“Wait, are we really the last four contestants left?” I asked just to reaffirm, “Lune, I’m not dreaming, am I? Punch me.”

Lune was quick to do as I said, but it seems he misheard me, because instead of giving me a stern punch, he actually just pinched my cheek, which hurt way more when you take into account his crazy grip strength. Ow, my cheeks still on my face, right? He didn’t pull it off, did he?

“Ow! I said punch, not pinch!” I cried out.

“You did? Wait, wasn’t this joke supposed to go the other way around?” He retorted as Nelly laughed at our little comedy act.

“That being the case, I guess that means we did it.” He said with a warm smile.

This sudden seriousness kind of caught me off guard a bit. I’m not quite sure I understand what he’s talking about, so I decided to just ask him straight up. We’ve known each other for a while now. If I beat around the bush too much, he’ll just focus on something else, leaving my questions and insecurities unanswered. Lune’s just that type of guy.

“Whatever do you mean?”

“Well,” He went on to explain, “Our goal here was to get you to first place so you can get a scholarship to your University of choice, right? Since Cecily’s team and our team are in the top two, and we’re allowed to gift our scholarships to whoever we choose, then no matter who wins I can still have you and Nelly get the scholarships.”

“Wait,” Cecily halted him, “Nelly as well?”

“But of course!” He said it as if it was a matter of course, “Not right now, though, but when I’d like for her to get a proper education somewhere down the line, unlike the two of us. By the time she’s of age to attend University, Meil will be finishing up his Master’s Degree. It’d be good to have him guide her at the start so that she can get used to the new environment.”

I’m gonna have to babysit alongside drowning in endless research papers?! I didn’t sign up for that! Wait a second, if he’s sending her my way around the time I’ll be finishing up my Master’s, does that mean he’s planning on sending her to University the moment she turns 13?! That’s way too early, even for me! Well, then again, I’m pretty sure it’s easier to take care of a 13 year old than a 4 year old, plus it’s the least I can do for the people who literally enabled me to get this far in the first place. Nelly’s got a pretty good head on her shoulders as well, so it shouldn’t be an issue. Alright then, Nel, I officially appoint you as my helper! Rejoice, for we will take the world by storm when you’re old enough to attend University with me!

“I’m going somewhewe with Uncle Meil?” Nelly put her finger to her lips as she questioned her father’s words.

“Haha, no no, Nelly.” I corrected her, “Not now, that’s for later. So much later, in fact, that you’ll be a big girl by then! Even still, I can’t wait to see you there. It’ll be so much fun in Simpleton with someone familiar around!”

Nelly’s eyes were sparkling the entire time I was talking, but I guess she finally realized a crucial point by the end of my little speech.

“But wait, does that mean you won’t be going home with us, Uncle Meil?” She asked with a teary eyed look.

“…Sorry, Nel, I need to go to school, so I won’t be able to come with you.”

“Nooo!” She jumped to hug me the moment the words left my mouth, “Please come with us, Uncle Meil! I don’t wanna be away fwom you!”

Cecily and Lune chuckled at this little exchange between us, noting just how much she’s gotten attached to me. I felt a tinge of sadness about leaving these kind people who took me in as their own as well, but I can’t let some sentimentality dissuade me from continuing to work hard to realize my lifelong dreams.

“Then, Nelly!” I raised my voice in a serious tone as I looked her directly in the eyes, “If you wanna see me again in your life, you’re gonna need to study hard to become a really smart big girl, you hear?!”

“A-Ah, mhm!” She nodded with a yessir!

“Only when you become smart enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with me will we meet again, so the more you learn, the faster we’ll see each other again, alright?”

“Alwight!” She yelled out, the tears practically pouring down her eyes, “I’ll do it, Uncle Meil! I’ll become a big giwl just like you said! You’ll see, we’ll meet in a jiffy!”

“That’s the spirit!” I gave her a strong hug, not as an Uncle, but a future Upperclassman.

“Err,” Cecily whispered to Lune after witnessing this little scene of ours, “Should we really let Meil influence her this much? She’s gonna annoy us to no end about all sorts of stuff at this rate.”

“Come now, Cecily!” He went in for a one-armed hug (which she dodged out of habit), “Meil’s doing us hopeless parents a favor by motivating Nelly to wanna learn. It’s our job as parents to answer any and all questions she has about the world.”

After this, we all went to our respective dorm rooms to take one final rest in the Palace. Tomorrow, the Final Match will take place, and after that we’ll be done with the Mobius Awards. Shawn’s gone, so Silvia’s taking up the mantle, but even still it seems she just wants to get us out of her hair, so we lucked out on that front. Whoever wins tomorrow, it’ll amount to the same result, since both teams are ‘on the same team’, for lack of a better term.

“Hey, Lune?” I said before we went to sleep, “Thanks, for everything. You went above and beyond, and even got heavily injured because of me and my selfish ideals. I’m sorry for everything you endured here.”

“No problem, man.” He answered back, “I would’ve gotten injured even if you weren’t here. The only difference is that no one would be there to save Cecily when I couldn’t, not to mention there’d be no one to make Nelly company. For all of that, there are no words in the dictionary to express just how much I’m thankful.”

“Goodnight, Lune.”

“G‘night.”

***

Waking up, we got as formally dressed as possible, as if the Final Match wasn’t even a thing. In truth, we don’t know how to dress exactly, since we weren’t informed about that at all. For all we know, the Final Match could be a full on sprint or something like that, leading to all of us coming in extremely inappropriately dressed for the occasion. Lune and I wore a tuxedo, and Cecily and Nelly wore a lovely white and blue/yellow dress respectively.

