Andore had really gotten used to his two teammates fighting with each other, which probably wasn't a good thing. What he hadn't gotten used to was when their arguments would evolve into physical altercations.
They really should've won that turbo duel; but they didn't. Tensions had been building within team unicorn for a while, and that could've caused their loss. Jean, and Breo, however, seemed to both think the loss was the other's fault, and hadn't stopped fighting about it since.
Andore usually let his teammates work things out themselves, but when he saw Jean shove Breo, and Breo shove him back, he knew he had to do something before someone got hurt. He tried yelling for them to stop, but they ignored him, and he knew he'd have to get in the middle of them.
"Guys! We're a team; this isn't how teams act!" He told them. "We can't keep fighting like this."
Unfortunately for Andore, he managed to get in the way of Jean's fist, taking a punch meant for Breo, and falling to the ground. He stayed down for a while, trying to catch his breath after the punch had knocked the wind out of him while the other two stared in shock. Eventually he pulled himself into a sitting position.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for you to get hurt." Jean said regretfully, offering Andore a hand. "You're right; we really need to act more like a team."
Andore shoved the other man's hand away, instead pulling himself off the ground on his own devices.
"No! We're not a team anymore!" He shouted. "Team unicorn's through; I quit!"
He walked off, leaving his two stunned teammates behind.
Andore didn't take his duel runner with him when he walked out of the arena. No, that would attract too much attention, attention he'd really like to avoid right now. He even left his jacket behind so that he'd be less recognizable; he just wanted to be left alone without having to deal with annoying fans or paparazzi vultures.
He took the back streets back to the hotel where they'd been staying. It wasn't a long way, and he had his phone if he got into any trouble. Thankfully, he made it back to the hotel and up to his room.
Andore locked his door behind him, and grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the minibar. He sat on the bed, waiting for the inevitable conversation with his teammates as he drank. He couldn't avoid it, but he could put it off as long as possible.
After Andore had walked out on them, it took Breo and Jean much longer than they'd like to admit to go look for him. They managed to get into another fight about whose fault it was that he left, before realizing how much of a point Andore had; they really weren't a team anymore.
When team unicorn was first formed, they dueled for each other. The three of them had been really close at first. Then they got into the professional league, and everything changed; it became less about the friendship they had, and more about winning at any cost, even if they had to put their lives in danger to win.
They found Andore's duel runner right where he'd parked it after the duel, and Jean discovered his discarded jacket on the ground nearby.
"I think Andore might be serious about quitting the team." Jean told Breo after finding the jacket. "There's no other reason he'd leave both his jacket and runner behind."
"We really should've seen this coming." Said Breo. "We've been distant for a while now, and I think this incident might've been the one to push him overboard. We really should find him before he does something irrational."
The last time Andore had acted like this, he ended up getting drunk and landing himself in a jail cell after a bar fight. They didn't figure out where he was until he called from the police station the next morning, asking one of them to come down and bail his hungover ass out of jail.
"I'll call the hotel." Replied Jean. "He left his wallet in his jacket pocket, so there's not many other places he could go. I'd normally call Andore to see where he is, but I don't think he'll answer right now."
Andore was already pretty drunk when he heard a knock at the door. Instead of getting up to open it, he just slurred for whoever it was to go away.
"Andore, its us." He heard Jean say from behind the door. "Open up before we get the manager to unlock your door with the master key."
With a sigh, Andore tossed the half empty whiskey bottle aside and drunkenly stumbled his way to the door, successfully unlocking it on his second try.
"Whadda ya want?" He slurred. "Ya wanna hit me again, is that it?"
"We came here to apologize." Breo told him. "We're sorry for how much we've been fighting, are you ready to forgive us?"
Andore just laughed. "I'm not mad, I love ya guys. And that's not the whiskey talking."
"How drunk are you?" Jean asked him.
Andore, who was too drunk to understand the question, simply replied with, "Yes." He reached for the whiskey bottle once more, but Jean managed to get it first.
"You're drunk enough; I'm not giving this back. We just want to talk, Andore; Breo and I feel really bad about what happened back there, and we know you're not okay, either."
A few tears trickled down Andore's face, but he blamed that on the alcohol. "I don't think team unicorn should break up, but I think we need to take a break from dueling. I booked flight back to Spain; I'm leaving in the morning. Maybe in a few months we can get back together, but not right now."
"What will you do when you get back there?" Breo asked him. "We've been dueling for so long; we're all going to have trouble trying to do anything else."
"I don't know; I have enough money to support myself for a while, so maybe I'll just take some time to find myself, as cliché as it sounds." He replied. "Plus, my sister could use some help with her two kids, especially when she's got a third on the way."
"I thought your sister only had one kid." Said Jean, trying to make light conversation.
Andore shook his head. "No, my nephew was born about a year ago, after the three of us stopped talking as much. With all the tournaments, one after another, I've only met him once. I'd really like to talk, but I've got a flight to pack for. Besides, I'm so drunk I won't remember most of this."
Jean and Breo left without another word, but only after Jean handed Andore his previously discarded jacket.
They knew they'd miss Andore, but these things happened, and there wasn't much they could do about it. Hopefully Andore would be back in a month or so, and they could get back to dueling. But for the time being, all three of them had a lot to think about.
Andore really thought he'd be less hungover for his flight home, especially after spending half the night throwing up the whiskey he'd drank. He was just glad he'd gotten a seat in first class, so at least he could get some rest while the headache and nausea wore off.
As the plane took off, he could practically taste the Spanish air waiting for him thirteen hours, and six thousand miles away. It tasted different that the Japanese air; more like home.
It would be a challenge adapting to a slower paced lifestyle, even for just a few months. But Andore knew he'd be just fine; after all, there had been a time before he'd even thought about being a duelist. What was going to be a challenge to adapt to was life without his teammates.