While the entire school cheered for Yusuke’s arrest, I remained conflicted. Reina did, too. Call it a gut feeling, but there was more to this murder. I could just feel it. Either way, Hayashi finalized the case and handed it over to his boss. I could tell, even he had his doubts, but if higher up said to close it, then closed it shall be.

For now, I guessed it was for the best. That way, we could focus on our contracts.

And, the games.

Days melted away, and soon, it was the night before the next season of the tournament of tournaments!

All of us gathered around the living room to chat one last time as buddies, because come tomorrow, we were going to be enemies in the arena. Everyone except for Naomi was there, as usual. Our gatherings weren’t as entertaining as her meditating or reading her book. I didn’t take offense. However, I did try to hell and back to get her to hang out with us. In her defense, she seemed out of it. So I didn’t press on her too hard. I didn’t blame her for being exhausted. Because between classes, training, and contracts, we had our hands full 24/7.”

“So how many sponsors do you have, Gun?” Ash asked.

He smirked, throwing Ash a side eye as she lounged in the chair with his legs kicked up on the coffee table. “I have a solid 300.”

“A whole 300? Wow, that’s impressive!” Ash beamed. “I only have 130.”

“Heh, more than what I got,” Felix added. “I only have 55. How about you, Nero?”

“The last time I checked, I was up 160. You still have time to catch up for our little bet, though.”

“Hardly,” Felix snorted.

I turned to Reina. “How about you, your highness?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not telling you my sponsor count!”

Ash giggled. “You know we can see it whenever we want to, right? Reina? It updates in real time.”

I chuckled. “Damn, it’s not that embarrassing, is it?”

“She has 95,” Gun blurted out, Reina immediately tossing a hand over his mouth as she lunged at him on the sofa.

“You blabbermouth!” she cried, Gun laughing.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed about, babe. You just weren’t satisfying your sponsors.”

“What? Well, what the hell did they want you to do in your mini assignments?”

“Things that were absolutely ridiculous!” Reina hissed.

“Oh, juicy!” Ash tweeted. “Give us an example of one!”

“There are just certain things that I simply refuse to perform! I don’t care how many sponsors I lose– I’m not going to degrade myself for their amusement!”

“Oh come on, you have to give us more than that!” Ash insisted. “We’re all friends here.”

With a sigh, Reina relented. “Fine. One of the sponsors asked me to send a video of myself dancing in a bikini.”

Ash and I exchanged amused glances. However, Gun let out a low whistle, turning his head away from us shame-faced.

Felix chuckled. “Oh no, Gun, did you give in?”

He shrugged sheepishly. “Hey, I got some sweet donations in the tip jar for it! Besides the items I’d need for tomorrow. They also wanted me to perform for them. I sang some of my originals, and they loved it!”

Ash laughed. “We appreciate you stripping down at our expense, Gun!”

Reina sighed. “The items were tantalizing, but… I am no slave to the will of those people.”

“Those people are your fans,” I reminded her. “They are investing in your career, spending tens if not hundreds of dollars on you so you can continue doing your best out there.”

Reina crossed her arms, still complaining. “I understand they support me financially, but I won’t compromise my principles for money or fame. There are some lines I refuse to cross.”

Gun shrugged. “Hey, no judgment here. We all have our limits. Me, I don’t really have many.” He grinned. “But Reina’s got integrity. I respect that.”

“Me too,” Ash chimed in. “We girls got standards. Can’t fault us for staying true to ourselves.”

Reina gave Ash a small smile. “Thank you, Ash.”

“Of course, sponsors will keep pushing those boundaries,” Felix said. “It’s up to each of us to decide where we draw the line. Personally, I am not ashamed to show some skin if the price is right.”

“Something tells me not everything is dirty,” I said to Reina. “What else ya got?”

“Certain interactions with my team,” Reina muttered to herself as she scrolled through her phone. “Of which, only two are acceptable!”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Let’s hear them.”

“Painting each other’s faces, and the other one is amateur cooking.”

I smirked. “No, I’m talking about the other ones.”

“I’m not sharing those!”

“Come on. I want to hear what kinda freaks you’re attracting!” I teased.

“So this is a joke to you? Do you know what this means?”

“That you’re only scoring perverts?”

“How authentic is my list of sponsors if they only sign up to see me perform these lewd things?!”

“Like hen-tai?” Ash said, playfully reminding Reina how she didn’t know what that was over a week ago.

“Now I have to know,” I said, jumping on my feet and snatching the phone from her.

“Hey!” she cried, climbing up the back rest of the couch to catch me. Reina protested as I side swept her reaching hands, but I scrolled through her sponsorship requests anyway. Though I teased her, I knew Reina had strong values. She wouldn’t actually compromise her principles for money or fame.

“Nero, no!” She made another swipe for the phone but I dodged out of the way.

“Nuh-uh! Not yet! I want to see what these fans of yours are really into!”

The more she fought for me not to see these requests, the more curious I was to see what her die-hard fans were begging for. As I scrolled, I saw mostly normal fan meet-up ideas - selfies, autographs, friendly competitions. But interspersed were some more eyebrow-raising suggestions. Nothing too wild at first, like requests for Reina to wear certain outfits, pose in certain ways, until…

“Give it back,” Reina hissed through her teeth as she stood behind me. And after I read that last request, I was more than happy to hand it to her.

Man, there were some sick people in that school…

I felt something poke me behind my back, Reina forging a weapon against my shirt. Damn, after reading that request, I sure did hope it was a gun. I pivoted around, trying to get those images out of my head, and when I looked down, I noticed how beat red Reina’s face was.

