"Last night was a waste of time." Jarold Walker grumbled as he finished the meeting with the other S-ranks and headed to class.
"We informed everyone of the situation, we made progress with our mission, and we're closer to catching the monster." Mercy said as she walked next to him.
"Yeah not fast enough and we also need to find some bike thief now!" Jarold said getting angry, "Why the hell is it our responsibility now?"
"We are meant to be future heroes."
"That's only an option. I'm planning to be a hunter, I don't have all this time playing 'Good Samaritan.'" He said as he ran into Lothar, "What?" He asked seething.
"Professor Phil wants to talk to you and Mercy after school." Lothar said coolly, "And I recommend you to calm down a bit. I'm not the enemy."
"Tsk, whatever." Jarold said leaving in a huff.
"That motorcyclist, do you have any idea who they were?" Lothar asked Mercy now that Jarold was gone.
"Not really." Mercy said with a pause, "I have a feeling that it might be the same person that rescued Esme from Jarold."
"Rescue? Are you sure that's the right word?" Lothar asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Jarold was meant to kill her, so yes. Rescue is the correct word." Mercy said looking over to Lothar.
"That is fair. Still why do you think they're the same person?"
"Just an odd coincidence that there were two people that seemed to have enough talent to keep up with Jarold in the span of just two days." Mercy said.
"Is he going to be a problem?"
"Right now? No."
"Really?" Lothar said intrigued.
"Jarold said the stranger stopped a bomb from taking out an entire neighbourhood. I still have no idea what's going on with them and Esme but I think it's safe to assume that this masked biker isn't a threat for now."
"But they're an unknown. There wasn't any registered hero or hunter in the area, they are likely a vigilante." Lothar said.
"Is that a problem?" Mercy asked noticing a note of disdain when he said the word 'vigilante'.
"Vigilantes have no right to work here, they're illegal. If they want to do something with their lives, they need to register. They are a serious danger to everyone around them." Lothar lectured, "You cannot trust someone like that, we must bring any vigilante to justice when we catch them."
"But the main concern is the killer."
"Yes. But make sure to keep an eye out for the vigilante as well." Lothar reminded her.
"Right." Mercy said with a small nod as she hurried down the hallway and away from Lothar who stood there and simply watched her leave.
***
After the last bell rang Mercy and Jarold both met with Professor Phil Doyle. Entering the office it was immaculate and organized, with papers and folders all colour-coded and sorted out. Sitting in front of a computer was a relatively tall man with brown hair and square-rimmed glasses, dressed in a brown vest over a blue button-up shirt was Phil.
"Good to see the two of you, I hope you two had a good school day." Phil said greeting them.
"It was fine, why are we here?" Jarold said trying to quicken the conversation along.
"You two are heading the investigation for the culprit of the animal killings correct?"
"Yes, it led us to dealing with what seems to be a supervillain responsible for a spree of killings." Mercy said before asking, "We heard from the police that you had someone looking into it as well?"
"Oh yes." Phil said nodding his head, "I had a couple of students search around for clues to help the local police force, I thought it would be a good extracurricular for them. It turned out that it also helps with your current issue."
"Who are they?" Jarold asked.
"That's classified information. I want some anonymity for my assistants." Phil replied, "Now as a professor I do have authority in this mission, so I will have you two go back to the crime scene." He said as he handed them an envelope.
"Why are we headed back?" Jarold asked as Mercy took it.
"I believe there should be some hints to where the monster is hiding." He said before addressing Mercy, "In there is more information on who this killer might be, as well as passes in case the police try to get in your way."
"What we have to go on some sort of scavenger hunt?" Jarold asked.
"No, you'll have some lower-ranked students doing the legwork for you. You just need to gather the pieces and find him and eliminate him. Do not worry, this will be added to your record as credit. You are dismissed." Phil said.
"Understood." Mercy said as she beckoned Jarold to follow, "Let's go."
"Don't order me around." Jarold grumbled as he followed her.
***
When Mercy and Jarold reached the townhouses where Amadeus once used as a base, Mercy's blood ran cold. Standing in the rubble were four students, evidently for the menial work. There was a single E-rank among the two other F-ranks, and one of them was a very aggravating one.
"You've got to be joking." Mercy said with a tired sigh.
"Oh! Hey there Mercy!" Archer said waving at them in greeting.
"Who's he? Your boyfriend?" Jarold asked not recognizing him.
"Insult me again and I will cut your tongue off." Mercy said giving him an icy cold glare.
"What's got you so angry?" Jarold asked looking confused.
