Bermuda

“Joker, a word, please! What exactly is your relationship with Lion? Did you know each other from before?”

“What’s the ruling on the use of the special ammunition?”

“What were the criteria for selecting the team leader? How did you gather the members?”

“Whose idea was it to recruit Orca, the one you faced in the first match?”

“All right, all right, keep moving. No questions.”

Hemmed in by a pack of reporters, Ero waved both hands from side to side. Even so, he kept his neck stiff and maintained an air of weary indifference the entire time.

“My boss absolutely hates this kind of thing.”

“Do you know Lion well?”

“Has he acknowledged you as an official partner?”

“Of course.”

He acted as though he would never answer a single question, yet every so often those twitching lips of his would part. Exasperating as his way of speaking was, the reporters still could not give up. The Council’s security personnel blocked their interest with their whole bodies and escorted Ero all the way to a secure location. Only after stepping into the participants-only area did Ero let out a long sigh.

“This is why being popular is exhausting.”

Then he tossed out the line he had wanted to say all along. Snickering, he swept back his hair with an inflated look on his face and turned around. He had not meant to expose himself in front of people on purpose, but while carrying out his duty as a messenger, things had somehow turned out like this.

“Still, they even gave me bodyguards, so it’s not all bad....”

Muttering to himself, he checked the medicine tucked inside the envelope he had kept hidden close to his chest. There was the sympathetic nervous system suppressant and sedative prescribed right after the test match, along with PTSD medication and anti-anxiety medicine they had included just in case. Most of it was meant to calm agitation. After confirming nothing was missing, Ero carefully packed up the energy bars and clothes as well and headed down a quiet corridor.

Still, I had no idea the boss was taking stuff like this too.

With the two earlier matches, Team JOKER’s schedule for the day had technically ended, but the participants were being made to wait a little longer for reasons such as treating the injured and sharing the next schedule. Worried that Orca might start pawing at his boss again while he was away, Ero gradually quickened his pace. It happened just as he turned the corner and stepped into the hallway where Team JOKER’s waiting room was.

“Huh?”

A black shadow was loitering in front of the waiting room door some distance away. Ero stopped short for a moment and stared hard at the figure. Then, as if it had sensed his presence too, the other person glanced this way. After that, they casually disappeared down the opposite end of the corridor. They did not look hurried.

“What the hell... did they get the room wrong?”

Scratching the back of his neck, Ero walked up to the waiting room. After watching the direction the figure had vanished for a while, he pulled the handle when he heard a noisy commotion from inside.

“Boss, I’m ba—”

“My hair’s completely ruined because of you!”

“There was nothing I could do then.”

What he saw the instant he opened the door was a sight to behold. Long strands of hair were flying around wildly like animal fur, and personal odds and ends like a hairbrush and a skull brooch were scattered everywhere. In the middle of it all, Bell, clad only in her petticoat, and Orca, who was running away, were trampling through the mess.

“I was trying to put you somewhere safe. If I hadn’t helped Lion then, the whole team would’ve been eliminated.”

“If you put me somewhere safe, then why the hell did my wig come off?!”

The two of them were locked in a fierce standoff, darting back and forth on either side of the sofa. From the sight of Beatrice with a black hair net over her head, Ero quickly pieced the situation together. She seemed to think her wig had come off because of Orca’s carelessness. And that appearance had even been exposed to the audience, so it was practically the same as having the combat outfit she had put so much effort into wearing stripped off in front of everyone. If it were him, he would want to tear his hair out too.

Caught in the middle of the confrontation, Leonardo had an arm draped over the backrest and was chuckling to himself. The curve of his eyes made it clear he was enjoying this quite a bit, so Ero quietly stepped into the waiting room so as not to disturb him. Leonardo was the first to notice Ero’s presence, and he flicked up a hand.

“Oh, you’re back.”

“Ah, yes. I’m back! Heh heh, I got it done fast, right? Wow, Bell! I’m so glad you woke up! Do you have any idea how worried I was?”

Keeping up the patter with easy shamelessness, Ero hurried over and sat down beside Leonardo. Still fuming, Beatrice only shot him a glance before lifting a shoe upside down and threatening Orca again. From the look of it, she still had no idea who the real culprit was.

