My arms were wrapped tightly around Tabane's waist as she took us to the Upper Districts, the change in architecture making it clear when we'd crossed over from lower to upper.
Within Eden City, it was separated into many distracts. The lower the district number, the worse the conditions of the place. Everywhere did still have basic things like water and electricity, but beyond that it was 50/50 on the conditions of a home. You'd have to put in the work yourself in order to fix it.
Likewise, the higher the district numbers, the better the conditions. Compared to District 2, District 20 might as well have been paradise. And if you were comparing District 50 to District 2? District 50 was heaven.
Tabane stopped and parked on the outskirts of District 20- the 'threshold' of the upper districts.
"Here we are, District 20~" Tabane smiled at me, ruffling my head as we took off our helmets. "Should be able to pick up some booster packs here- enough to help finish everyone's decks... What decks do they all use again?"
"Anby uses Thunder, trying to focus on Thunder Dragons," I answered easily. "Billy loves his Machine cards- he's been mostly building around the Vehicroid archetype right now since it's an easier archetype to find than other machines. And Nicole likes Fiend-Type Monsters..."
Specifically, Nicole seemed to like Dark World. I didn't know why, but if she liked it then I would support her.
"Hmm... Thunder Dragons is a little rough," Tabane noted. "But you should have enough money to get them all some booster packs. Dark World is a pretty old and not used Archetype, same with Vehicroids..." She tapped her chin. "The only pricey one will be Thunder Dragons. Plus, you'll really want Colossus- and that's a very powerful and expensive card."
Indeed, Thunder Dragon Colossus was a card that Anby would need for her deck- it was a pretty staple card if you were going to use a Thunder Dragon deck. However...
[Anby Demara - 140 Affection.]
[100 Affection with Anby Demara detected. You have obtained 10,000 VE and Thunder Dragon Colossus.]
[Nicole Demara - 160 Affection.]
[100 Affection with Nicole Demara detected. You have obtained 10,000 VE and Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World.]
[150 Affection with Nicole Demara detected. You have obtained 15,000 VE and Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World.]
[Billy Demara - 135 Affection.]
[100 Affection with Billy Demara detected. You have obtained 10,000 VE and Cyber Dragon.]
During our drive to District 20, after learning that I'd needed to check Tabane's Affection before I received the rewards, I'd done the same with my siblings and received rewards as a result. The pattern here was obvious- I received rewards based on the deck someone was either building or preferred the most. Or perhaps even related to their favourite card.
Though Billy's made me think otherwise, was it perhaps because Cyber Dragon suited him better than Vehicroid?
What surprised me was just how high the affection my siblings had for me was. Billy had always been the most vocal, but it seemed Anby's silent care was stronger. Nicole wasn't too much of a surprise, I was only surprised by the fact her affection had broken the 150 mark.
The amount of VE I'd obtained also confirmed something for me... The best way to obtain VE was to raise affection levels with characters that stood out- in other words, the ones who looked familiar to me or had positions of significant importance.
"I'll cross that road when I come to it," I told Tabane. "So, Card Shop?"
"Why card shop right awaaaay?~" She pouted cutely. "Why don't we go for a walk? You've never been to District 20 before, right? Come on, let's look around, do some shopping! You've got plenty of Lumins now, so you can splurge a little!"
I just gave her a look. "I may have Lumins, but I'm not going to be reckless with my money. I may have a good duel record, but all it takes is a terrible hand for me to lose and potentially mean I can't help feed my siblings."
She continued to pout at me.
"Card Shop first, and then I will at the very least look around," I compromised with her, seeing she wasn't going to budge. "Suppose I can get my siblings something nice..."
"Yay, a date with Yu-chan!" She hugged me tightly, pulling my face into her chest.
My cheeks slowly turned red, but I didn't resist and just returned the embrace. She was helping me out, after all. I could indulge her from time to time.
[Detecting Affection surge in Tabane Fudo... Affection increases to 135.]
My eyes widened in shock. A sudden surge of 15 points?
A simple hug was enough to make Tabane so happy to the point she directly gained over ten points at once? That wasn't normal, even for Tabane.
Sigh... She had a tragic backstory, didn't she? I didn't know much about her past, she never spoke about it after all.
I finally pulled away from the hug, offering her my hand. "Come on. I don't wanna get lost, after all. Right, Big sis?"
Tabane grinned widely and squeezed my hand as she pulled me along, and I got a good look at District 20 as we walked.
The difference was clear just by walking. The air was cleaner and the roads were cleaner. There was hardly a scrap of trash in sight as far as the eye could see.
And this was just the 'entry' for the upper districts.
"Been a while since I've come to 20," Tabane admitted. "I don't really like coming to the upper districts."
"Too many snobs?" I asked her.
"Too jarring, but that too," she snorted. "The contrast between the upper and lower districts is jarring, makes me angry. Because if the upper districts are this nice, why can't they do the same for the lower ones?"
I raised an eye at her... Tabane caring about others outside of me and my family? That was new-
"After all, if they did, I wouldn't have to waste my Lumins fixing problems around my house and could instead focus completely on Violet Sky," she huffed in annoyance.
