The months leading up to the Games are pure torture.
To hell with letting the family grieve. It was time for Wonder to shut up and buckle down. This time, it's the instructors who are pushing him to his breaking point.
They're the ones dragging him from his home and thrusting him into the gym with a sword in hand. Their words are louder, harsher. They've almost certainly been told that Wonder will follow in his sister's footsteps and sacrifice himself for a senseless taste of fleeting glory.
He is a cog in their machine. Just like Hirana and Jemima and Chiffon.
His mother lets him slack off at home.
His father snaps one day.
Wonder returns home one day to find that he is nowhere to be found. Some of his clothes and other possessions are missing. He has left nothing behind except Victoria lying in a tear-stained puddle on the floor.
The message is loud and clear.
Wonder has no choice but to deal with this new normal. Only now, he can't muster the energy to use humor as a coping mechanism. The future in front of him is nothing but black and dark gray. There is nothing that could possibly inject even the slightest amount of colour back into it.
Nothing at all.