmats he had on his backpack. Damn, that card smuggler even got mats and sleeves for the guys inside, just how much did Ryuzaki invest in the prison market.

"You're going to regret this, Li-san... I'm the worst playing partner you could get..." Nakano sighed, drawing his five cards and then returning four.

"My last partner got hanged for eating kids, the bar isn't high." Li laughed.

"Li-san..."

"Besides, any fight is a good fight if both sides are giving it their all. That's hand throwing 101."

"Right..." He sweatdropped. "Stand up, vanguard. Chrono Tigar. (6000)"

"Tigar... Last time I fought a guy with that one, I had to watch my back anywhere I went." Li shivered. "Specially in the showers."

"W-what?!"

"Stand up, the vanguard! Dragprince, Rute! (6000)"

"What do you mean with that, Li-san?!" Nakano asked, accidently closing his fist.

"Let's decide who goes first." Li said, opening his hand. "Papers beats rocks, I go."

"LI-SAN!"

"Draw! Check this out! I discard a card to ride Dragwizard, Knies! (8000) With his terrible effect, I scry seven and add Dragheart, Luard to my hand! I also draw one from Rute! Knies is bad, but our ride targets are that bad! Turn end!"

Li
Hand: 7
Damage: 0
OXO
OOO

Nakano
Hand: 5
Damage: 0
OXO
OOO

"Li-san, you're terrible at changing the matter at hand... Draw. I'll discard a card to ride Chronotooth Tigar. (8000) Draw and get a ticket with Tigar's skill. Attack. (8000)"

"Hit me!"

"(Gear Puppy Protecting Memories) No trigger."

"Check! (Dragwizard, Liafail)"

"That's it for me."

Li
Hand: 7
Damage: 1
OXO
OOO

Nakano
Hand: 8
Damage: 0
OXO
OOO

"Stand and draw! I ride Dragwizard, Liafail! (10000) Liafail's skill! I call Decremps from the deck! (8000) Boosted, Liafail attacks! (10000>>18000)"

"No guard."

"Drive check! (Dragwizard, Morfessa)"

"(Lost Break Dragon)"

"Turn end!"

Li
Hand: 8
Damage: 1
OXO
OXO

Nakano
Hand: 8
Damage: 1
OXO
OOO

"Stand and draw. Tigar's skill. I draw a card. Then I discard one to ride Steam Gunner, Zayd. (10000) I call Lost Break Dragon. (10000) Lost Break's skill. I bind Valkerion to draw one. And since there's a card in the bind zone, Lost Break gets 3000 power. (10000>>13000) I also call Gear Puppy. (5000) Zayd attacks. (10000)"

"Astral Chain Dragon, Heal Guard! First effect, go! (35000)"

"(Steam Bomber, Digul - Critical) Critical trigger... All effects go to Lost Break. (13000>>23000/2) Boosted by Gear Puppy, Lost Break attacks. (23000>>28000/2)"

"No guard! (Dragheart, Luard) (Belial Owl - Critical) All on Liafail! (20000)"

"Gear Puppy binds himself and I draw one. Turn end..."

Li
Hand: 7
Damage: 3
OXO
OXO

Nakano
Hand: 9
Damage: 1
OXX
OOO

"Alright, let me show you how yours truly got those Tokyo Detention House trophies! Stand and draw! The dark dragon's commanding bellow rages across the skies, and the pitch black mage's crimson lightingstorm tears down dragonkin! Now go all out, man of dragon slaying mystics! Ride! Dragheart, Luard! (13000) Force I, on the left! Calling Branwen! (8000) Her skill, scry five, add Dragheart to hand and then discard him! Luard's skill! Retiring Branwen and Decremps to draw one and then retire Lost Break!"

"He's retired."

"Now his other skill! Continue to slay down all those of dragonkind until their cursed blood has turned you into one of them! I return Decremps and Luard from drop to deck to superior ride! Dragdriver, Luard! (13000) Force I again, this time on the right! Dragdriver's skill! I counterblast one and call two grade 1s from the deck! I'll call back Decremps, aswell as Charon! (8000) (8000) Charon's skill, soulblast to countercharge and give him 5k! (8000>>13000) I call Liafail! (10000) His skill, counterblast one to superior call Morfessa, who becomes a grade 1 while in the eck and in the rear! (10000>>20000) Then I call two Liuails! (5000>>15000) (5000) Liuails' skill! Since I have five grade 1 rear-guards, she gets 15k! (15000>>30000) (5000>>20000) Battle! Morfessa attacks! (20000)"

"Heal Guard with Time Tracking Dragon. First effect. (35000)"

"Not bad, not bad! Morfessa's skill! Counterblast, retire herself, and call a third Liuails from my drop! (5000>>30000) Boosted by Decremps, Luard attacks! Luard's skill! For each of my grade 1 rear-guards, he gets 5k! (13000>>36000) Dragon Hunting Stormbreaker!"

