Twisted-Wonderland: Heart of the Night

Episode 2-24: An Urge to Concede!

Ruggie returns to the Savanaclaw Stadium.

"*Pant*... *pant*...  Leona, I did it!  Did you see the broadcast?", Ruggie.  "Yeah.  That was nice work, Ruggie.  So long, Malleus.  This year, the throne is mine.", Leona.  "Long live the king!  Sha sha sha!", Ruggie.

"Long live the king!  Hooray!", the Savanaclaw Students.  Meanwhile, still at their seats, Seth and Taika casually watch the play out.

"I believe we've heard enough.", Riddle.  The rest of us showed up behind him.

"?!", Ruggie and Leona were surprised by our sudden arrival.

"Well, well, if it isn't the Heartslabyul kids.  And is that Jack?  You transfer to Heartslabyul on us, frosh?", Leona.

"Nah.  I just don't feel like celebrating the underhanded accomplishments of a bunch of cowards.", Jack.

"You filthy traitor!", Leona.

"Ooh.  If only he knew.", Taika says to himself.  Seth just silently observed with no comment yet.

"You have tarnished a proud Night Raven tradition.  As housewarden of Heartslabyul, a dorm focused on orderliness, I cannot possibly overlook this.", Riddle.

"Listen, kiddies-- save your heroic speeches for someone who cares, all right?", Leona.  "Honestly, coming into our territory with only a handful of people...  It's like you WANT a beating.", Ruggie.

"You want us to take care of 'em, Boss?", Savanaclaw student.

"Sure.  Have a little fun with 'em.", Leona.

Soon a group come right for us and the battle begins.

The first to take action was Riddle and Ace with their fire magic.  The second notion of attack, I told Ace and Deuce to come at them with their duo combo.  Ace dealt his wind magic with Deuce's water magic.  The last to finish them off was Jack along with Grim, Jack using his wind magic and Grim using his blue fire.  But then the next action taken was...

"Off With Your Heads!", Riddle.

"Urk...  He's so strong.", student A.  "Man, housewardens are no joke.", student B.

"Hmph.  Nothing but a lot of hot air.  Ace, Deuce, are you all right?", Riddle.

I would like to say Jack and Grim took the finish, but it was Riddle who took the last stride with his unique magic.

"Yeah.  That was nothin'.", Ace.  "You bet, sir.", Deuce.

"Tch.  I knew those chumps'd be no match for Riddle.", Leona.  "Shyeheehee!  Maybe not!  But this doesn't change the fact that they were too late to save Diasomnia.", Ruggie.

"Oh?  That's quite the interesting claim.", a new arrival speaks up.  "They seemed right on time to me.", a tall student appears behind him.  "Indeed.  It's thanks to them that not a single one of Diasomnia House's players got hurt.", and a silver haired approached beside him as well.

It was the three individual Diasomnia students we met in the cafeteria the other time.  

"What?  How?!  I saw you get swallowed up by the stampede!", Ruggie went wide-eyed when he saw them appear in one piece.

"Oh!  About that...  So it turns out those were actually duplicates of me, made with my unique magic "Split Card".", Cater.

"What?", Leona.

"I must admit, I really dig those Diasomnia House outfits.  They're so extra!  I'll DM you some of my selfies later.", Cater turns to Lilia.  "Is that right?  If I knew you were such a fan, I'd have gladly loaned you mine.", Lilia.  "Such a sweetheart!  Though I think yours would be a little small for me.", Cater.

"All right, can we get to the point?", Leona.  "Riddle told us everything.  So we had him put on that little charade for us.", Lilia.

Riddle eyed on me at the mention of us telling them the situation. He was smiling at me given that it was me who told the new information and from that he suggested to have their help and involvement. I felt a little shy seeing Riddle give me such a look of praise.

"Well, well...", Taika was now eyeing Kalin, putting the dots together and where they got the information they had.

"So, then... Malleus?", Ruggie.

"Oh, he's in tip-top shape, of course!  He's been clearing up the chaos, using his magic to guide all the people safely back to the coliseum.  You can thank him later.", Sebek.

"H-how could this happen?!", Ruggie.  "...Tch.  Whatever.  I don't even care anymore.", Leona.

*(!) He... gives up.  But why now and just like that? (!)*

 "What?", Ruggie.  "I'm done.  It's over.", Leona.  

"Boss, what are you even saying?!", Ruggie.  "Are you payin' attention?  If Malleus is able to take the field then we got no chance of winning.  There's no point even trying.  I'm out.", Leona.  "Y-you can't just...!  Malleus might still be in the game, but we took out all the other dorms' best players, right?  But without you on the field, I don't even know if we'd have a shot at the top three!  You're just going to abandon our dreams?", Ruggie.  

"For all the talk about "the world watching" this is still just schoolkids playin' a game.  All you wide-eyed tenderfoots talkin' about your dreams...  Pfft.  The whole thing amused me, so I threw you a bone.  That's all this was.", Leona.  

*(!) Then what was this all for then? (!)*

"What do you mean?  What happened to working together to "turn the world upside down"?", Ruggie.  

"Are you seriously still goin' on about that?  All right, fine.  You wanna hear the truth?  You're a hyena who grew up in a dump, and I'm a secondborn prince who won't ever be king.  And there is NO turning that around!", Leona.

"What?  You gotta be kidding me!  What is this?  You can't just quit after we've come this far!", Ruggie.

"You can't do this to us, Boss!", student A.  "You're gonna play, even if we gotta drag you out there kicking and screaming!", student B.

"Bah, I'm so sick of this nonsense.  Shut UP, you nobodies!", Leona.  He then releases an explosive amount of magic.

*(!) Black ink builds up immensely... (!)*

A sensation of pain made me clutch my chest a bit.  The same feeling from last night and the other times happened again.  But this time, the pain was almost the same intensity before Riddle had... his...  No, it couldn't be... 

*(!) Leona! (!)*

As Seth was watching, he looked out of the corner of his eye to see Taika, and he was amazed by what he saw.  Taika wasn't smiling, in fact, it was hard to see what he was thinking or feeling about this outcome happening by Leona  "Taika...", Seth.  He didn't bring his attention to Seth, just stayed focused on the whole ordeal.  Seeing that, Seth did the same for now.

The field started to change, for worse...

A.N

*(!) Hey guys, sorry for the long wait.  After completing a chapter of another story I haven't done in awhile, I had the free time to complete this one.  Although now, I'm gonna try to finish the Savanaclaw chapter before the end of this month so I could plan out Octavinelle.  So I will try to get more chapters out in the next few days.  I hope you enjoy reading. (!)*