Expectations When Expecting

Book 2, Chapter 23

Riddle huffed, dusting off his hands as he looked down at the shameful pack of beastment. " Nothing but a lot of hot air." He turned to Ace and Deuce, examining them. "Ace, Deuce, are you all right?"

"Yeah. That was nothin'." Ace smirked, looking cockily to the Savanaclaw students.

Deuce simply nodded, an excited look in his eye. "You bet, sir!"

"I knew those chumps'd be no match for Riddle." Leona scoffed in disappointment.

Ruggie, from behind Leona seemed to sense the hostility of the Lion and did what he believed would be best. "Maybe not! But this doesn't change the fact that they were too late to save Diasomnia." He smirked mockingly to the group before another trio joined in.

"Oh? That's quite the interesting claim." Lilia spoke, flanked by two other Diasomnia boys. Yuu did a double take as she hadn't noticed the fae leaving for the arena, turning to look at Cater, only to notice that he'd left as well. She groaned internally as she peered around the corner to continue watching.

"They seemed right on time to me." The tall, green haired boy nodded proudly.

"Indeed." Agreed the boy with the silver hair. "It's thanks to them that not a single one of Diasomnia House's players got hurt."

Ruggie's smirk dropped in an instant, looking at the Diasomnia boys in disbelief.

"What? How?! I saw you get swallowed up by the stampede!"

"Oh! About that..." Cater called out cheerfully, approaching from behind the others. "So it turns out those were actually duplicates of me, made with my signature Split Card spell." Cater threw up a peace sign to give off somewhat of an innocent vibe.

Leona's green eyes widened in shock before his ears and lips pulled back in an offensive snarl, eyes narrowing into a glare at the ginger haired third year.

"What?" Leona growled as Yuu's heart sank, noticing Leona inching closer to the others. He's like a cornered feral cat...

Yuu nudged Grim, signaling that she'd need to go there.

Grim's blue-flamed ears pinned against his head as he looked over her in concern. "Are ya sure?"

Yuu nodded, inching toward the others. She felt something cold touch her back, making her shiver as she moved.

"I must admit, I really dig those Diasomnia House outfits. They're so extra!" Cater gushed excitedly to Lilia. "I'll DM you some of my selfies later."

Lilia's eyes gleamed as he smiled at Cater. "Is that right? If I knew you were such a fan, I'd have gladly loaned you mine."

Cater smiled. "Such a sweetheart!" He smiled, twirling a lock of his hair on his fingers. "Though, admittedly, I think yours would be a little small for me."

Leona growled, now within arms reach of Ruggie. "All right, can we get to the point?" His tail twitched in annoyance and his shoulders were raised, ready to fight.

Lilia shrugged with a smile, until his eyes slightly caught a glimpse of a sneaking Yuu, making his smile immediately drop.

"Riddle told us everything. So we had him put on that little charade for us." Lilia explained, his face contorting into a mocking sneer.

Ruggie's eyes remained wide in shock. "So, then... Malleus is-"

"Oh, he's in top-top shape, of course!" The tall green haired boy announced. "He's been clearing up the chaos, using his magic to guide all the people safely back to the coliseum. You can thank him later."

"H-how could this happen?!" Ruggie yelped, visibly pale, and shrinking his posture slightly as he snuck a terrified glance in Leona's direction.

Leona, however, didn't react violently. Instead, his shoulders fell and he sighed. "...Whatever. I don't even care anymore." He said unexpectedly. Yuu froze in her tracks, caught completely off guard by Leona's sudden apathy.

Ruggie's eyes widened and his large ears pinned back. He grinned, but this time in a more uncomfortable and disbelieving manner. "... What?"

"I'm done. It's over." Leona said again as Ruggie slunk to his side, disbelieving and almost pleading.

"B- boss, what are you saying?!" He cried.

"Are you even payin' attention? If Malleus is able to take the field then we got no chance of winning." Leona reasoned, his claws digging into his hands. "There's no point even trying. I'm out."

"Y-you can't just...!" Ruggie began, pausing to take a deep breath. "Malleus might still be in the game, but we took out all the other dorms' best players, right? But without you on the field, I don't even know if we'd have a shot at the top three!" Ruggie reasoned, jumping in front of Leona to stop him from leaving. "C'mon, man! You're just going to abandon our dreams?"

"For all the talk about 'the world watching,' this is still just schoolkids playin' a game." Leona muttered unenthusiastically. "All you wide-eyed tenderfoots talkin' about your dreams..." Leona let out a dry, humorless laugh. "The whole thing amused me, so I threw you a bone. That's all this was."

Yuu walked out, making her way closer, now catching the attention of the Heartslabyul boys.

Ruggie's eyes also noticed her, but he chose to ignore the pregnant woman, instead focusing on his feelings of betrayal.

"What do you mean? What happened to working together to 'turn the world upside down'?" He pleaded with Leona, whose back was facing Yuu.

"Are you seriously still goin' on about that?" Leona snarled. "All right, fine. You wanna hear the truth? You're a hyena who grew up in a dump, and I'm a secondborn prince who won't ever be king. And there is NO turning that around!" Leona dug his words deep into Ruggie's heart and Yuu hesitated when she saw the look of hurt that flashed across the hyena's face.

"What? You gotta be kidding me!" Ruggie yelped exasperatedly, his shoulders squared as he slunk closer to Leona, demanding as he spoke. "What is this? You can't just quit after we've come this far!"

Leona scoffed as his dorm spoke and pleaded with him before he finally snapped. "Bah, I'm so sick of this nonsense. Shut UP, you nobodies!" The lion snarled, his eyes settling on the hyena.

"No... No!" Yuu cried, her eyes widened as Leona lunged at Ruggie, and the air began to dry rapidly. Without a moment of hesitation, the young woman ran into the eye of the sandstorm, ignoring the cries of the boys who had seen her, colliding with Ruggie as a hand wrapped itself around her arm and pulled her up.