Chapter 72: All or Nothing

  It was our last day at the Everdusk Gardens. The award ceremony was scheduled for 10 AM, so I still had some time before I had to head over. I decided to use this opportunity to check in on Zara. Yesterday, she had specifically sought us out to tell Scarlette that she had no intention of participating in the third-place match, but something about her behaviour had seemed off.

  I messaged Scarlette, asking if she could get Zara to meet me down by the lift lobby.

  "Umm, alright. I’ll get her out of her room. Hope there’s nothing funny going on between you two," she texted.

  She followed up in a few minutes. "I’m by her room now. She asked you to give her ten minutes."

  Soon after, the two of us met downstairs. Zara was looking at me quizzically.

  “What’s up?” she asked.

  “Just wanted to check if everything’s okay with you.” While I wasn’t particularly close to her, I couldn’t help but consider the possibility of other extenuating factors forcing her to act against her own wishes.

  Dr Connor’s revelation last night had been shocking, but the more I thought about it, the less surprising it felt. Everything checked out regarding Asher. It would make sense if Dr Connor was his father. Well, everything except how they looked. There was barely any resemblance between them in terms of facial features, which was something I found odd.

  But right now, I was more concerned if he had gotten Zara involved somehow. Had she been ordered to withdraw from the third-place match? But why? I couldn’t think of a reason.

  Zara smiled awkwardly. “Oh, no, everything’s fine.”

  “You sure? ‘Cause you looked like something was holding you back yesterday," I pressed.

  She sighed, giving in quicker than I expected. “Can’t hide anything past you, huh? I’m just… concerned about Scarlette. How’s she doing?”

  “She’s doing fine, actually. Overall, I think she did quite well this tournament.”

  “Good, that’s a relief,” Zara exhaled again. “You reckon she would’ve fought me if I didn’t turn down the third-place playoff?”

  “I think so.” Then it clicked for me. “Wait, you only refused the matchup out of concern for her?”

  Zara looked away bashfully. “I know how hard she can take a loss. Since the playoff requires both parties to consent, I figured if I withdrew before her, she wouldn’t have had to make the decision herself.”

  I considered her words. Was it even possible for someone to be this empathetic? I couldn't relate to it. Then again, they did already duel once. Also, the playoff match was purely for a matter of pride.

  If Scarlette had lost again, I wasn’t sure how she would have taken it. Her triumph over Ignar was a testament to her improvement, and I was sure she would still be able to hold her head high after that. But a loss to Asher followed, by another to Zara? I guess I could see where Zara was coming from. It would just make more sense for them to share the third-place spot, and maybe I was just overthinking it.

  I decided to push a bit further. “Why are you so concerned about Scarlette anyway?”

  “I mean… it’s kinda hard to say. But I just… really wanna be friends with her. There’s been a couple of times when her mood just drops when she sees me, and I feel sorta bad for that. I thought withdrawing to give her some peace of mind, while showing my vulnerable side could perhaps bridge the gap.”

  I still found her actions a little weird, but perhaps she had deeper, more personal reasons behind them. Maybe she was the type that felt overly-guilty about certain things. She was probably just giving me a surface level answer, but it was likely bothering her more than she let on.

  “I feel like Scarlette could’ve made her own decision though,” I pointed out.

  “I don’t know. I feel like withdrawing before your opponent is basically a loss in itself. That was why I wanted to withdraw before her.”

  While I didn’t understand fully, I thought I got the gist of it. “So what I take is that if Scarlette were to challenge you, then you’d readily accept?”

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  “Um, you could say so.”

  “Once things have cooled down a bit, I’ll let her know you’re up for it. You two can have another practice duel back at our school.”

  Zara nodded. “Thanks, I’d appreciate it.”

  “Sharing the third place position, we have Scarlette Falcon and Zara Terminus from Waning Crescent!”

  The crowd whistled and applauded as the two of them went up the podium. Somewhere out there, I knew my friends were cheering their minds off.

  “I’d love to have a go at Zara,” Asher remarked. The two of us were standing in line, waiting for our cue to collect our medals.

  “Wish you would’ve told me that Dr Connor was your father,” I replied.

  “Wouldn’t have made a difference now, would it?”

  “No, but it would’ve been nice to know.”

  “I’d rather people didn’t. It’d just complicate things,” he shrugged. Well, I supposed that was true.

  “I take it that your 4-Star Rank is fake? You’re clearly good enough for a 5-Star.”

  “You flatter me.”

  “For second place, we have Asher Marez, also from Waning Crescent!”

  Asher casually climbed the steps to the podium and accepted his silver medal graciously.

  “And finally, finishing first among the first-years, give it up for… Cadel Ren! That concludes a clean sweep for Waning Crescent’s first-years!”

