Waves of Destiny (Twisted Wonderland)

Chapter 52

Chapter 52

The following afternoon, Vil summoned everyone from the SDC to Ramshackle for a meeting. So, I found myself surrounded by everyone I had spent so much time with over the past month. I stood between Ace and Deuce, and I was comforted by their presence.

"I thought the NRC Tribe had been disbanded," Jamil said. "The culture fair is over, after all."

"Non," said Rook. "Vil chose to simply put it on indefinite hiatus."

"Okay, if that's what you want to call it. Regardless, this was sudden."

"Yeah!" said Kalim. "I didn't expect to get an NRC Tribe message calling us out to Ramshackle after class. Is something going on, Vil?"

"Thank you all for coming," Vil said with a solemn expression. "Grim couldn't make it, of course... but there's nothing to be done about that at the moment." I exchanged a sad look with Ace and Deuce. Ace gave me a comforting pat on the back. "There are some important matters I wanted to discuss with you all. First, I'll touch on what happened the day of SDC. Allow me to apologize for betraying your trust."

"Huh...?" said Deuce, Epel, and Kalim.

"I realized we would lose, and my solution was to curse my rival. It was the ugliest possible thing I could've done. I am truly sorry."

"Goodness," Epel said with wide eyes. "I'm not used to Vil apologizing like that."

"Well, at least your curse didn't succeed, right?" said Jamil.

"Yeah!" said Kalim. "You didn't harm a single hair on Neige's head."

"That's only because you, Rook, and the rest of the group stopped me," said Vil. "Yet I still hurt you when I overblotted. That incident could've ended my life... Or any of yours." Rook looked away. "You exhausted your magical reserves fighting me, then had to immediately perform. No matter how determined you were, I highly doubt you were able to give 100 percent."

"That's not true!" Epel exclaimed. "I thought it was our best performance ever!"

"I agree," Deuce said. "Vil, we crushed it out there!"

Ace rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, 'crushed it' is kinda subjective..."

Deuce looked at him in shock. "Are you really going to debate this?!"

"Okay, yes, we fought for our lives and won, then lucked out big time when Malleus fixed the stage for us. Then we busted our tails and got through the whole performance, start to finish. It was incredible, and I agree we did the best we'd ever done. That said..."

"You mean just because we were happy with it, doesn't mean the audience was," said Jamil.

Epel's face fell. "Oh, I see..."

"I can see what you mean," I said. They only lost by one vote. If they had been just a tad bit better, they would have won. That must have stung.

"Ace and Jamil have the right of it," Vil said. "I've been reviewing our show recording with a more critical eye... And it's apparent we weren't performing at even half our usual level. Positioning was sloppy, kicks weren't reaching their full height — even your fingers were all over the place. Which makes sense, given the battle you'd just fought. It was the best you could have done, yes. But you weren't AT your best. It was critical for you to be at your best when you performed, and I failed to make that happen. Our loss at SDC is entirely on me." He lowered his head. "Some leader I turned out to be."

Ace, Deuce, and Epel exchanged uneasy glances. Jamil hesitated before speaking, "Vil, I understand your point. But as we saw during our SDC rehearsal... Neige's group was already popular. Our performance wasn't going to change that. If we'd been at our best, that doesn't mean we would've performed perfectly. And even if we had, we still could've lost. You can't always beat someone that popular with hard work or a solid performance."