We entered the cafeteria, but no one was there, further confusing us. I mean, we do understand that we’re literally the only contestants left, but wouldn’t there at least be some officials around to serve us our breakfasts? Certainly suspicious, but who cares, am I right?

“Let’s just get to the main hall and ask them not to hold the Final Event at all.” Lune suggested.

“Can we do that?” Cecily asked.

“Why not, it’s just a formality given our situation, so why not just spare everyone the hassle? Silvia’s pretty hard-headed, but she’d definitely want to get this over with so she can have more time to look for her father.”

“Right, Shawn still hasn’t been found yet.” I added, “Lune, just between us four, what did you do to him?”

Instead of answering my question, he started happily skipping over to the main hall as if he was none the wiser. That guy’s really avoiding the topic with an ironclad determination! He couldn’t have actually done something… right?

“There you are!” Lune called out to Silvia and the guards, who stood atop the Mobius Throne, “We wanted to talk to you.”

“What a coincidence.” Silvia said as the guards surrounded all four of us, “So did I.”

“H-Hold on, now…” I backed up, “What’s going on, Silvia?”

“Did you hit your head too or something, Mister First Place?” She jeered, “As I said before, this is the Final Match. The goal is to survive, think you can do it~?”

Grr! That bitch! I’ll hang her on a cross, goddammit! What the hell does she mean by ‘survive’? I get she’s holding a grudge against us, but this is going too far!

“This is exactly why I wanted to skip this match…” Lune clicked his tongue, “Silvia, I talked to Shawn the other day before he disappeared. He told me everything about your family, so you really have no reason to hide anything anymore.”

“Lune, what are you talking about?” Cecily tried to calm down the now very scared Nelly.

“Hmph, I suppose I’ll tell you then.” Silvia finally talked, “Us Quartzes don’t actually hand out scholarships to the winners, we kill them so there are no witnesses to warn the next generation.”

“That’s a disappointment.” Lune said nonchalantly with his hands in his pockets, “Guess I’m gonna have to pay for two tuitions out of my own pocket after all. Well, that doesn’t matter now, what matters is why exactly you regularly kill the winners?”

“Well that’s a simple answer.” She noted, “We simply have no use for them anymore. They’ve served their part in our research to find out the mysteries of the various dungeons scattered across the world, so we just throw them away.”

“The dungeons of the world?” Lune asked, “I’ve been to Shaid’s Lair, I was the Quartz’s ‘Beta Tester’, as your father put it, but I’ve only ever heard of that one still being active.”

“Really now? I was sure you of all people would’ve chosen to investigate the matter a bit more in depth than that. There are hundreds, if not thousands of unexplored, and maybe even unfound dungeons. We Quartzes have set a goal for ourselves to find them all, no matter how many sacrifices we have to make to accomplish that goal.”

“Right.” Lune pulled something out of his pockets, “That’s exactly why we’ll be leaving.”

In that moment, he grabbed all of us with that bear-like strength of his, and threw the Instarope he was holding in his hand high above us. It reached the ceiling before somehow launching us off the ground with tremendous speeds. Looking under us more closely, I figured out just what he had done. Lune used Fireball to create an explosion, then Materialized it under us to essentially turn us into a bullet.

We were now right above the doors leading outside the Palace, but there was simply no way we’d survive such a tremendous fall given we were so high up above it. But Lune wasn’t just gonna let that happen, so he once again had to make use of his Iros Switching to Gray to buy himself enough time to think of a plan, he… let us all fall and break our legs.

“Argh! Heal, Heal damn you!” He shrieked in pain as his Eyes shone bright Green.

In the very next moment, presto, we were all as good as new. Standing up and walking it off, we couldn’t feel any lingering pain at all. Just what the hell happened right now?! Don’t tell me… he figured out how to turn his Green Iro Perk into a Green Iro Ability!?

“Hehe, I’ll call that one Heal!” He rubbed his nose.

“Not the time, dumbass!” Cecily hit him in the back of the head as she ordered all of us to run like our life depended on it. Well, it kinda did…

“Where to now?” I asked in between my pants.

“We need to run all the way to the center of Havana before we can even begin thinking of where to go, Meil!” Lune chuckled, “But don’t worry, I remember seeing a couple of Transport Wagons going in and out of the quik, so we only need to get there!”

In the next moment, Cecily collapsed with Nelly in her arms, “Ugh! Dammit Lune, I can’t run after having my legs broken just moments before! Couldn’t you have thought of a better idea-”

She looked up at him, not expecting anything special, only to be shocked at the tears streaming down his face. Asking what was wrong, he only uttered “Just like Marina…”

Without even a moment to spare, he told me to grab Nelly as he himself picked Cecily up and ran with all the strength he had left. This guy’s probably carrying the guilt of his wife dying, so that must be why he reacted like that. The poor soul’s gonna kill himself from overexertion at this point…

Finally making it to the Transport Wagon, we quickly boarded it and told the driver to step on it. After getting a moment of reprieve after such a hectic morning, we only realized how hungry we were the entire time due to the skipped breakfast and more than hardcore morning jog we just did. That didn’t matter though, since Cecily’s and Nelly’s safety was assured because of this.

“That was… stupid.” I finally let out a sigh, leading to the others cracking up at the irony of my words.