Aichi Sendou (Stand Up, the LRIG!)

**LRIG** | * Umr

**Aichi Sendou** *(先導アイチ)* is the main protagonist of the majority of the Cardfight!! Vanguard anime and one of the main characters for Stand Up, the LRIG!. Despite not taking up the lead role in the fic (much like in Legion-Mate), he still plays a major part in the story once he rejoins Kai during the second arc and continues to assist his friends, old and new, in their efforts to end the Selector Battles and Chaos Breaker's plans for the world that they take place in.

He also comes into the possession of Umr, one of the two LRIGs that were originally part of a being known as Ut'ulls that Mayu and Miyako once attempted to revive using several girls as 'vessel candidates' six years prior to the events of the story. He also plays a mentor like role to Hitoe Uemura, helping her overcome her nervousness over time and improving in her confidence using everything he's learned on his journey up to this point.

## Personality

*For more information on Aichi's personality in actual canon, see this page.*

Much like in earlier seasons, Aichi despite still having some hints of his nervousness, is still very much a kind boy who is respectful to anyone he meets and retains his willingness to help others in need. When cardfighting, or in the case of arriving in the world of the Selector Battles, playing Wixoss, his confident self shines through the most. That alone has proven to be an inspiration to others, particularly Hitoe who he helps through her confidence issues.

However, his kind personality and his occasional naivety has made him the target of having his own morals challenged by the sinister Ulith who seeks to break him apart, slowly and painfully through her own machinations as he like his allies seek to put an end to the Selector Battles.

## Stand Up, the LRIG Bio

### Arc 1

Some time after the events of Legion Mate, Aichi and his friends would eventually come to learn of Toshiki Kai's disappearance from their own world, leading him to be constantly worried for his safety. A few days afterwards, he and Naoki Ishida would visit the headquarters of AL4 in an attempt to speak with Ren Suzugamori to see if he knows anything about the circumstances behind it. After running into the latter along with Leon who manages to confirm Kai's whereabouts in a 'different' world along with the captured Takuto Tatsunagi, they come to an agreement to travel to that world with the initial plan to rescue the two and return home after Naoki discovers that the 'gateway' to the Sanctuary had not disappeared.

Though Aichi was willing to share this information with his friends and his uncertainty about the length of their planned trip, he witheld it from his sister Emi and his mother, presumably under the assumption that neither would believe his word about Kai and Takuto's circumstances. The day after, he, Ren and Leon all synchronize their PSY Qualia at the gateway and hone it onto what little Takuto has left, until Mayu willingly increased the power output of the latter's abilities to 'allow' them into the world outside of her White Room.

When Naoki had turned the switch abruptly, the four of them were seperated as they each landed in different spots across Tokyo in the other world. Aichi already unconscious by then had landed in front of a surprised Kazuki and Hanayo who decide to take him back to their apartment to help him back to health

### Arc 2 (To be continued...)

Before he recovers, Aichi initially has a strange 'dream' where he makes brief contact with the mysterious LRIG Umr who merely mimics both his movements and wording of his name. As the dream abruptly ends with him being swept away, he awakens to find himself in Kazuki's bedroom as the latter comes in to check on him and to introduce himself. When he enters the sitting room, he comes across Hanayo (who he and Kazuki see as Yuzuki) looking through his deck, before discovering in shock that it has changed to adapt to the rules of the Wixoss card game. Deciding to help his ease his 'transition', she and Kazuki offer to help him through the rules in a friendly game to which he is happy to accept.

Despite being nearly overwhelmed by the raw power of Hanayo Five, Aichi manages to fight back with Alfred Exiv and Blaster Blade through maintaining his resources. When the game ends, Hanayo offers to help him search out for Kai in the city to which he is happy to accept. Before they leave, Kazuki tells him to keep an eye on her, fearing that the person he believes is his sister has been behaving oddly. Aichi nods in response as he leaves the apartment with Hanayo.

Eventually, upon hearing Naoki's voice echo across the streets, they search out for him in a hurry, before stopping to take a rest on a park bench. It is there that Hanayo begins to address the strange sensation that Aichi had been feeling around certain people was him sensing the presence of Selectors and their LRIGs. Shortly afterwards, the two of them are confronted by Ruko Kominato who reveals that the Yuzuki who was with him was really Hanayo and despite an initial push from 'Iona', she ultimately passes on challenging him to a Selector Battle, feeling he would understand everything better than Kai who her LRIG claimed to have defeated. After Ruko confirms that the real Yuzuki is an LRIG in Hitoe's possession, she leaves the two alone.

Hanayo then briefly expresses her confusion on why the Selector had 'Iona' instead of Tama, the two of them immediately resume their search for Naoki, eventually discovering that he is already engaged in a Selector Battle with Akira after she had been reinstated with Milulun. It is there that he reunites with Kai who brings them to the battlefield with the 'Open!' command, just in time to join Chiyori on the sidelines and observe Naoki emerging triumphant against his opponent. Aichi is initially startled by Akira's angry tone and her prior knowledge of his name (unbeknowst to him was dropped to her by Ulith) before she retreats from the park. After he, Naoki and Kai are reacqainted with each other along with an introduction to Tama, Hanayo takes her leave, wishing them the best of luck in their endeavors.

