The Bloody Truth

“Let's go, Ed!”

Teddie was cheering on his friend from the stadium. He was busy trying to figure out the mystery of the cheater, but he had some time to spare for this.

Ed was currently fighting another boy, who seemed to use some kind of enhancement magic. From Teddie’s observations, Ed was keeping up quite well though. He was managing to push his opponent back and overwhelm him, despite the enhancements.

The battle raged on for a few more moments, but Teddie realized he couldn’t stay here forever. If the cheater advanced into the semifinals, then they would be a serious threat. The boy here didn’t seem like a cheater, though he couldn’t be too sure.

However, Ed was already present. If he believed that his opponent was a cheater, Teddie could back him up, but Teddie’s own presence was currently redundant. He and Mr. Bear already took note of a few signs, though nothing particularly definitive.

Teddie decided to take a break for now, heading out of the spectator stands and leaving the stadium entirely. He was hungry, so he planned on heading to the waiting room. The food wasn’t free for non-competitors, but he needed somewhere to think. Maybe he would find Adelyn and Cozy, depending on if their matches were done already.

The waiting room was entered as Teddie looked around, clutching Mr. Bear. They headed to the snack bar to get some quick bites. The two of them ordered a nice glowing salad. A very simple, but healthy dish. Teddie made these back in the woods on his own, but there was always a nice delectability to it.

“Any dressing?” The lady at the snack bar asked.

“No thanks,” Teddie said. He proceeded to walk over to the seating area and look around. It was far less crowded, this late into the tournament, so he managed to spy Cozy just out of the corner of his eye. Teddie smiled and walked over to her.

“Hello, Cozy,” Teddie greeted her.

“Ah, Teddie. You just missed Adelyn,” Cozy responded.

“Huh? Is her next match starting already?”

“Mhm, we’re a bit behind schedule so we’re just doing semifinals before Ed finishes. It’s her against Joyce next,” Cozy said. By the way, how is he doing? Is he winning?”

“He was doing… fine, I think. If you all are in the semifinals then that’s really good for us, yeah?”

“Mhm! That just leaves Joyce if so,” Cozy responded. “Did you come across the cheater by any chance?”

“I have a few notes on Ed’s opponent,” Teddie said, pulling out some paper. “But so far… nothing damning. He just seems particularly strong.”

“Well, it seems like Ed can pull it off at least. I’m very curious to see what we’ll do against each other in the semis. It’s obviously just for fun, but, interesting nonetheless,” Cozy winked. “Who are you betting on?”

“Uh… I couldn’t…” Teddie responded. “I’d want both of you to win.”

“Fair, though I think I definitely have it in the bag,” Cozy said. “No offense to Ed, he just doesn’t… put as much work in as me.”

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that is true… he does try a lot.”

“But I try more. Plus, I’m a quick thinker.”

“Whatever you say.”

Even still, if Ed won his match, then there won’t really be that much of a threat from a cheater. The only person who isn’t a part of their group in the tournament left would be Joyce, and she seemed like a nice girl. Perhaps this whole cheating scandal was overblown.

Teddie continued to munch at his salad as the two of them discussed more menial things. Cozy told him about how she and Ed met the governor, and it seemed like the meeting went very well. Though, shortly after, Teddie noticed Edward entering the waiting room. He waved at him to call him over.

“Oh, Ed!” Cozy said. “Did you win?”

“Yeah,” Ed said, rolling his shoulders. “I think Katie was harder, if I had to be honest. Just a buncha brute strength in that guy.”

“Good job, Ed!” Teddie said. Mr. Bear did a little cheer for him as well, as Ed took his seat.

“I guess that means our job is done, and there’s only one person left. So the chances are, we completely knocked out the cheater even with them cheating!” Cozy said.

“Well, I wouldn’t be too confident,” Ed said. “I mean… what if they’re unhappy because of that and try to sabotage us?”

“Ed,” Cozy said. “There’s four people left in the tournament, and only one of them isn’t a part of our group. I think we’re fine.”

“I… dunno, like even if Joyce isn’t the cheater they might still use her. We were the ones investigating, they might try to take revenge.”

“You’re so paranoid.”

The two of them went back and forth for a while on this. Teddie did think Ed had a valid point, because they never caught the cheater… who knows what they could still be plotting. It was uncertain, and Teddie didn’t like that very much.

