Chapter 17: Darts, Et Cetera, Part 2

Before we three head towards the bar again for our work…

We receive a private message from none other than Nini herself.

"Once again, thank you for serenading us last night. Words can't describe how much you've contributed to the love Reynard Holt and I have. Therefore, from now, on, we'll be the best of friends."

Good. We now know the full name of the guy Nini resolves to have and to hold all her life.

She even sends a picture of herself and Reynard doing a double peace sign somewhere inside a mall.

And as for the friend requests she sends to us three? We accept them right away.

Alright, now that that's taken care of, it's all systems go for another night at work.

With our boosted morale, Leigh and I give our 101% in our performance.

And our set list? Covers for now.

We already have planned set lists for the next few days, anyway.

After an invigorating hour-long session, we three head to the bar as usual.

Laurent greets us with his usual aplomb.

"I bet you're all getting excited for the expansion, huh? I can read from your faces that you certainly aren't lying."

We all nod giddily.

"To tell you the truth… I suck at both darts and billiards. And Vic always owns me in both."

We all drop our jaws as we exclaim, "W-WHAT?"

"Lemme tell ya about when Vic and I first crossed paths six years ago."

***

At that time, I was this establishment's bartender for a little over a year.

Seeing as the previous bouncer retired due to age, Vic the gentle giant immediately swooped in.

Yes, he's the perfect candidate, but Zach wanted enough proof that he's tough enough to maintain the overall peace and order in this bar.

In terms of fighting prowess, he's second to none.

He proved it by easily dispatching five assailants in an exhibition match at the nearby martial arts dojo.

He proved it by completely owning the training dummy the dojo had.

He proved it by scaring away wannabe pickpockets who attempted to mug him when he was on his way out… with just his mean stares.

Indeed… he's overly qualified for our little establishment, but it's miles better than having no bouncer at all!

But… I've always wanted to challenge him… in another aspect.

Seeing as I am interested in darts and billiards ever since I was young, I mustered up the courage to say the following to him…

"Vic… I humbly challenge you to a round of darts and billiards."

"Oh, that? I'll accept it. You can just meet me at Kensington's, at the Atlantic Station. Tomorrow, at 3."

"No problem."

And thus, the challenge was set in stone.

The appointed place and time.

He and I showed up promptly.

After shaking hands, Vic told me, "You'll decide which challenge we will tackle first. Darts or billiards?"

I readily answered, "Darts, please."

We then walked towards one of the darts facilities.

I then told him, "We'll be utilizing the classic count-up rule. The one with the most points wins."

"Alright. So then… who will start the game?"

This should be easy.

A coin toss would settle things right away.

"Heads up, I go first. Tails up, you go first."

The gentle giant just nodded as I initiated the toss.

Boom. Tails up.

Vic's gonna go first.

Deep inside, I personally thought he would suck at sports where precision and accuracy are required.

But as he threw his three darts, he would prove my hypothesis wrong.

Two of his darts landed on the highest points of the outer ring, which meant his points would be doubled.

And the third dart landed on the "20" part of the inner ring, which meant that he scored an astounding 60 points!

Hmph, so he's that good, huh?

I would definitely put him in his place.

It was my turn.

Doing everything I could to get the grip and the stance right, I tossed the darts towards the dartboard.

The result?

My first dart landed on the bull area, the very center, which meant that I easily bagged 50 points.

But the next two darts would land on the "7" areas, and none of them landed on the outer or inner rings, which meant that I scored a measly 14 points.

And no matter how hard I tried to one-up him in the next seven rounds…

...his calm disposition would net him even greater amounts of points.

And my annoyance and jealousy of his hidden skills netted me around half of the points he racked.

In the end, Vic Montemayor won against me, 651 points vs. 355.

He just tapped my shoulder as he consoled me…

"Hey, don't get yourself down. We still have billiards, don't we?"

"Y-Yes."

We then proceeded to the billiards hall.

There were not many players at that time, so it was the perfect opportunity to get my invisible fighting spirits out!

If he was getting serious, then I should too!

We decided to have our bout on a table at the southeast corner.

Once again, we both agreed on a coin toss.

Luckily for me, it was a heads up, so I would go first.

As I arranged the balls, I felt that I could nail a break just right.

Just use enough strength for a nice, good break, but don't send the cue ball flying off the table.

"Hai-yahh!"

I did a high-pitched, kung-fu-like noise as I leveraged my arm's strength and channeled it onto the cue stick.

Boom.

And what a good break it was.

The balls were nicely separated, and the 6 ball sank into the center-right pocket.

Great going, me.

But wait a second. How come the rest of these balls had faded-out numbers, despite the fact that they were brand-new at that time?!

Uh… I would just chalk it up to manufacturing defects.

At least the colors were intact, anyway.

Alright, then. Time to focus on the 1 ball.

It should be easy pickings for the top-right pocket.

Once again, I leveraged my strength, I hit the cue ball, the cue ball hit the 1 ball as expected, and...