"No guard."

"Twin drive! (Dragwizard, Liafail) (Death Feather Eagle - Critical) Critical on Luard, power to the Liuails on Charon's column! (30000>>40000)"

"Damage check. (Giant Deity of Distant World, Valkerion) (Steam Guard, Kastilia - Draw) Power to the vanguard. (30000)"

"I got more from where that came from! Boosted by Charon, Liuails atatcks! (40000>>53000)"

"No guard. (Interdimensional Dragon, Mystery-Flare Dragon)"

"Boosted by Liuails, Liuails attacks! (30000>>50000)"

"No guard. (Steam Bomber, Digul - Critical) Vanguard. (40000)"

"Turn end! Dragdriver is retired and ride Dragheart from the soul! (13000) That's another Force I to my right circle!"

Li
Hand: 7
Damage: 3
XXX
XXX

Nakano
Hand: 9
Damage: 5
OXO
OOO

"Stand and draw... Ride, Chronojet Dragon. (13000) Force I, on the vanguard. (13000>>23000)"

"Hm? What's with the long face, Waka? Not having fun?" Li asked.

"Hm? Fun...?" Nakano muttered, lifting his head a bit. "Fun... You really want me to have fun after all of this...? You're asking me if I'm having fun after I... After I...!"

Gritting his teeth, Nakano thought back to seven years ago.

After their unconventional meeting at that very same park, Nakano entered that fistfight world, driven by a new blaze burning inside of him. He'd brawl with his friends at school, with guys he didn't knew all that well, even with guys much older than him that were just minding their business.

Hell, he even tried to fight Li, even though he knew he would get his ass kicked.

But Li saw his spirit.

Under his watchful eye, Li taught Nakano all he knew. Even though Nakano was just a dumb kid at the time, his spirit was something else.

Li always said one thing.

"Don't fight empty-hearted. Fight with a reason. That way you can come out of it laughing, whether you win or lose."

That was the real motto that Li lived with, and a motto Nakano embraced whole heartedly. And even though he didn't knew that much about Li himself, he looked up at him as both a mentor and older brother figure.

Li wasn't all that special, honestly. Just a young man from China, on a journey to grow stronger and become a professional fighter, so the could provide his mother and siblings with a better life.

And one day, Nakano took that motto too seriously.

One day, he ran into some brat who bullied his little sister. He was the younger brother of a local delinquent, and the passion he held for that lifrstylr made him into a little shit. He was also not even six at the time.

On that same day, Nakano began beating the living daylights out of that kid.

"Think twice before messing hp with the wrong guy's sister, you little shit!"

The universe had just created a poor sequence of events.

As Li arrived at the scene while out of a jog, the kid's mother caught sight of the scene, but from where she stood, she couldn't see Nakano. She could only seem the mountain of a man that was Li, and her son bleeding on the ground.

Hearing her screams, Li knew what he had to do.

"You're gonna do great out there, Waka. But you can't lose your youth for this."

Those were Li's last words to Nakano before he kicked him away from potential sight.

"Li-san!"

"Come on, you loud brat! Give me all you're money or I'll tear you and your stupid bitch of a mother apart!"

The trial of Liang Yu was held that same week. Deemed guilty, he was condemned to be imprisioned for seven years in the Tokyo Detention House, for charges of physical assault on a minor.

At the time of his trial, Li was twenty two, a young man in the early years of his golden 20s.

When he became a free man, he was twenty nine, and a few months away from turning thirty.

To save Nakano from being separated from his sister snd be sent to a juvrnile detention center, Li chose to lose seven years of his life.

But for Nakano, it felt like he had taken away seven precious years from an innocent man's life.

That's when he adopted the name of Li, and went around fighting as many gangs and delinquents as he could, because if he managed to push them out of Tokyo, then no one would be influenced by them.

After four years of fighting, the only thing that changed was that the delinquent by the name of Li was one of the greatest of his time. For four years, Nakano fought and never accomplished his goal.

When he entered high school, he let go of all of that to live a simple life.

For seven years, he blamed himself for Li losing his freedom, and for three years, he lived feeling he had thrown his ideals into the dirt without having anything to show for it.

"AFTER I MADE YOU LOSE SEVEN YEARS FROM YOUR LIFE?!" Nakano cried. "DAMMIT, LI-SAN! STOP RUNNING FROM THE PROBLEM! YOU LOST SEVEN YEARS BECAUSE OF ME, WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED?!"

