During the events of Chapter Seventeen, "My Perspective."
Leaning in towards the mirror, razor at his own cheek, Cage pulls it down until it clashes with the scar running across his jawline.
Dragging his middle finger across his old wound he reminisces, thinking about the strongest opponent he had ever faced. The one punch.
"What?" Cage calls out, his voice demanding a quick answer from the lingering presence at the door.
"I woke up late and missed my bus." Jacob states, eyes wandering to the hallway carpet, "Could you maybe give me a ride, Sir?"
Cage splashes his face and promptly dries it with a wash cloth, purposely leaving him in anticipation. "Today of all days." Cage says to himself before speaking aloud, "Alright. I'll be on an important call so I'll need silence and deaf ears. Understood?"
Jacob cracks a secretive smile as he agrees to his silence but it's quickly brought to a fault with only a couple of throwaway words, "Next time you walk."
Quietly slipping into their private room, Karl falls back onto the couch besides Alex.
"Have you heard from Valentina?" Karl asks with a mumble.
"She hasn't even read my messages since the Sunday of the event." Alex answers, swiping away at a mind numbingly repetitive phone game.
"I just saw her."
"Where?" Alex questions, her phone now suddenly nowhere to be seen, no doubt stashed away safe in her pocket.
Arriving just in time to be late, Alex dumps her bag down next to the unoccupied chair alongside Valentina's, "When did you get back and what the hell happened at that event?" Alex asks without any real effort to conceal her voice.
Valentina quickly shushes her but the teacher doesn't even acknowledge them, not faltering with his words in the slightest as he drags a pen across a screen that quickly displays his words without leaving a trace of anything.
Alex glances forward and back, "I care, they don't."
Unlike their teacher, one of the very few students in the room looks back to the friends, wearing a deathly glare which Valentina picks up on immediately.
Leaning down to her side, Valentina retrieves her bag and exits the room alongside the still impatient Alex who couldn't even wait for the door to close completely to repeat one of her previous questions, "What the hell happened?"
"Nothi--"
"Wait. Not now, Karl is waiting."
"I don't think he cares." Valentina says, not being able to prevent a smile from appearing on her face alongside her short lived giggle.
Catching the two walking past a window, Jacob scowls, an even sourer look forming on his face than what he was already sporting. His shaky mood almost being ruined entirely.
"Jack did all the heavy lifting?" Alex repeats, only adding the tone that makes her words seem more like doubt than anything else. "That's to be expected." Karl says loud enough for only himself to hear.
"I did spar with a Weapon Conjuror--" Valentina attempts to add only to be crudely interrupted, "We don't care about a nothing burger spar. Where the hell were you for over a week?"
Sunday Night Of The Event.
"Mother?" Valentina calls out to the cold, empty penthouse suite. Glasses and bottles everywhere but no plates or silverware to be seen, a now slightly more concerned Valentina calls out once more, " Mother? Have you ate since I left?" Her voice much more expressive after shifting back to her native tongue.
Walking the steps and towards her cracked open room door, Valentina's worry dissipates instantly.
"What the hell are you doing?" Valentina demands to know without raising her voice, her frustration betraying that this isn't exactly something to be surprised about.
Clothes sprawled across the bedroom floor and a suitcase haphazardly packed, at the epicentre stands Valentina's mother, "You're home. Finally. Come now, we're late." She says much too calmly, zipping up the case.
"Where are we going?" Valentina questions as her suitcase is dropped at her feet.
"Luxembourg?" Alex repeats, yet again adding the same tone that makes her words seem more like she's questioning whether she's hearing the truth or not.
"My father wants a foothold in Belgium, they have a few up and coming world rankers. He sent a couple of us down, as potential matches, proposing an arranged marriage with one of their more influential awakened families." Valentina explains calmly, "My brother is to be married soon."
"Thank god! Congrats and all on your brothers engagement but bullet dodged! We'll send him a wedding gift or something, what's his name?"
Valentina pauses for a moment, trying her hardest to think but comes up blank, "There were a few of them. They started blending after a couple of days."
"But they're your brothers?"
"So?" Valentina questions, "I only met them last week, we exchanged a handful of words. They're strangers."
"That's sad." Karl mumbles, the girls suddenly gaining the ability to hear him just in time to catch it.
The words linger in the air but Alex decides to waft them away, "You could've messaged me back. You can't just suddenly ghost someone.." In-between Alex's scolding's Valentina mentions something about being busy but it doesn't dissuade Alex in the slightest, "You at least messaged him, right?"
Suddenly Karl's interest dissipates and he turns away, booting up the same mind killing phone game that Alex was playing earlier.
"Him who?" Alex makes a face and nods her head slightly, hoping for her to catch on which she does quickly, "Oh.. No I didn't. He doesn't have my number."
"You guys haven't even done that yet? That's practically the first step!" Alex stresses.
