"Hello?"

He walked further down the forest path, not quite sure if he was really hearing things.  

"Over here!"

The tiny voice seemed to be coming from under the bushes.  A girl's voice, but strangely quiet.  Myon considered the bush.  It was green and leafy.  Not at all something he expected to have a voice.  

If he just left it alone and went back to the school trip, he would be wondering what it was all day.  But if he went searching through the bushes, it would get his hands dirty.  Decisions.  

Oh, what the hell, he was bored to death of this trek anyway.  

Myon brushed aside the thick broad leaf and blinked.  

Under the bush was a card sticking out of the ground.  One corner was buried but the remainder looked suspiciously clean for something on a forest floor.  The swirling pattern with a single number 9 written on the back was clearly visible without even a speck of dust.  

"Uh, is that a dog?  I can't see you.  I hope you're not a dog.  "

The female voice seemed to be coming from the card.  

Almost without thinking, Myon picked it up and turned it around.  

"AH!" the voice cried out as they saw each other.  

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There was actually a little person in the card.  Well, Myon was familiar with trading card games but none of them had moving pictures.  

Moving and talking pictures.  

The girl on the face had light brown hair and a pair of large expressive eyes set in a round childish face.  The rest of her was hidden underneath a simple loose white dress.  The picture of her body was set in a dark yellow background surrounded with a glossy golden frame.  On the top right was a trio of yellow stars.  

Myon frowned and looked at the back of the card.  There were no clues about which game this was from, the pattern of dark purple on black was not something he recognized.  The smooth card still felt as if he was holding a stiff piece of plastic.  

"Hey!  I said hello?!" the girl said again, "can you even hear me?  Ha, what luck, to be picked up by a deaf person.  "

"I'm not deaf," Myon said experimentally.  Could cards even hear?  Yes, yes they could apparently.  

"Oh, you're not," the girl chattered, "I could have sworn I was talking just now.  Perhaps I've gotten hoarse after yelling for so long, no but-"

Myon tuned her out and stuffed her card into his breast pocket.  He could ask his friends later, perhaps he might consider playing this game too.  

"Hey!  Don't put me away!" the girl squeaked, "You just picked up a talking card and you don't even have any questions?"

Myon took the card out, "I don't think I'll get anything useful out of you. "

"EH!  We just met and you're already discounting me?  It's discrimination!  Discrimination, I say!"

Yup, nothing useful.  

"No!  Don't put me back!"

He frowned at the girl in the card, "so, get to the point.  What is the name of this game?"

The girl nodded enthusiastically then froze, "eh?  No, this is not a game, I-"

"What use is a talking card when you can't even use it to explain your own game?" Myon sighed.  Some company out there had a very strange idea of marketing.  

"No, not a game!" the girl tried to yell, but her voice was too small to get very loud.  

"Let me guess," Myon said, "I'm supposed to collect cards, yes?"

"How did you even know that?" the girl frowned.  

"And I use the cards to fight in card battles?"

The girl frowned deeper, "sort of-"

"So it is a trading card game," Myon concluded, "And you don't even know the name of your own game!  Some card you are.  "

"It's not like that," the girl pouted, "I've been stuck in a card long enough!  This way is easier to explain.  Throw my card out and say clearly 'Activate'!"

Myon raised an eyebrow, "You just want to embarrass me, don't you?"

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"There's no one here in this place to see you," the girl pointed out.  

With a sigh and some trepidation, Myon flicked the card out of his hand.  

Impossibly, the card flew forward and hung face up in the air, slowly rotating.  

"Huh, I 've never seen a card that can fly before.  "

"Oh come on, just say 'Activate' already!"

"Fine, activate," Myon said.  

A soft glow like evening sunlight shone out from the surface of the card and gradually coalesced into a familiar figure.  

The girl, fully human sized, stood on the forest floor in front of him.  

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She opened her large brown eyes slowly, her long braided hair shifting slightly in the breeze.  Surrounded by the green and browns of the forest, the girl dressed only in a unpatterned white shift looked like some ethereal spirit.  

Perhaps she was?

She looked at him for a long tense moment then suddenly winced and shifted on the forest floor.  "Ow ow ow, I forgot that you don't have equipment cards," she moaned, "walking without shoes!  Uuu, my feet are going to hurt.  "

"What the... how did you come out of a card?" Myon asked.  Cards that turned into people were fundamentally impossible.  

"Like I said, this isn't exactly like a card game," the girl said.  

He collected himself, determined not to get swept up by that girl.  "So what is this then?  How can you come out of a card?"

She paused and frowned, "I don't actually know myself.  Magic?  The cards... just work.  "

Magic.  Myon felt like there was something missing from that answer.  "So what did you mean by collecting the cards and fighting in card battles?" he decided to take another line of attack.

"That's exactly what I mean," she said, "there are other cards than me.  And you have to collect them.  The battles are... not card battles.  I mean, we are cards so I guess it is a card battle, but you... no, you do fight with cards.  "

She dissolved into a confused mutter and frowned at the air.  

"That's not very helpful," Myon pointed out, but she held up a hand.  

"It's coming," she said, suddenly turning extremely serious.  

"What is coming?" Myon was about to ask again when it seemed like the world exploded.  

A wall of dirt was thrown up around him but none of it penetrated a small bubble of clear air that surrounded him and the girl.  She was standing right in front of him, so close that her braids were tickling him.  

The dirt pattered down in light shower, rustling off the trees and leaves like rain.  In front of him was another girl.  The newcomer was dressed in a green shift of the exact same cut and had black eyes and hair.  Their faces were different though, this green girl looked more oriental.  Their two heights were similar, coming up to just under Myon's chin.  

The newcomer held a sword though.  The blade was coated with a green aura and and despite its thin straight edge, Myon felt that it was rather dangerous.  

"You're being rude," the white girl said.  

The other replied with only a shrug.  Then the green aura cascaded down the blade to build up into a ball that flew off the end at him.  

The ball splattered on the same bubble around them, blasting away more dirt from the forest floor with a loud snap.  The bubble flashed white for a split second then returned to its transparency, Myon had the distinct impression that the white girl was actually changing its shape.  The girl was pushing it downwards into the ground.  

The two girls stared at each other for a moment then the green girl rushed forward, sword raised.  

The clash of the sword on the white bubble was quieter but no less worrying.  Amid the ringing of the blade and the white girl's curses, Myon suddenly realized that he didn't even know her name.