Nurses and Card Games? An Unexpected Combination (For LARIATO)

Kazuma was delighted to see Rizu after such a long week, even more so that she remembered him given that their first meeting was as brief as it was. Kazuma quickly got his deck back together and approached the nurse. "It's good to see you again after so long Rizu-san. I would've come by to visit you but given how important your work must be I didn't want to distract you. So what brings you here today?" Kazuma asked, trying his best to suppress the blush that was sure to be on his face.

He couldn't help it! Rizu was probably one of the most normal people he had seen/met since he first came to AFW. Add in the fact that she was the genuine definition of a Yamato Nadeshiko and it was more of a question of how easily one could get flustered talking to her than how long they can keep from getting flustered. Part of Kazuma hoped that she wasn't seeing anybody, hopefully if she was here to learn how to play Vanguard that then maaaaaybe Kazuma could get to "know" her better.

“That’s very sweet of you, Kazuma,” Rizu replied with a friendly smile, genuinely appreciating the boy’s thoughtfulness. Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean she was opposed to visitors during work. But it was nice that Kazuma was considerate of her time at work rather than simply barging in whenever he felt like it.

“Well, I thought I’d see about getting started in that game you told me about before. Vanguard, I believe it was, yes?” she replied when he asked about her reason for coming today. “It’s a good thing you’re here too. Perhaps you could give me a hand?”

Seeing the nurse and her kind demeanor after a week refreshed Kazuma's soul and his joy couldn't have been any greater when she revealed that she was there to get into Vanguard and that she was asking him to help her out! There was absolutely no way that he wouldn't help Rizu. "Of course, I would love to help you out Rizu-san!" Kazuma said excitedly barely able to conceal his joy, at least he hoped that he was able to conceal from her.

"So then Rizu-san, what kind of play style are you looking for? Once we've figured out your play style we can pick the best clan that suits it and build a deck from there. Once we've done that I can start to show you how to play. So how do you normally play; do you bring cards back from the grave like the Granblue clan or do you like to call allies from the deck like the Royal and Gold Paladins?" Kazuma asked, already formulating deck recipes of the various clans in his mind to be able to effectively help Rizu.

She couldn’t help but giggle. Kazuma was doing a good job of containing his excitement, but the effort to do so was noticeable and quite amusing. “Thank you, Kazuma. It’s a bit of a relief to not have to go into this completely blind.”

When asked about her playstyle, she considered a moment before answering. “I usually play control decks. I like to bide my time and manage the board, then overwhelm my opponent in the late game. Which clan would be best suited for that, Kazuma-san?”

"Control decks, huh?" Kazuma repeated as he began to think of which clans would probably fit the broad definition of "control". Control decks, as there name suggested, focused on controlling the board in some shape or form. The clans he initially thought of were Kagero, Narukami, and the Megacolony; all of them specialized in controlling the enemies units in an offensive manner but from what Rizu said it sounded more like she was thinking of something along the lines of defense. There was one clan that Kazuma thought of that could probably fit Rizu's style.

"Well if you're looking for clan that can do that, then the best clan I can think of for that would be the Angel Feather clan. Those cards specialize in managing the damage zone in the form of adding cards to it in order to get a specific card in there into your hand, essentially turning it into a second hand and as an added bonus, some units can get power ups each time a card is added or whenever a specific card is in the damage zone! So you can build up a lot of power if you play it right." Kazuma beamed as he explained how the Angel Feather clan worked to the kind nurse....nurse?

Kazuma started to blush as he remembered that the clan was mostly made up of female angels working as doctors and nurses. The idea of Rizu, cosplaying as some of the clan's prominent units like Chief Nurse, Shamsiel or Crimson Roar, Metatron certainly made him smile as well as getting a small chuckle out of him. A small joke among the community was that the angelic doctors and nurses enjoyed hurting their patients so that they could treat them. Sadistic Nurses? That's a laugh, there was no way someone like Rizu could be like that.

Rizu listened with genuine intrigue as Kazuma told her about the Angel Feather clan. It sounded like just what she was looking for. How curious indeed it was that her play style of biding her time and then mercilessly crushing opponents at the opportune moment was best suited in this game by a clan of sadistic, angelic nurses. Totally not any sort of reflection of Rizu herself. Definitely not.

“‘Angel Feather,’ what a cute name for a clan. I think it sounds perfect.”

"I'm glad you like it then! Follow me, if you please." Kazuma would lead Rizu over to the store counter and get the cashier's attention. "Hey could you please pull out your selection of Angel Feather cards?" He asked and soon several boxes were pulled out and placed on the counter in front of the two of them. Kazuma would open them up and begin to look through the selection inside.

"Obviously, there are certain Ace cards and archetypes you should always build the deck around and each of them greatly effect how effective the clan will be. With that said which ones here catch your eye, Rizu-san?" Kazuma asked as he placed several cards in front of Rizu to look at while he set aside certain others knowing how useful they would be to Rizu once they got to deciding which card would be her deck's Ace.

“Hmmm…..” Rizu tapped her chin while looking thoughtfully over the cards laid out in front of her. It was difficult to know which cards were the most effective based on her limited knowledge of the game, so for now she decided she should just pick one that looked interesting to her. After a few moments, she pointed to one.

“Holy Celestial, Anafiel. Do you think that would be a decent choice, Kazuma?”

Kazuma looked through the various cards carefully, making sure that Rizu's deck would be able to take advantage of the clan's ability to control the cards in the damage. "Let's see, she'll defnitely need a few Nociel's for the deck and...." Kazuma mumbled to himself before Rizu's question drew his attention. She had taken interest in one of the cards before her and wanted Kazuma's opinion on it. "Holy Celestial, Anafiel? I would certainly say it's definitely a good card to have. If you got enough copies of a card in the damage zone, you can REALLY power up a copy that you have on the field, provided they're Celestials. We can definitely add it." Kazuma explained before taking a few copies of Anafiel for Rizu's deck.

Once they were done going through the selection, Kazuma had finally put together a deck he was sure was perfect for the beautiful nurse and paid for it as a sign of good faith. "Alrighty then, now that you have yourself a deck, shall we take this over to the tables so I can teach you?" Kazuma asked.

Rizu couldn’t help but smile at the young man as he answered her question about the card. He was so cute when he was focused like this, and she really did appreciate that he was going through all this effort just to help her. It was one of the sweeter things anyone had done for her in a while.

When Kazuma offered to teach her how to play at one of the tables, Rizu glanced over in that direction. There were a few open ones, but a few of the tables hosted rather loud and raucous groups. “We could, but with all that noise, I’m not sure if I’d hear you very well,” she said, giggling at the mental image of Kazuma having to shout over everyone just to help her understand the basic rules.

“Would you like to come back to my house instead? It would be much quieter there.”