"What's this guy going to think about you ghosting him?"
"He'll understand after I explain. I'll go and see him later."
After another uneventful Top Ten meeting, the usual missing member continuing to make it a Top Nine meeting, Alex shows herself back inside, letting her feelings about the just finished meeting be known with just her face.
Falling back in the closest seat, Alex begins. "Eighth? I lose once and suddenly I'm eighth? This crap is ridiculous! Miles throws every duel and he's above me! Karl hasn't been here in months!"
Jacob sits quietly, making sure every one of his items are perfectly organised before he takes his leave.
"This entire ranking system is twisted. Borderline corrupt." Valentina says, swaying the seat left to right while she does.
"Miles is consistent while losing to a higher ranked Freya and Karl was constantly battling for top two until he got sick. They get their leeway, it may not be full of thrills but not corrupt." The word falling from his mouth like a poison. "I didn't mean anyt--"
"You fight as regularly as me and Jack and lost to number eight. Therefore you're Eighth." Jacob says in an off brand steady voice, sitting back straight in his chair. "I don't think you beat anybody ranked higher than you right this second."
Alex sits on his words, making sure to digest them fully, "Me neither. Maybe I beat Miles if he doesn't want it much. Karl too but we'd never fight. I'm not sure about Freya." Twiddling her thumbs, Alex shifts her mind towards the match ups she doesn't think she has a chance in.
"Just fight. You came for advice, right? That's my advice." Standing and lifting his things along side him he squeezes out one last remark, "At the very least it'll stop your ambushes after these meetings."
"I didn't want advice.. Thanks anyway though. You're not all that annoying lately but that's probably because I get to you when you don't have the energy to do you're usual schtick. Everyone should exclusively talk to you when you're out of it."
"Whatever you say, Number Eight."
Picking at the bare bones of the food table, Santos and Brian are jump scared. Visitors in the Top Tens private box during the annual Freya and Miles match up.
"Why do we both need to be here?" Valentina asks, walking to the glass to look upon the desolate hall, a hall nobody would ever guess is currently hosting a duel.
"It's a secret surprise thing." Alex answers as she stands behind the two friends pretending to be invisible as they stuff their faces.
Tapping Brian on the shoulder the two of them turn simultaneously, as if they had both felt the bony finger dig into their collar bones.
"We're duelling. When and where?"
Bewildered, Brian almost coughs up the chunk of food still making its way down his throat.
"What? Him? Why not me? I'm stronger you know..?" Santos asks dramatically, his accent adding to the performance.
"She kicked your ass." Alex says, using her head to guide his eyes to the disinterested Valentina.
A sniffle breaks out, "Did you ever even consider me?" Santos continuing with his act, the only note being a glare screaming for him to shut it.
Raising his eyebrows with a drama filled eye roll Santos returns to picking at the food table.
"I'll set it up and get back to you." Brian, remaining stood while nursing his chest after the scare moments earlier.
"Don't worry you were hilarious, tough crowd is all." Brian says in a hushed tone, consoling his disheartened friend.
The door now firmly shut behind them, Alex is finally ready to reveal the secret, "I thought about this a bunch, ok? Lead the way, I want to see the mystery man!"
The two hold eye contact for a solid second, "You just didn't want to come here alone!" Sighing Valentina continues, "It doesn't matter, I couldn't lead the way even if I wanted to. We still haven't seen each other since I got back. We keep missing each other at the times we used to meet."
"It was spotty before but now I'm splitting the time.." Valentina thinks to herself, mad that she fell for such an obvious lie.
"Phone numbers are the first step dammit!" Alex stresses, stomping back the way the two had originally come from while Valentina follows after her, "Your new surprise is taking us to your dads restaurant!"
"He attends no classes, practices no fighting techniques and makes a point of not socializing. He spends every minute possible training his Shadow Manipulation but he doesn't appear to have much success in creating darkness itself. No recent, reliable data is available due to both Hammon Rocks policies toward records and his lack of fighting as of late. Shall I enrol a back-up plan, Master Tazawa?" Reporting to the seated and seemingly disinterested man.
"Just Tazawa and no. If we were to fall back on such a thing the desired result wouldn't be achieved. It'd be too coincidental. It needs to be someone who was already enrolled, our employer made her enrolment happen and the branch family volunteered their services to help us achieve our goal. One defeat is all we need the girl to achieve, now the most we can do is offer our support and hope." Tazawa pushes himself up to his feet, rolling his wrist as he stands, casually approaching the open window.
"Send a master Shadow Manipulator to the branch family. Make it worth their while." The messenger agrees and stands, "The colder the better, that boy is unusual."
Enjoying the view, Tazawa cant help but returning to his lazing around, "This better work out. Getting us on the wrong side of another heir to the Elskaya Empire might lose me more than just a title this time around."