There it was, I sighed with a roll of my eyes.
The two of us made our way through the clean streets of District 20, everyone was cheerful and laughing without a care in the world. The shops were full of fresh items... New Duel Runners in the stores, sleek and glistening. New devices, machines... Fancy clothes that were clearly higher end than what we could get our hands on in District 2.
As we walked through the streets, I heard people talking about the upcoming Entrance Exams in 6 months. People were debating on who would have more students apply- Fusion, Synchro, Ritual, or Xyz Academies. Someone even jokingly said, 'I bet Central Academy loses 5 students.'
It seemed, even in the upper districts, everyone dreamed of entering the Duel Academies... Unsurprising- Dueling was everything in this world. If you were able to enter one of the academies, you were essentially set for life so long as you could graduate and make it to the Pro Circuit. Even if you lost, you were looking at a monthly salary of at least 50,000 Lumins... Enough to support a life in District 20 with ease.
I silently messed around with the system while Tabane led me through the streets, not so subtly trying to steer me away and to do some other shopping with her rather than go to the card shop.
Finally, after what felt like way too long, we finally arrived.
As expected of a world where dueling was everything- the shop was huge. People were packed both inside and out, and duels were happening all over both the outside inside of the shop.
"Welcome to Card Colosseum~" Tabane ruffled my head as she led me inside. "Whenever I occasionally buy cards, this is the place I go to~" She gestured around to several shelves. "As you can see, plenty of cards to grab! But you're looking for Booster Packs, right? Those are pretty pricey; the newer ones go up to 2,000 Lumins a pack!"
"And for the cards for my siblings?" I asked Tabane.
"Still kind of rough, but not as bad," she pointed to a corner. "That's what we call the 'Nostalgia Corner.' It's where they keep older Booster Packs like HERO, Vehicroid, Dark World, and so on," she told me.
That made me think for a moment.
Many cards in this world, I'd noticed, didn't have the support they had in my world. HERO was a good example.
In my world, Hero had long since evolved into at least an extremely playable deck- even if it wasn't meta. Vision HERO, Masked HERO, A Hero Lives, EN - Shuffle, Neos Fusion...
However, many of those cards just didn't exist here- stopping at where they were in the GX Era. Thus, Hero was an 'old' Deck, same with Dark World and Vehicroid. They never obtained the powerful cards that made them stronger later on. Granted, Vehicroid didn't really get any buffs even later on- the most they got was Barbaroid and Mobile Base.
Still, I wanted to get Billy started on a Cyber Dragon Deck, clearly even the System believed it was better for him...
I glanced around and soon spotted a booster pack featuring Cyber End Dragon on it prominently... That made sense- even if the Cyber Style was passed down, the cards would still be printed. It was just that few people were able to master it. Plus, I was aware that Cyber Dragon Nova existed in this world- though Infinity didn't exist yet. So, Cyber Dragons had clearly been one of the few decks to start getting its upgrades since the GX Era.
However, the Price was rough, just as expensive as the packs with Thunder Dragon Colossus on them were.
I sighed and checked my bank balance.
"Okay, I can make it work," I finally decided.
I grabbed twenty booster packs total- 10 packs featuring Grapha, 10 packs featuring Colossus, 5 packs featuring Jumbo Drill, and 5 packs featuring Cyber End Dragon. I also grabbed 5 Spell Booster Packs- containing generic Spell Cards- for myself.
It definitely dug heavily into the money I'd been earning over the last few days. But it was enough to still survive for two months without issues, so I decided it was worth it.
Tabane whistled, "That's a big haul~ But why Cyber Dragons?"
"Vehicroid has a low ceiling," I told Tabane honestly. "At least with Cyber Dragons, the deck can start to branch out. Cards like Chimeratech Fortress Dragon and Overdragon only require Cyber Dragon and Machine monsters rather than specific materials. I think it's worth it, and I think Billy will like it."
She smiled and nodded, heading to the counter with me.
I bundled up the cards as I paid for them, visibly flinching as I saw so many Lumins leave my account at once, and slipped it into my inside Jacket pocket for safekeeping.
"Now, we can look around!" Tabane cheered happily.
"We looked around already," I told Tabane with a knowing look that showed her I wasn't buying her little detours earlier as the fastest path to the shop.
"Yu-chaaaaaaan!" Tabane whined. "I was a responsible Onee-chan, but now I wanna plaaaaaaaay!!"
I sighed heavily and face palmed slowly. This was a grown woman- older than Nicole- and yet she acted like she was nothing but a child.
Heaving another sigh, I tapped my Duel Terminal and sent Nicole a message saying I was going to be back later than I planned, and to just order take out- also telling her I was safe and with Tabane. I sent the money to her account, before I finally turned my eyes to the whining Tabane.
"... Fine," I told her, "But if we get into some sketchy shit, it's on your hands."
"Yayyy!" She cheered and hugged my arm tightly, pulling it against her as she began to drag me along. "Let's go, let's go! Date with Yu-chan!"
... I was going to Reverse this bitch so hard, I swore.