Lesson One! Never Turn Your Back!! [OPEN]

What in the world was causing this commotion in an Arcade?

Toshiro's recent return to the world outside of his room had been a surprisingly positive experience so far, his walks through the park leading to a few meetings pleasant meetings.

This was the reason for which the young man now ventured further into society, going to one of the places he would loved to visit as a child. 

He was more of a PC guy as far as games went, but the atmosphere seemed nice and some of the games entertaining. 

And then everything had gotten really loud. 

A hype man of sorts had taken the stage, so to speak. By the way he spoke, he had winning streak going and had completely captivated the crowd with his charismatic enthusiasm.

Everyone seemed to love the guy. Heck, girls were even swooning over him. 

The only thing Toshiro really cared about, however, was the game he was playing. He hadn't tried that one yet and there was finally a turn.

"I'll play." He suddenly said. Somehow, the crowd seemed to fall silent for a moment as the blonde made his way through the crowd. 

His fingers interlocked as he stretched them above his head, the air pockets popping as he came to stand besides the charismatic, manly man.

Tetsuyo Atsu

At first Tetsuyo was certain that the call for another challenger had fallen on deaf ears. A minute or so passed with naught but the whispers of the crowd to accompany him, until finally another boy stepped forward. Blonde hair, likely around his own age. He let off the kind of cool kid vibes that neither the tamer or his partner much cared for in company, but having the balls to stand up and play a round of INTERSTELLAR GUNSABLAZE HYPER ARENA 6 was enough to bring forth a smirk.

"Ahhh, well now, let's see what you've got!" The blue haired youth pointed to his opponent's designated blue pistol, "Show me that you've got what it takes to move up to Player One! I want this to be a battle for the ages!" He fished a coin from his pocket and inserted it into the cabinet, the game starting almost instantly after doing so. Luckily there was a pretty lengthy opening sequence which gave them some breathing room for discussion.

"Simple. Whoever misses 5 targets first is the loser. Think you can handle it?" A hearty laugh belted from the teen's chest.

"Good luck, bro..." Tentomon whispered from below. It knew the game was pretty straight forward, but as players progressed through the course the number of targets and their movements became less and less readable to the common player. The insectoid Digimon had learned this the hard way the last time there were few enough people around for Tetsuya to try and teach his partner how to play.

Tetsuyo Atsu Toshiro Emiya

For the time, Musimon behaved himself as he and Rei watched the simple fighting match over the game. A scoring game involving shooting targets to get a high score. That kind of game, Rei wasn't really into. Her brother maybe was into shooters, but not her. If there were any games she liked-- was the dancing games, maybe racing, those little games of skills that involved tickets. For her, she knew how those little games were maneuvered to get the high prize, and the patience for the machine to allow them.

Still, she preferred games of skill over just raw trigger-action like this game was. Of course, while Musimon was keeping his 'backpack' appearance and didn't move around too much, she could feel his twitching at the sound and sight of one of the 'Dance Dance Revolution' games. TO a Musimon-- or Dancemon if you ran across one-- it was a lure that such a Digimon could never ignore. She simply gave Musimon a soothing pat on his head to calm him. "Easy, Rhyme. " she reminded him.

"Sigh... I wish we had a console at home," Musimon whistled, " Maybe we could ask Ryuji if he could get one."

"You mean I ask him" she corrected, since Ryuji didn't know anything about Musimon besides he was a 'stuffed animal', "and I doubt he has the money for something like that. But I get it. I wish I could find a job for my age, but I can't till I'm older."

Of course, for Rei and Musimon, so much was going on that neither of them could tell there were other tamers around, let alone other members of the Busters.

The first level of the game was not at all challenging. More of a warm up than an actual level, it likely was intended to let newbies get a feel for the mechanics. Toshiro spent most of it wondering if he should be worried about the clear rise increase of tamer activity in Tokyo.

He could count the times he had run into tamers with their digimon in the middle of the day on a single hand. Seemed like the gangs were beginning to get sloppy, if they just allowed their members to wander at their own discretion.

Or maybe the girl was just another lone tamer.

"Hm?" He uttered, glancing from the corner of his eye at the blue haired young man.

"Mentoring?" He questioned as the level came to an end, the words 'round complete' flashing on the screen. The blonde turned his gaze towards the entire crowd, finding the charismatic young man's words a bit hard to believe. "All of them? About what?"

He seemed more like a hype man than a mentor to the blonde, getting everyone pumped up with a bombastic, cheery attitude and a radiant appearance.

The blue haired man looked over his shoulder and suddenly offered a game of cards. Toshiro couldn't tell if it was directed at him or someone else in the audience. But hey, he wouldn't reject a chance at a card game.

"Uh... Sure. We talking gambling card games, or TCGs?" He didn't have a deck of poker on him, but he did have a few Digi-Modify cards on his pocket.

Tetsuyo Atsu Rei Oto

Rei Oto
Toshiro Emiya

"What about? Ha!" He whipped his blue hair to the side and lowered his goggles around his neck, "They're learning to live life to the fullest!" The crowd roared as the next round started up, Tetsuyo turning on his heel and firing at each of the targets expertly as they floated onto the screen, this time much faster than before. There was definitely an early learning curve spike.

