"Calm down... it's not like that." Haseo closed his eyes in irritation, taking a deep breath. Told you it was hard to believe, came the unbidden thought. He went quiet again- Endrance revealing the ruse himself had just happened before Haseo had woken up in an institution bed, and so far he had had little chance to turn the incident over in his head himself. So while a better story-teller may have saved what had really happened until the end, Haseo jumped straight to the point.

"You would," he said, "You pretended like you were betraying us, and Saku followed your lead. Whatever you did must have been convincing enough to fool Sakaki... the next time I was in the Arena, against Antares, he..." Haseo rubbed the back of his neck, trying not to get too pissed off at the memory, but regardless his voice became more stressed as he went on.

"Sakaki accused me of cheating and Antares of throwing our match. He showed everyone footage of Skeith in the Arena that he'd gotten from the Serpent of Lore, and then he tried to disqualify me."

Once more Haseo sighed and held up a hand. "Sakaki thought he was being really funny. He put you and Saku on Emperor Taihaku's team, but didn't suspect..." Haseo paused again, sorting the details out. "While we were trying to get close to Sakaki by rising through the ranks, I guess your technique was different...."