  I got up the stage and bowed to Dr Smith, who placed the gold medal around my neck.

  “Congratulations,” he beamed at me.

  “Thank you,” I went through with the formality.

  “Moving on to the second years…”

  It turned out that Horizon High had taken both first and second place for the second-years, while two students from our school shared the third-place spot. Meanwhile, Celestia had finished first for us among the third-years, with the rest of the podium positions dominated by Horizon High. As for the team games, it looked like we had barely edged out the victories as well. Overall, it was safe to say that we were the superior school.

  As Celestia joined the rest of us by the side of the stage, I waved to get her attention. One way or another, I wanted to find out how her Ability worked, and if actually linked to time. Outside of her, I hadn’t seen anyone with a time-based Ability.

  Scarlette had caught me in the act. She squinted at me. “First Zara, now Celestia?”

  I held my hands up. “Just curious about her Ability.”

  “Sure…”

  Fortunately, Celestia caught my eye. She scooted her way over as Dr Smith started his debrief speech.

  “Cadel, right? Grats’ on the win! That makes two first places for us.” She smiled as she acknowledged the rest of us. “Great job sweeping the podium spots too!”

  Asher nodded, “You too, you looked like you barely broke a sweat since the start of the event.”

  “Don't pretend you didn't either! Anyway, I got lucky with my matchups," she laughed before turning to me. "So, whatchu call me over for?”

  “I was just curious about your Ability. Is it time-related?” I posed.

  Celestia tilted her head. “I’m… not sure if I can really answer that. I like to keep my Ability a secret,” she winked. “Sorry!”

  “You seem to be able to interact with the positions people occupied in the past, including your own,” noted Asher. “I wouldn’t be surprised if time is a factor.”

  “Feel free to speculate all you want, but I’m not saying anything!”

  Not only was she powerful, it looked like she was a cautious person as well. I completely understood if she preferred not to explicitly describe her Ability. Being the strongest in her cohort, she must have had her own share of problems and enemies.

  “That’s fair. I do want to spar against you some time though,” I said.

  “Me too,” Asher added.

  “Me three,” Zara followed up.

  “You guys are really just fighting whoever you feel like, huh…” Scarlette sighed. Despite her grumbling, I noted that she was currently acting normally around the two of them.

  “Sounds fun! I’ll send you guys my number, and maybe we can set something up,” Celestia offered.

  “You too?” Scarlette groaned.

  I added her number to my phone. Was she going to be the first actual threat from our school? I couldn’t wait to fight her.

  “I’d like to thank everyone for cooperating and making this Intra-District Games a smooth one…”

  Shortly after, Dr Smith finished his speech and we were dismissed.

  Once I had finished packing my stuff, I met up with Scarlette and the two of us headed to the designated meeting point for our buses. After a short wait, they finally arrived.

  “Man, I can’t believe it’s only been two weeks!” Scarlette exclaimed, plopping into her seat. “Feels like we’ve been here forever.”

  Admittedly, I too was starting to miss the comfort of my dormitory room. While I had tried to ignore all the attention I was receiving, it did prove tiring after a while. I could really use some alone time in my own room. Not to mention, there wouldn’t be any Horizon High students in our area.

  I suddenly received a message on my phone. It was from Kazen.

  “Nice win. Anyway, heard that the DreamPods are opening next week. Help me ask Scarlette if she's up for a duel.”

  Another duel? Oh yeah, that reminded me—I had to inform Scarlette about Zara’s offer too. But bringing it up now felt too soon. I decided to ask her about Kazen’s request first.

  “Kazen wants to duel with me in the DreamVerse?” Scarlette asked sceptically. “Umm, okay. Yeah, next week should be fine.”

  “Don’t feel pressured to do it,” I said, a little surprised.

  “No worries! Not gonna lie, I think Ignar’s a tougher fight,” she giggled.

  “You know, I kinda want all of us to get to a 5-Star Rank,” I said suddenly.

  “All of us? You mean—”

  “Namely, Kaede, Mira and Jonah.”

  Scarlette pursed her lips. “I don’t think it’s impossible, but we’re gonna have to really work for it.”

  “Yeah.”

  She looked out the window for a while before answering. “You know what? Yeah, why not? I’m sure they’d agree that being a 5-Star is pretty awesome.”

  Speaking of which, I had informed Dr Connor that I was free to undergo the Rank reassessment by the end of the week. He and Dr Smith had specifically mentioned that they would be attending the session themselves as well.

  If I ended up ranking up, would I still be able to live normally at this school? And if I got the opportunity to transfer to District 1, would I take it?

  Something about that idea didn’t sit right with me.

  No, what was I talking about? I had literally just been discussing my new goal.

  That’s right. If I made it to District 1, I had to do it with everyone else.