"Because it's not a problem, Waka." Li replied with a smile. "Seven years went by. So what? What's done's done, right? I regret nothing, and I would have done it all over again if I could. Do you think I spent the last seven years blaming you for anything, Waka?"

"But... But...!"

"You can let go of that burden now, Waka. Did you made any friends since then?"

"Yeah... More than I could imagine..."

"That's great to hear. Now, if you want to pay me back for anything, then give me your all, right here, right now, Waka!"

(Media - My Brother)

"...my bind's at nine, ten left... I call two Re-innovate Wing Dragons! (13000) (13000) Innovate's skill! Soulblast, bind the two of them, then check the top two and call Re-innovate and Mystery-Flare, aswell as bind Valkerion! (13000) (15000) I call Lost Break! (10000) Innovate again! ind him and Lost Break to call Ribbul and Gigi! (8000) (8000) Bind Digul! I also call Gear Puppy and Nabu! (10000) (5000) Chronojet's skill! Superior ride Mystery-Flare! (25000) Mystery-Flare's skill! The sum of grades in my bind zone goes past nineteen, so all effects activate! (15000>>25000) (8000>>18000) (25000>>35000/2) (8000>>18000) (10000>>20000) (5000>>15000) Boosted by Gear Puppy, Mystery-Flare attacks! (35000>>50000/2) Temporal Flare Legend!"

"Decremps' skill, my front row grade 1s can intercept! Intercept with both Liuails, then guard with Belial Owl and Death Feather Eagle! (78000)"

"Triple drive! (Giant Deity of Distant World, Valkerion) (Steam Bomber, Digul - Critical) All to the rear Flare! (25000>>35000/2) (Steam Maiden, Ribbul) Gear Puppy gets bound and I draw one! Nabu attacks! (20000>>38000)"

"No guard! (Strict Order Knight, Liuails)"

"Flare attacks! (35000>>53000/2)"

"Branwen, Painter, Trumpeter, Decremps and Liafail, guard! (63000)"

"Turn end! Flare is retired and I ride Chronojet from soul! (23000) Force I to the vanguard! (23000>>33000) And then, Flare's final effect! I discard all cards in my hand for an extra turn where I can't ride! The discarded Ribbul calls herself back! (8000)"

Li
Hand: 0
Damage: 4
OXO
XXX

Nakano
Hand: 1
Damage: 5
XXX
XXX

"Stand and draw! Chronojet attacks! Counterblast, add 5000 power! (33000>>46000) Clinch it here, Chronojet!"

"Hm. No guard!"

"(Re-Innovate Wing Dragon) (Reclaim Key Dracokid - Critical) All on Chronojet! (46000>>56000/2)"

"Damage check. (Cherishing Knight, Branwen) (Dragdriver, Luard) And that's good game! Man, you were lying when you talked about that not being very good thing, weren't you?" Li laughed.

"Everyone I know is way better than this, you can trust me on that..." Nakano replied. "Li-san-"

"Don't worry about a thing, Waka. I'll be just fine." He interjected. "But I should probably get going."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I still got the savings I had back then, and I doubt plane tickets inflated that much in seven years. I'm gonna go visit my mom and siblings, they're probably worrying like there's no tomorrow. But don't think I won't come back here on day! Afterall, I need a training buddy to for when I enter that God of Combat thing!"

Li jumped off his seat and threw his bag over his shoulder. He looked back at Nakano and smiled.

"Smile, Waka. Smile."

In the end, Nakano accompanied Li to the airport, where he saw him off. After that, much against his will, he ended up doing Ibuki and Izuru a solid and drew a budget for them, before going back home, to finish some homework Yasuke begged him to do for him.

And yes, Izuru and Ibuki immediately disregarded the budget by burning money on gacha and doing dirty deeds that weren't done dirt cheap.

After finishing the homework, Nakano leaned back on his chair and sighed.

"I guess that's that... Damn you, Yasuke, I should really tell your sister you're leaving all the work for me so that you can go and waste her money on those virtual entertainers..." He sighed.

Nakano grabbed his backpack from the ground, and after searching for his deck, he ended up taking out two decks instead of one.

"Wait, this is Li-san's deck... When did it get in here?"

As he looked through the deck, the main card caught his attention. He grabbed Luard and took it out of the deck.

"Li-san's card..."

'I can't turn back the clock and un-do what I did... But I can still fight alongside those ideals, can't I... Then I'll do just that.'

"Li-san, thank you for everything!"

With a new determination, Nakano got out an old notebook and looked through the cards in the deck Li left behind for him. School was cool, but learning how to play Luard came first.