She snatched her phone back and whispered, “You better not tell a soul….”

I smirked. “Oh yeah? Or else?”

Her eyes jumped. “What?”

“Or else what, Reina?” I whispered, everyone behind us looking our way. I looked back at them with a wholesome smile, waving them down and showing them that everything was okay. And then I turned back to Reina, continuing to whisper. “Funny how blackmailing works, right?”

“You wouldn’t!”

“I wouldn’t?”

“Nero, you wouldn’t stoop as low as to—”

“You’re right, I wouldn’t.”

“Everything okay back there?” Gun asked.

“Peachy!” I said, giving him a thumbs up. “Just talking about strategy for the game tomorrow. You guys can’t hear it. As a matter of fact, we’ll need to discuss in the other room! Excuse us!” I gently took Reina by her arm, and we peeled off into the hallway, garnering some privacy.

“Why, Nero, I have you all wrong,” she hissed, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re still full of surprises.”

“I’m not like you, Reina,” I reminded her. “But since Naomi isn’t going to tell me what’s going on between you two, I figure I’ll get the answer from you.”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“That night by the hot springs. You said something to Naomi, and she backed off without a word. Naomi doesn’t shut up like that. Especially for you.”

“Well, she ought to.”

“Reina, I’m serious. What do you have over her?”

“Nothing of your concern!”

“All right, that’s how we are going to play it?”

She smirked. “You’re bluffing! If you go back there and tell them what you read, you’d be just as embarrassed!”

“I would?”

“You have a reputation too!”

I laughed. “Reina, I wouldn’t care if the entire school knew about the kinky shit that’s on your phone!”

Her face sank.

“You seem to be forgetting, you were the queen of rumors. I haven’t heard anything as bad as that, not from you. But from your crappy friends?” I shrugged. “I won’t lose any sleep at night. And deep down, you know I’m not bluffing about that.”

She glared at me, but I remained steadfast with my request.

“Well?”

She rolled her eyes. “I will drop it.”

“I want to know what it is.”

“You’re not getting both!” she hissed. “I will end it just as long as you don’t say a word to anyone!”

“All right, deal.” We went back inside the living room, but I was floored as soon as I walked in. There Ash was, showing her friends what she had over that huge snuggly night gown of hers—another pair of my drawers!

“And they snap real nice too around my waist!” she said, sporting my Gundam boxers. “So breathable! I’d never go another night without it!”

“ASHLEY!” I shouted. “Look. At. Me.”

She jumped.

“This is the last time I’m going to catch you with my clothes on!”

Reina chuckled. “Oh, I don’t know, Nero, those look much better on Ash than they do on you.”

Gun tilted “Ugh, should I be worried you saw Nero in his underwear?”

“But they are so warm!” Ash sang. “And so liberating and comfy!”

I huffed. “I already let you keep one pair so you can keep your paws off my stash!”

“I’ll trade ya!”

I looked at her like she was crazy. “Trade? Those are my underwear you’re talking about!” I said. And then I walked around the couch and caught her full figure, noticing that she was wearing my socks, too!

She’d been wearing those fluffy slippers the entire time, so I didn’t notice.

The girl was shameless!

“Get back here!” I shouted, chasing after her as she booked it. I didn’t know why I insisted on running after her. She was clearly faster than me, even more so when she dashed on her hands and feet. But when she went out the front door, she converted back to bipedal shuffling, probably feeling sorry for me. I was so far behind her it wasn’t even funny, to the point where she started to slow down.

“Oh, come on, Nero, you can do better than that!” she said through her infectious giggling as she looked back at me. “You’re not even tryi—” She stopped short, Ash tripping on her feet. When I ran closer, I noticed that it wasn’t her feet she’d tripped on, but a buck. A dead one.

“Ash,” I cried out, Ash colliding against the carcass.

“Eww! Gross!” she yelped as I helped her up, her hand drenched from the pool of blood she caught when trying to catch herself from falling.

“You all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. But he isn’t,” she said, turning to the dead animal.

“What the hell? An animal attack, out here by the dojo?”

“That’s not as uncommon as you may think. But that wound is,” she said, pointing at how the gash on his neck almost looked like the one from Isole. “This is a monster attack.”

“You mean a flesh eater did this? There’s no way. They don’t feed on animals.”

“I get that it’s rare, like, super rare. But it does happen.”

“The body… it still looks fresh….”

I stared at the mangled body of the buck, its neck ripped open in a savage attack. Curious, I knelt down to examine the buck more closely. The wound on its neck was massive, exposing a lot of muscle. Blood continued to slowly trickle out slowly, the grass inches away from me soaking wet.

“This definitely happened recently,” I said. “For sure, under a few minutes ago. The blood is not clotted yet.”

Ash’s face went pale. “A flesh eater must have been really desperate to go after a deer.”

“Which could be a good sign or a bad sign….”

“I know what you’re thinking. The monster could still be close by.”

“And we’d be sitting ducks.”

Ash’s eyes went wide as she scanned the dark forest surrounding us. Shadows moved and morphed in the dim moonlight, but we didn’t hear one peep.

“We should get inside now and tell the others,” I insisted.

She looked up to me. “Shouldn’t we search for this thing first? Especially since we know he’s close?”

“We are only speculating that he is,” I said. “Besides, the more hands on this, the better.”

She nodded. “All right. Let’s go.”