The three of them eventually make their way to the library, Kai recieves a call from Hitoe Uemura who confirms that she has found Ren to which he replies that he was able to also find Aichi and Naoki, leaving only Leon unaccounted for. When they reach the building, Kai tells Aichi that he'll have to disclose the events regarding the Seed and why he had sealed himself away previously in order to address his recent dillema to the group. Despite being intially uncomfortable about recounting said events to people he hardly knows yet, he ultimately accepts, believing that it would help bring Kai's current issues to light.

When they enter the garden, they find Hitoe and Ren already engaged in a friendly game. After getting introduced to her and Yuzuki, during the battle, Aichi notes her nerves slowly getting the better of her as Ren starts overwhelming her with Blaster Dark Revenger "Abyss" and Dragruler Phantom before ultimately shutting down her intended finishing move with the Black ARTS, Ancient Surprise. He then gasps upon recognizing Umr from his dream through the card's artwork, to which Yuzuki then explains that she is even a seemingly one of a kind LRIG outside of the Selector Battles due to how rare her cards are. After Ren finshes the game in triumph, Hitoe retreats to her favourite corner of the library interior having lost her composure.

As time passes by with Yuzuki expressing concern for her Selector, Aichi agrees to go and find her to check and make sure that she is alright. When they find her, she breaks down into tears upon reflecting on her recent performances against Kai and Ren and how she feels useless in not being able to help Ruko or even understanding Midoriko's concerns back in her first run of the Selector Battles. Aichi objects to her statements, expressing his sympathy for her situation and declaring that she is not useless like she believes so, resolving to help her make things right for Ruko. When Hitoe eventually calms down, he accepts Yuzuki's offer to help her through her social anxiety and build up her confidence, having faced similar issues in his past before.

## Relationships

### Urith

Very few people or things have made Aichi scared for his own safety in the slightest and fewer still terrify him to the highest extent at all, until now. Even when he had confronted her for Tama's whereabouts, Aichi found himself feeling unusually uncomfortable around Urith's presence, only escalating in the battle that followed when she revealed her despicable past actions prior to becoming an LRIG and reaching a peak when she playfully questioned him on his morals, commenting on the irony of how they and the Selector Systems' rules will always ensure that one way or another, direct or indirect, he will always have the blood of a wish spilt on his hands, even to the point of torturing him with hallucination visions of such a future being created by his own hands by hijacking his PSYQualia with her powers, with him only narrowly escaping with the inadvertent aid of Umr. In spite of this, she has managed to induce this same vision against Aichi's will a second time during the events of The Looming Omen with it also being implied in Intertwined Hearts that every time she does this, Aichi's consciousness is heavily affected to the point of unwanted sleepiness taking over.

Yet despite vowing to claim him for her own purposes, Urith to this moment still continues to play the waiting game far longer than any of her other patient schemes. In spite of this, she has openly goaded Emi Sendou, Kai Toshiki and Kourin Tatsunagi about the plans she has in store for Aichi in the near future, even implying to the outright disgust of the former that she may have twisted feelings of her own for the boy. All the same, this implies that everything's she's done from the shadows (to the point of reprimanding Aoi Akira for attacking him behind her back) may have all been for the sake of breaking apart Aichi mentally and having him directly within her physical clutches for plans yet to take further root.

### Hitoe Uemura

When Aichi and Hitoe met for the first time, it had been in the midst of a practice battle the Selector had been having with Ren Suzugamori to better herself with Yuzuki in battle. Although they didn't interact much at during this game, it was implied Hitoe was trying to end the game sooner than intended for the sake of trying to impress Aichi (after Kai briefly compared her slow maturing growth to his own prior to his arrival in this world), something he wasn't entirely aware of at first. Following this when he accepted Yuzuki's request to help Hitoe in overcoming her social anxieties with aid from his own experiences, the two have been rather close since that day and the events transpired in the night that followed and beyond. When Aichi had escaped Urith's clutches from winning back Tama with the efforts of Umr, Hitoe was the first to react before he fell to the ground and stood defensively in front of him, not wanting her to inflict any more mental scars to her new friend than he already endured in that battle.

Over time, Aichi had since been assisting Hitoe with boosting her confidence and advising in overcoming her social boundaries as well. Following a brief scare when Akira had attacked him and Hitoe against his wishes had ran back to try and hold her off from stabbing him, he was initially startled when she embraced him, uncertain of what to make of her panicked reaction then. Following a heart to heart on the subject of when he would have to return to his home world in Treasuring the Moment, he seems to have become more comfortable around sharing hugs with her. Hitoe has been implied to have had romantic feelings for Aichi for a long while and whilst he seems to be mostly unaware of them, even he blushed when she gave him a kind smile after expressing gratitude for him gifting her a necklace of fossil teeth and inadvertently referred to her as "Hitoe-chan" when falling asleep, implying he may have some feelings for her, but whether they are simply out of care or reciprocation is yet to be determined.

On the occasions where the two are confronted with dangerous obstacles, Hitoe is always the first to try and resolve the issue with her own conviction before him. Although Aichi has been hesitant to let her do this at first, on both occasions where they confront Akira (with neither of them knowing she has Kai's deck at the time) and a reversed Sakuya and Midoriko, he ultimately allows her to do so. He was reluctant to do so on the first occasion when he recalled the various knives thrown at them by Akira, but allowed Hitoe with less reservation to challenge her reversed companions, knowing that this was a battle that she had to fight to show her growth.