"Pardon the intrusion." Ace called out as he opened the door.
"Clover-senpai, are you alright?" Deuce asked nervously.
Grim called out with a wide smirk, "Yo, glasses! We heard you're down in the dumps and came to pay our respects!"
Trey's room was a little more fancier than theirs. She suspected that it was probably the same for the other rooms in the dorms. There was a single size bed with red curtains, a blanket with spade designs on it, a couple of pillows and a white desk full of books and yellow lamp, and brown chair. the walls were decorated with vertical stripes of black, red, and white. There was also a green spade mat on the ground and a night stand next to the bed. At the foot of the bed was a red heart-shaped wardrobe. On the ceiling was a pretty flower shaped chandelier, not as big as the one in the cafeteria though for a good reason.
Lotus saw Trey was sitting on his bed with a bandaged wrapped around his right foot. Cater was already there sitting on that chair.
"Oh, it's the A-Deuce combo." Cater noted out with a wide smile and waved, "Plus Grim, Lotus, and Prefect in tow."
"Ah, hello..." Ace greeted before raising a brow, "Cater, what's that A-Deuce thing?"
"Huh?" Cater smirked with a mischevious wink, "It's cause both of your names end in '-ce' so I put them together."
"Don't be lazy!" Deuce scolded in dismay.
"More importantly," Ace turned to Trey in concern, "how is Trey's injury?"
"Ah." Trey responded with a small smile before saying firmly, "I misstepped going down the stairs. I did my best to catch myself but my right foot is toast. I'll be on crutches for a while."
"Eh!" Deuce grimaced when he saw the crutches next to Trey, "That's a pretty bad injury."
"I'm probably completely our of this year's magift games." Trey responded with a frown.
"I wasn't gonna do this if it wasn't a big deal but..." Grim pulled out a can of tuna, "Here, a get well can of tuna. Keep your chin up, glasses."
Chuckling, Lotus took out the box and placed it on the desk, "So, you do understand the manner. I thought there was a missing can of tuna from my room this afternoon. Anyway, I brought some mooncakes and fruits as get well gifts, Trey-senpai."
Trey chuckled and took the can from Grim as he said with a wry smile to them, "Haha, thanks a bunch."
"Ugh, cute me some slack." Cater grumbled in exasperation but with a smile, "Our stay player, Trey is out makes everything harder, and we have to have tryouts again."
Hearing his words, the younger two Heartslabyul students jumped with a sneer on their face, "Oh!! Tryouts?!"
There was a knock on the door as a familiar figure walked in still in his school uniform rather than the dorm's uniform. The only difference between them was that his tie was tied up like ribbon rather than a tie. Riddle sighed in exasperation, "What're you all doing? Taking over an injured person's room..."
"Ffgna!" Grim called out in bewilderment, "Hot headed Riddle!"
Lotus sighed and picked up Grim by the scruff, "Learn to keep words to yourself..."
Riddle shook his head as he folded his arms but didn't get angry as he pointed out, "Hot headed, huh. I won't get angry if you all don't break the rules."
Riddle then noticed the box and turned to Trey with a look of concern, "Trey, how are you? Is there anything you want to eat or drink?"
Trey smiled in response, "Didn't I tell you to not worry about me so much?"
"But, it's my fault you got hurt..." Riddle grumbled with a look of guilt.
"What does that mean?" Ace questioned in confusion.
Lotus narrowed her eyes when she heard this. Riddle saw this as well and explained, "I had something to take care of so I went to the third year classrooms during lunch. Then..."
Apparently, Riddle had told Trey that he was going to be late to practice so they should start without him but, as he was about to leave the stairway, he slipped on the steps and tumbled down. It was Trey who jumped in to save him from the nasty fall, but he got injured badly.
"Trey went out of his way to keep me from falling down the stairs and got injured." Riddle explained.
"I'd think you'd be good at falling after flight class." Trey joked in an attempt to clear out the guilt from his good friend, "I sprained my ankle, that's nobody's fault."
However, Riddle wasn't convinced and frowned, "But..."
"Prefect, is this..." Ace turned to Yuu with a whisper.
"This is getting suspicious." Yuu said with a frown quietly.
Lotus nodded in agreement, "I don't think it's carelessness."
"Now, now, Riddle!" Cater called out to snap the dreariness in the room, "No getting all gloomy, alright. It sucks what happened to Trey but you'll just have to fill in his part as well."
"Ah, yeah." Riddle slowly snapped out of his daze, "You're right."
"I think it's about time to let Trey get his rest. Outta here everyone." Cater began to shoo everyone out of the room.
Leaving the room and being guided to the lounge, they stopped as Riddle turned to cater after taking a seat on one of the cushioned, red chairs. The room was decorated with clocks, tilted mirror, cards, a crystal chandelier, red roses in white vases on the table and a part of it being a sun room where there was a large window. Riddle said to Cater firmly, "Okay, Cater. Is there something you don't want to talk about in front of Trey?"