In the meantime, Leonardo rummaged through the medicine envelope Ero handed over.

“You got back faster than I thought... Huh?”

One golden eyebrow lifted slightly. Then his eyes shifted to the side.

“What’s this? I never asked for this.”

“Ah, the medical officer said you might need it, Lord Lion, so he packed it for you! I don’t really know what it is, so I just brought it back.”

What he had been told to fetch was something like a sedative to slow the heart rate, but all the medicine Leonardo had taken before was inside too, each packet still sealed. Leaving aside the fact that everyone already knew Leonardo would never take anything that had been opened because it looked suspicious, there were also pills he took from time to time when he had nightmares or episodes of hyperventilation.

“Really?”

You noticed.

Leonardo held Ero’s gaze for a moment, then folded the medicine envelope and shoved it into the inside pocket of his jacket.

“You did good.”

Leonardo patted his shoulder in encouragement without pressing the matter any further, and Ero added with a foolish grin,

“Heh heh. Oh! And I got permission for you to use the men’s shower up ahead too. I asked for it, and they said they’d clear it out for forty minutes, so you should be able to go right now!”

“Oh, nice work.”

Stretching, Leonardo rose from his seat. He was covered in dirt and dust, and after being swallowed up by Orca’s Divine Beast, he had reeked of fishy water all match.

Even if only briefly, there was no way he could meet His Grace smelling like this. Through Ero, he had asked league operations to restrict access to the participants’ shower room for a little while. It might have been a privilege, but once he gave the name Lion, it had not been a particularly difficult request.

“I’m going too.”

Orca, who had been squabbling with Beatrice, perked up at once and cut in midway. But that was nonsense that would never fly. Leonardo’s eyes twisted in open irritation.

“Are you insane?”

“Bathing together is a sign of bonding.”

“I don’t think you and I have built up that kind of bond.”

“You’re cold. Haven’t I proven myself enough?”

Ero, who had been even more startled than anyone else by the unexpected request, finally let out a sigh of relief when he saw his boss’s unyielding reaction. Just then, Gillian, who was sitting across from them, gave a low laugh and shook a bottle of wine before speaking.

“Hey, Joker. Our team decided to have a drink together. The leader’s obviously gotta come too, right?”

“Wh—?”

Answering in surprise again, Ero looked back and forth between Leonardo and Gillian.

“W-we’re going out for drinks?”

“Not that. Just a meal together, that’s all. You were the one who said to tell you depending on how things turned out.”

Leonardo corrected the matter and added that much. In that instant, Ero remembered himself from before the preliminaries started, fawning all over his boss and pestering him again and again that he would treat him to a meal.

“Ah, uh....”

Ero raised an index finger as if to say something, but failed to continue and only opened and closed his mouth. Then he looked from Orca to his boss and desperately racked his brain.

“Boss Lion, you’re not supposed to drink for a while...!”

“I’m not drinking.”

“B-but even if you’re just there—”

“Then handle that properly.”

“......”

“Hey, you’re the one who suggested getting together for a drink first, so why are you backing out now? What, do you already have plans?”

“N-no. It’s not that....”

Rolling his eyes in distress, Ero only screamed inwardly.

Can you really be meeting someone you’re courting in private like this?!

But just then, Orca’s eyes met his, and the man who had really thrown Bell around blinked innocently at him. That pure, wide-eyed stare made it seem as though he was threatening to expose everything if Ero did not come along, so in the end Ero could only swallow dryly and nod.

***

“Boss, I put the gown and towel you asked for on the shelf. Should I leave your change of clothes next to the sink?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Shaa—

His voice, mixed with the sound of running water, echoed dully from inside the partitioned shower stall. Standing outside the curtain and carefully arranging Leonardo’s belongings, Ero held the clothes in his arms and kept sneaking glances over.

“Um, boss, but... do you not have plans today? You always left in a hurry first after your matches.”

Beyond the drifting steam, a long, lean silhouette slowly swept a hand down its left shoulder.