“Regardless, Ed,” Cozy said. “Our next match is me versus you. This doesn’t really concern us unless Adelyn gets beaten.”

“Yeah, but it would be nice if we didn’t have to worry at all…” Ed responded.

“I think you should be worrying about whether I’ll kick your butt next round first,” Cozy teased.

“Whatever happens, happens. Our jobs are done anyways,” Ed said, not giving a particular amount of care to his response. “At least, unless we fight Joyce anyways.”

“See what I mean Teddie? It’s like he doesn’t care if he wins or not!” Cozy nudged at Teddie, who just slowly nodded.

“It’s not that I don’t care, Cozy. It’s that I care about the important things, and we’ve already done that.”

“I think our match is pretty important,” Cozy crossed her arms.

“I guess. We’ll see when it happens, as I said,” Edward said, before beginning to stand up and head away from the table.

“Ed, where are you going?” Teddie asked.

“I’m gonna watch Adelyn’s match, might as well take some notes from her,” the boy answered. “Might help in the future.”

“Good luck!” Cozy said, before turning to Teddie. “I’m going to go practice my magic. How about you, Teddie?”

“I think Ed has a point…” Teddie said. “Me and Mr. Bear are going to just make sure no fishy business happens in the last matches. Good luck with your fight against Ed, Cozy.”

“See you. Once Adelyn finishes and this bite that Elaina gave me heals, I’ll be all set,” Cozy said.

“Elaina?” Teddie asked.

“My last match before semis,” Cozy said. “Was really rude during the battle, and gave me this nasty bite. The medics managed to fix it, but the healing magic takes a moment to fully kick in.”

“Interesting,” Teddie said. He did watch that match for a little bit, but he went to go and do some investigative work shortly after, so he wasn’t fully familiar. Regardless, Teddie decided to take a minute to finish his salad, crunching down on it. After that, he would go up to follow Ed to watch Adelyn’s battle.

***

Teddie finally finished his meal and decided to go and catch up with Ed. He waved Cozy off as she practiced her magic, and stepped outside to the stadium.

He still did not like the crowd at all, but he could at the very least support Adelyn and make sure everything was alright. Teddie began to walk towards the stadium, before suddenly he got stopped by something.

A noise, chitter chatter. A squirrel ran on his shoulder and came to his ear. He would recognize it, from the first time he entered the city. This one watched him at the concert. It whispered something into his ear, which caused him to stop.

“What do you mean? Black smoke?” Teddie said to the squirrel. “I can’t see it?”

Teddie listened to the squirrel chitter more for a bit. They seemed to be very serious about this situation, even if Teddie didn’t seem to understand exactly what they were talking about.

“You want me to follow you?” he asked. He did want to go and see Adelyn’s match, but this critter seemed urgent. If he knew anything about living in the forest, it was that animals had a fantastic sense for danger.

If they said something was wrong, then something was definitely wrong. So, Teddie had to drop what he was doing and nod to the squirrel. It would begin leading the way, far back into the depths of the city.

***

“It’s very dark there…”

Teddie and the squirrel stood before a dark alleyway. The lights of the city of Pugna did not extend to between these buildings. The city was always oddly bright compared to the general darkness of the world, probably due to the overall safety of the city.

The squirrel chittered back, convincing Teddie to go. He felt a little bit worried, but he also still needed to be strong. The squirrel shook a little bit, before suddenly it started glowing blue.

“Oh, you’re a glow squirrel! You should have told me…” Teddie said. The light it produced was faint, and it did not light up the entire alleyway, but it was enough for him to see just in front of him.

The two of them walked into the alley. Step, after step, one after the other. The two of them slowly advanced, wary of what might come forth. The light glow of the squirrel provided them with the little that they could see.

And eventually, the squirrel stopped. Teddie also stopped, as the two of them looked ahead. They saw a figure in the distance, still dark… but there was something coming out of it. It was only faintly seen from the squirrel’s light, but it was a black smoke.

“Oh… you were right. H-Hey, are you okay…?” Teddie said, trying to reach out as they approached. He grabbed the figure by the shoulder, and pulled on it. It was a girl.

And there was blood coming out of her eyes.