"What do we do when things get tough?!" Another target down, and everyone, including the Tentomon beneath the cabinet, couldn't resist but to follow along in a sort of chant, "KEEP GOING!"

"How long do we keep pushing the immovable object?!" Two more targets obliterated, "UNTIL IT BUDGES!"

"And when we're met with a challenge?!" The last string of targets sped by but were no match for Tetsuyo's aim, "NEVER TURN YOUR BACK!!"

Just as the round was completed, the teen found himself met by confirmation of a game of Digi-Modify from Rei. Or, well, unaware to him, her partner disguising its voice. He turned his back to the game once more and crossed his arms, the movement of the masses causing his jacket to appear to bellow out behind him. The air had become intense. A ferocious glimmer filled the young man's gaze. His grin never fell, however. No, he wasn't angered. He was pumped up.

"You're on! I hope you play a mean game to match your words, kiddo, because I won't hold back! Not until the very end!" He gave a pat to his current opponent's shoulder, expression shifting into something a bit more mellow.

"Digi-Modify. You play...? Um..." He looked up, taken into the back of his mind for a moment before giving a chuckle and shaking his head, "Oh, shit, name's Tetsuyo! What's yours?"

Toshiro Emiya Tetsuyo Atsu

Rei was sweating bullets from under her cap, her nerves jacked up high from the situation she was placed in. The two older boys looked rather on the tough side, intimidating to a girl like Rei. It was times like this she wished her older brother was here-- who was rather similar to them, but somewhat caring when it came to her safety. Even though they were friendly still, she was really on the spot thanks to Musimon's prank. "R-Rei. Rei Oto," she replied to her name. She gave a nervous smile. "Um... I play a little, yes..."

"And I'm gonna take you down!" Imitating-Rei-Musimon's voice blared from the speakers, all while the Digimon's actual lips didn't move. "I"m gonna school you fool--!"

Rei quickly grabbed hold of Musimon and covered his speakers with her limbs, as if trying to stifle his sound-- and give him a not so gentle squeeze to keep him quiet. She just chuckled nervously, her face now very red. "I-I mean I just came from school. Just give me a moment please--" he gave a not so kind glare at Musimon. "I need to take the BATTERIES out of this thing."

She took a step back and whispered into Muismon's large ears. "What are you doing?!" she hissed, feeling as if she was losing her mind. "You are in so much trouble when I get home and I--"

It was then the question 'you're a digimon tamer' came to her ears. She jumped back around, her face shocked as if a little girl was caught taking a cookie from the cookie jar. "UM... I um..." she didn't answer, but it was pretty obvious how she held on to Musimon.

Despite his partner's anger, Musimon just chuckled. "Oh, go on Rei. Relax and play, yo!" he cheered softly, encouraging her to take a risk. All Rei could do was sigh, feeling butterflies fly around in her stomach.

Between the other blonde haired teen and the punkish challenging man with the glasses, Rei felt way out of her league. She soon sat at one of the tables as the crowd came in around them to see the card game match. Many people commented how cute Rei was, and the fact she was so red and embarrassed made her cuter still. There were even opinions of worry if she could hold her own. With a deep breath, Rei allowed herself to relax. She then lowered Musimon as if he was just a stuffed animal backpack onto the ground under the table-- where Tetsuyo's Tentomon was.

As Musimon was let go and he stood up, out of sight from the other people of the arcade, he soon saw the strange Tentomon. Rei and Musimon had yet to meet other digimon in Busters. So meeting the Tentomon was new for Musimon. At first, he thought he could be a stuffed animal too-- till he moved. "AHA! " he declared, pointing his hand-ear at Tentomon. "You're a digimon too!"

Meanwhile, Rei had put her card collection on the table and amateurishly shuffled the cards. She had read the instructions, got directions from others. If now was a time to do a dry run, it was now-- but she didn't think it would be in this situation. Still, she laid out her online deck and remembered where the cards went for the Digimon, upgrade, digivolution and option cards. She was ready.

Well, that was that. Tetsuyo had given his victory away, and Toshiro was left with a challenge delivered via finger bullet to get better before his next match with the blue haired tamer.

Assuming it even happened, of course.

All in all, Toshiro could only imagine how disappointed the crowd of adoring fans was. He could only hope they didn't hate his ass now. That would be a pain to deal with. He had just come to the arcade to have some fun outside of his room for once.

From the way the blue head spoke, Toshiro wasn't sure if the man had forgotten he had pretty much invited himself into the little card game. 

Well whatever, he had nowhere to be and had already accepted the challenge. It clearly not being directed at him mattered little. Anyone who had played card games new that there was always a challenger waiting on the side lines for their turn to take on the winner anyways.

Rather unabashedly, the blonde grabbed a chair and dragged it up to the table set up for card play, dropping his ass onto it while waiting for the other two to begin. 

"... What? I did accept the challenge, didn't I?" He said as he reached into his pocket and slapped his own deck of cards onto the corner of the table. The card game version of putting a token on an arcade game being used. "I'll take on the winner." He declared before yawning, leaning back on the seat whilst slipping his arms onto his hoodie's pockets, letting them dangle inside the pockets lazily.

Tetsuyo Atsu Rei Oto