After a brief silence, Leonardo answered while rubbing at the skin beneath the stream of water.

“...Well, I don’t really have anything set for today. I’m just going to go say hello for a bit.”

“Ah, so you are meeting him after all? Then it’d be fine if we put our meal off until next time.”

“How do you know whether you’ll be eliminated before then? Just go now.”

There was an obvious reason the wary Leonardo was agreeing to this meal today. Before the preliminaries had begun, he had quietly regretted not making time for Ero at least once while waiting to see whether he would be eliminated early. It was better to humor him appropriately at a moment like this, as a way of celebrating victory, because the moment someone became a rival or got eliminated, they turned into a stranger.

Before anything could be left as a regret, he meant to grant the brat’s request and mark the moment by letting himself be treated to a meal.

“You’re the one paying, right?”

Of course, things were heading in the exact opposite direction from what Ero had intended.

“Y-yes? Ah... yes....”

“Why, you don’t want to go?”

“No, no! It’s not that! Why would I hate that? I just thought it might make you uncomfortable....”

“I told you I’m fine. More importantly, quit standing there blankly and go get me some spray painkiller.”

Ero, who had been fumbling for an excuse and looking troubled, widened his eyes.

“What? Painkiller? Are you hurt somewhere?”

“It’s nothing serious. My wrists feel stiff from wearing the shackles.”

“Hah! Yes, understood! I’ll be right back!”

Alarmed by his boss saying they felt stiff, Ero hurriedly spun around. He passed the row of sinks and mirrors outside the shower area, turned the sign outside the locker room around so it read Cleaning in Progress, and headed for the infirmary.

Once the sound of another presence was gone, the golden eyes that had been fixed on the curtain shifted back to his left shoulder. Truthfully, it was not just the shackles. In the first match, he had destroyed dozens of floating platforms while facing Asher. His left shoulder, which had taken repeated impacts, had been throbbing for a while now.

Did I strain the muscle...?

The scarred area from years ago had swelled ever so slightly. If he left it alone like this, the muscle sometimes twisted on its own. Leonardo kept pouring warm water over it and slowly massaging his shoulder.

His affinity was the opposite of it, but when it came to relaxing tension, nothing beat water and steam.

Leaving his body under the falling stream, he slowly closed his eyes, then opened them again.

Click—

Had it been around three minutes? After finishing up and turning off the valve, Leonardo swept the curtain aside with a sharp motion. The hot air trapped inside billowed out all at once. Running a hand through his damp hair, he stepped out in front of the shelf on wet soles.

He unfolded the gown Ero had laid out and draped it over his shoulders, then shoved his arms into the sleeves roughly. Just then, he sensed someone outside the shower room.

Back already?

He pulled the large towel up over his face and hair as if merely drying himself. Now that they were about to go eat together, it was almost silly, but Ero had still never seen his bare face. Even when he had gotten a nosebleed, he had covered the lower half of his face with his hand, doing his best not to expose it.

Loosely tying the belt of the gown, Leonardo focused on the area outside the shower room. Leaving damp tracks behind him, he walked toward the sinks and mirrors.

“You’re back? That was faster than I thought....”

He spoke casually, having naturally assumed it would be Ero. But then the scent brushing past the tip of his nose made his words trail off. In front of the sink beneath the bright lights, a man stood in the passage leading toward the locker room, filling his vision.

White uniform trousers, a white shirt, and a tie. His jacket was nowhere in sight.

The man sitting askew against the cold marble counter seemed to match the bluish lighting unusually well.

He was holding the mask Lion had taken off. More precisely, it was dangling from the tips of his fingers, lifted up in front of his own face.

Then the blue eyes moved first, and the elegant face slowly turned to the side.

“Yeah.”

Hugo casually lowered the mask he had been holding. The fishy smell spreading from it filled the entire space the two of them stood in.

The scent of someone else clinging to clothes that had gotten wet once and then dried. That was the very smell Leonardo had wanted to erase before meeting His Grace.

“You’re here.”

Hugo welcomed Leonardo in a gentle voice.

His hands clasped together, fingers interlaced, he relaxed the line of his mouth into a warm smile.

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