Chapter Edited : 1 Aug 2012

Aniyu: Hurray! My first Cardfight! Vanguard fic!

Anayi: You know, you still haven't-

Aniyu: I know, but the block I have on that fic is bigger than this country! I honestly don't know if I'll ever finish it. Anyway, inspiration for this fic? Too many ghost stories, a minor (sort of) obsession with Vanguard, and a large influx of sugar.

Anayi: I told you not to drink three milkshakes, but no, you just had to agree to your cousin's idiotic competition.

Aniyu: (shrugs) I've never been one to turn down free milkshakes. Shin! Do the disclaimer!

Shin: Aniyu doesn't own Cardfight! Vanguard. If she did, Ren would have been randomly killed by rabid bears, Kai and Aichi would have a lot more fluffy scenes, Miwa would be dating Misaki, and Kamui would have already admitted he has a crush on Emi to Aichi.

Aniyu: Thank you! Oh, btw, I may or may not include KaixAichi fluff in this; I haven't decided yet. BUT there will be some MiwaxMisaki fluff. So go enjoy!

Anayi: Reviews big and small are welcome, but flames will be used to torch Ren.

Chapter 1

The Forest

Like most cities and towns in Japan, the city that Card Capital sits in has mountains in the distance and forests, meadows, and farmland on its outskirts. On the edge of the largest residential area, the same area that Sendo Aichi and some of his friends lived, a dense forest sits quietly, avoided because of its sinister appearance and sad history.

Though, really, most people have forgotten the history of the forest. Only those elderly who choose to live on its border to warn people away still know of the sad past that darkens its boughs. Ask one of these elders, and they will tell you of a manor hidden deep within the forests depths, abandoned for at least one-hundred years.

The manor once held a family of noble descent that had fallen on tragic times when the family head was killed by bandits just days before his son was born. The mother, grieving and despairing at her son's fatherless future, agreed to marry her late husband's brother so her son would have a father. A month after the marriage, when her new husband was officially declared head of the family by his ailing mother, his cruelty began to show itself. He acted much like the worst tyrannical rulers in history when it came to the servants and vassals under him, and he kept his wife and her son isolated from everyone but her personal servant.

Until her son had turned six years of age, the wife's husband paid the boy little mind; but when he realized how quickly the boy was learning, how his early intelligence bordered on genius, the tyrant felt threatened. After all, the boy was the son of the late family head and therefore had first rights to succeed him; and until he had a blood heir, killing him was not an option. So, he began ravaging the boy's mother every night in hopes of conceiving an heir while turning the boy into a slave. For a year, the boy was worked to the bone but otherwise left alone while his step-father concentrated on trying to have an heir.

On the boy's seventh birthday a baby was indeed born, but it was a girl.

Enraged, the tyrant tore the baby from her mother's arms and went deep into the forest, returning at dawn without the girl and splattered with blood. For five years, the tyrant continued trying to have an heir, but his brutality caused his wife to miscarry three times. As for her son, he was worked harder and abused on top of it. Whenever anyone was caught being friendly or kind to the boy, they disappeared, either sold off or killed for sport.

By the time the boy was twelve, his hatred of his step-father was matched only by his resentment of his mother, who would only give him shaky smiles, would never meet his eyes, and would ask him to bear with it for a while longer.

That same year, his mother finally bore a son for the tyrant, but the man was cautious; he continued with the way things had been until his new son was two years of age, until he was sure the boy was strong and healthy.

At sunset on his wife's son's fourteenth birthday, he flogged the boy to within an inch of his life before turning to his wife and giving her three choices. Her son could be dragged into the forest and left to the elements; he could continue beating her son to death; or she could end her son's pain by killing him herself.

She chose to end his suffering herself, and plunged a dagger through the boy's back, into his heart. Seconds later, she plunged the same dagger into her husband's throat.

The elders' stories tell that she had the boy buried at the base of an oak tree he liked to climb and secretly read in, and that she did not want her now second late husband buried on the same land as her son, hoping to give the boy a measure of peace in death. The land and manor were abandoned as the widow could not bring herself to live in the home where so much sorrow and pain resided.

Since that night, it is said that the boy's hatred and resentment tied him to the land, keeping him from passing on. No adult is welcome within the forest, for the boy's spirit will visit either spiteful mischief or vengeful rage upon them, depending on how the boy perceives them. As for children, it is said the boy will terrorize those with happy lives out of jealousy while any child that wanders in out of loneliness will be treated with kindness, allowed to leave without any harm or fear. But, if a child who has suffered goes into the forest, it is said that eventually the boy's spirit will decide to keep them for eternity.

If pressed, the elders will insist that no child has been kept by the spirit because someone always notices when a child frequently visits the forest and takes them away. But one cannot help but wonder...

TBC...