Chapter 84 - Reason For Bullying?
After getting the instruction from his master, Theo decided to hole up in his apartment, trying to practice his spear technique and Awareness. Of course, the room was small, so he pushed all unnecessary things from the center and imagined holding a spear since it would just hit the wall.
He didn't even care about Alea since there was no agreement beforehand, forgetting the fact they didn't even have each other's contact numbers.
Still, it was a fulfilling rest since he didn't need to be in constant fear like on the other side.
When Sunday arrived, Theo prepared everything, including his spear. Yet, he felt as if his feet were chained down to the ground when he was about to leave. His eyes were fixated on his mask.
Theo decided to take one minute to consider it. First of all, the benefit of using a mask was to prevent anyone from knowing his identity, but he would stand out either way since Alea's presence was the biggest one in school.
At the same time, Alea would probably realize he was the Joker just by putting on a mask when no one did it. Hence, he didn't plan to bring it with him.
After considering a few more pros and cons, he decided to bring it as a backup plan, hiding it in his bag since everything could happen. Either way, he didn't care anymore if Alea knew about his other identity.
The trip to the school took only a few minutes. Surprisingly, Alea seemed to wait for him by the school gate and ended up creating traffic since many boys and girls wished to know her teammate.
When their eyes intertwined, Theo realized he didn't think it through and raised his vision before returning to normal.
It was a signal for her and only Alea would understand this.
Theo didn't wait for her and went to the main building's roof first since they needed to talk somewhere private.
Unbeknownst to both of them, there was another pair that had been waiting for her mysterious teammate. They were none other than Sihan and Ellen pair.
Knowing her best friends for almost a decade, Ellen already learned about her eyes. Her body swayed left and right as if the wind blew her, but it just showed a bit of her excitement.
"What are you doing?" Sihan tilted his head in confusion.
Ellen's eyes were half-open like her usual appearance. With a small smile on her face, Ellen answered half-heartedly, "I have finally found Alea's teammate. It's surprising to be honest."
"Hmm? Who?" Sihan felt a bit curious about the strongest student's partner in this competition since they might fight against each other sooner or later. He tried to look at Alea's face again but found nothing out of the ordinary.
"Do you remember the guy you protected a month ago? It was a fight in the gym."
"!!!" Sihan widened his eyes and opened his mouth in surprise. Of course, he remembered this person.
"Now that I think about it… I was curious about that guy after defeating Laust, so I searched his information for a day and found out that you bullied him. Well, I'd confirmed the rumor was true too." Ellen squinted her eyes with a serious expression in that lazy expression of her. "What was your reason?"
Sihan closed his eyes and calmed down before shaking his head. "It's nothing."
"Then how about I guess it?" She smirked and continued, "You don't want this type of person to get hurt, so you bully him to protect him. At the same time, you also give him a choice whether to get stronger and fight back or quit school so he doesn't throw his life away. Which one?"
A sad, nostalgic stare started to show in Sihan's eyes. It was apparent that Sihan indeed bullied him for a complicated reason, not just like a regular bully. Still, he decided to shake his head, refusing to answer. Ellen managed to catch a glimpse of a small smile that appeared for a split second on his face, knowing that he was just playing the role of a bad guy. As for the reason, she didn't want to ruin it by asking another question.
Instead, she said, "Well, I hope we can meet them in a fight. I really want to see someone who piques Alea's interest."
"Aren't you a bit too mean? That means we are going to separate them."
"Hoho, you seem to be confident we will win in a fight." Ellen smirked and shrugged. "Anyway, let's hope that we will find a good team in this competition."
"Agree."
Meanwhile, Theo had been standing on the rooftop, waiting for Alea to come. Only after ten minutes, she finally opened the door to the rooftop to meet him.
"Sorry, sorry. I have taken too much time to deal with the others." Alea apologized while smiling. "Ehm, before we talk about anything, can I ask for your number first? I was in a bind two days ago, you know."
Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "Sure. I don't mind."
The two took out their Skylink and shared their contact information. Theo then wasted no time and asked, "What are we going to do?"
"Ah, you must have worried about your identity. Don't worry. I will take care of it." She pointed her finger to her Skylink. "We can contact each other now, so it's not that big of a deal to go alone. We can also head to the room separately. Anyway, do you know anything about the simulation room?"
"Not really."
"I see. Because the duel is usually open for two people to fight each other, they have one table, one screen, and a pair of simulation capsules to prepare for everything. And each room is separated by a thin layer that can be opened with a slight force, so yeah, I think that's how it is."
Theo looked down while crossing his arms. "I see. Thank you and sorry for doing all this…"
"I will accept your apology as long as we win. I will also accept your thanks if we can continue without losing a single time." She smirked.
"That's the problem." After pondering this matter for two days, he decided to reveal the restriction his master put on him. "In a battle, I'm not allowed to use my Clone and Magic Bullet because I have been too reliant on them. The condition to break free from this condition is to lose once."
"…" As one would expect, she was stunned. With those two, winning would probably be easy. "As much as I want to say something bad about it, I know that I have no right since I can't even use my left hand."
Theo narrowed his eyes and sighed. "Well, we can only try. Just so you know, I have no plan in losing."
"Alright. I'm a bit fired up. I'm going then. Call me if you need anything."