"Very nice, Riddle." Cater said with a smirk, "You catch on quick."
He turned to Yuu and asked with a firmly, "Prefect, do you know anything about how Trey got hurt?"
Despite saying this, Lotus noticed a glance in her direction. She thought for a bit before shaking her head slightly and turning to Yuu.
"Actually," Yuu had just been hesitating before his late response came in just in time.
After explaining the situation to Riddle and Cater, Riddle folded his arms and frowned as he said aloud, "I see, so that's what the headmaster thinks..."
"Thought so." Cater said with a sigh, "You guys didn't come to just wish Trey well."
"It was part of the reason..." Lotus smiled, "But, what you said isn't wrong either."
"Actually," Riddle spoke up, "I thought something strange was going on so I had Cater start gathering information."
"It was obvious pretty quick that all the people getting injured were starting candidates for their teams like Riddle and Trey." Cater pointed out.
"At that time, I didn't trip over anything or feel someone push me from behind." Riddle explained to them giving them some ideas, "But... how should I put this..."
A tense silence filled the air as he continued, "it felt like my body moved on its own."
"Everyone else was saying something like that.!" Grim pointed out in agreement.
"I think it's safe to say someone intentionally is targeting magift candidates." Riddle concluded with a scowl.
"They're targeting their rivals to up their standing in the magical shift tournament?" Ace questioned curiously.
Riddle nodded, "The whole world will be watching. One's performance in their matches can lead to a career in the future. It's not strange that some will do whatever it takes."
Riddle's words reminded Cater of his conversation with Lotus the other day as he hummed in thought, "Still, it's weird. You didn't feel any wind magic coming from behind you, right?"
"Yeah," Riddle agreed, "It didn't feel like an attack."
"There were some who were injured during class." Cater added with a frown, "I really wonder what's going on?"
"We will just have to have the culprit spill everything when we catch them." Riddle decided without hesitation as a final word, "To that end, I will assist you in the search."
"Huh?!" Grim looked to him in surprise, "You're gonna help? What's your angle? Especially you, Cater!"
Lotus shook her head and she glanced down on Grim in disappointment. Cater laughed, "Wow, rude much. This is what you do when your fellow residents are targeted."
Lotus nodded, "When someone messes with someone of your group, it's the job of the group to strike back. Now that Trey-senpai has been injured by someone, it's only right for Riddle and Cater to jump in to help him."
"If that's the case, we'll help out too." Ace spoke up with a smirk.
"We gotta get payback for Trey!!" Deuce added as he smacked his palm with a fist ready for combat.
"You guys are all fired up." Riddle noted curiously.
"Oh, I got it!" Cater pointed out with a smirk upon realization, "You're after those open spots on the team, right?"
Ace smirked aloofly, "Hehe, you caught me."
"N-No, I'm not!" Deuce denied it nervously, "We have to look out for each other!"
Lotus smirked and folded her arms, "It's all right to admit it, Deuce. Shameless, but it's the truth."
"My goodness." Riddle sighed in exasperation and stated with some thoughts, "I'll take it into consideration depending on your efforts in finding the culprit."
"Yay!" The two cheered.
"Back to what we were talking about," Riddle continued, "If we're going to catch them we need to anticipate their next move."
"Anticipate them? How?" Grim questioned curiously.
"For example," Riddle explained, "put a bodyguard on students that seem like likely targets. When something happens, we promptly get the students to safety. Then we hunt down the culprit in that immediate area."
"A stakeout strategy." Lotus nodded in agreement.
"Lotus, that's exactly it!" Cater nodded in approval.
"Who do you think will be targeted next?" Yuu questioned curiously.
"Actually, among the starting candidates there's already a bunch that I've got my eye on that seem like they'd be next." Cater answered and held up his phone, "I'll make a private group on magicame so we can message each other. Take a look at the group's album, okay."
Seeing this, Deuce looked to his phone when he heard the notification with a look of nervousness, "Daimond-senpai, this is a huge amount of info."
"I know." Cater responded with a smirk, "Then, let's go figure out the next target."
"And, we're off!" Grim cried out with a wide smile, "Let's go!"
As they were leaving the lounge, Lotus walked over to Cater and pulled out her smart phone as she asked, "Um, Cater-senpai? Can you show me how to use the cell phone?"
Her smartphone was white with a black cover she had purchased from the store. Since the incident in Heartslabyul, she had placed an order in to the Mr.S's mystery shop hoping to get one herself so that she won't have to worry about trouble sending messages and secretly seeing the others. When Cater saw this, his eyes lit up, "Oh! So you finally got a smartphone too, Lotus?!"
Yuu nodded, "I've been trying to teach him how to use it, but it seems like he's never used a phone before to begin with. He almost got the calling part, but he still needs help with texting."
Lotus pouted, "I have, but they were never smartphones or cellular phones!"
"Eh?" Cater stared at her in bewilderment before he laughed, "Now, now. I'll show you how to use it, then."
"Th-Thanks..." Lotus wore a small trying smile.