"So are you the help that Professor Phil sent?" Mercy asked now ignoring Jarold.
"Yeah, we're here to help clear the area and collect any missed evidence. Oh, let me introduce you to the others." Archer said pointing at the group.
"There's really no need." Mercy grumbled.
"So that's Evan. Uh, he said he worked with you already, he's an E-rank. That's Emmra, she's part of my class." Archer explained.
"I know. I know them both already." Mercy groaned out.
"You do?"
"Yes, I have worked with him and I interviewed Emmra about the animal pen earlier."
"Oh yeah, you did." Archer said recalling, "You have a good memory." He complimented.
"Did you find anything?" Mercy snapped at him.
"Huh? Oh yeah, right this way." Archer said as he proceeded to guide them.
"You sure you two aren't a thing? Because it feels like it is." Jarold said in a teasing manner before backing off as Mercy looked as though she would kill him right then and there. Once the three entered the hole in the wall that Amadeus made they were greeted by the other Emmra.
"Oh, hello." She said politely as she bowed her head towards them.
"What did you find?" Jarold asked.
"Ah, we found a hidden safe." Emmra said as she moved a broken piece of furniture to reveal a locked safe.
"How did you find that?" Mercy asked.
"Archer did, he spotted it even though everyone else missed it." Emmra said complimenting Archer.
"I got lucky." Archer said with a shrug.
"What's inside?" Jarold asked.
"We don't know. Evan wanted to check but Archer said we should wait." Emmra said.
"Right, what is that guy doing?" Jarold said turning to see that Evan was crouched down and seemed to be tinkering with something, "Hey!" Jarold called out to him.
"Yes?" Evan said whipping around.
"What were you doing?"
"Uh, nothing, just seeing if the monster dropped something." Evan said.
"Alright get over here." Jarold ordered as he ripped the safe open.
Inside the locked safe was a pile of papers, a book, and a few containers of liquid. Archer standing in the corner noticed Evan's eyes widen in excitement as he stared at the vials. Jarold unenthused handed the papers for Mercy to sift through.
"Great okay, now what?" Jarold said annoyed.
"The book is a journal." Mercy said as she quickly glanced at a couple of pages.
"Great, does it have any information on where the winged monster is?" Jarold asked.
"Doesn't seem like it. But it is still useful." Mercy said as Evan pulled out a duffle bag from seemingly nowhere.
"Let me store everything for you." He offered.
"Works for me." Jarold said, "Make sure not to damage anything." He said as he sat on a toppled-over drawer.
"Hey, so this monster escaped right?" Archer asked.
"Yeah. Flew." Jarold said.
"You know which direction?" Archer said looking around.
"Somewhere over there. They think he went back underground soon after he escaped." Jarold said vaguely gesturing in that direction.
"Huh." Archer pondered for a moment, "There's a construction area over that way, building some sort of last-stop gas station, right at the edge of the city. I think they already finished the foundation there. Underground would be safest to avoid the dead zone in that area." Archer said to no one in particular.
Jarold slowly turned to Archer as he kept talking, "If I remember correctly there are also a few homeless people around there in a small neighbourhood. Uh… also the police tend not to patrol there much considering it's the edge of the city and there is only one road that leads directly out there."
"How do you know this?" Jarold asked, his attention fully on Archer.
"Huh? Oh, I get bored. Read a lot." Archer said shrugging, pretending as though he did not take the better part of the school day looking everything up and checking with Zoe for the most likely location Amadeus would go.
"Did you realize all of this by yourself?" Mercy asked eyes narrowing at him in suspicion.
"Yeah, I guess." Archer said shrugging.
"How?" Mercy said in an accusing manner.
"I got the academy for a reason. I'm good at this stuff." Archer said with a shrug.
"Sure you are." Mercy said glancing at the F on Archer's uniform.
"Let's use that lead." Jarold said.
"Are you serious? You're going to listen to him?"
"F-rank or not, he made it into the school for a reason." Jarold pointed out, "Besides it's something that wouldn't hurt to check out." He said eyes brimming with anticipation, "Alright everyone gather the stuff and head back and hand the stuff over then you can go home."
"What are you doing?" Archer asked.
"None of your business." Jarold said as he and Mercy split off from them.
"We need to report this first." Mercy whispered to him.
"Urgh, they can do it when they get back."
"The police will need to know."
"We can scout first."
"That would get us in trouble."
"Who cares?"
"If the police do then we'll lose credit." Mercy pointed out.
"Fine, but we're just giving the thing more time to escape." Jarold grumbled.
As the S-ranks were left the others alone, Archer turned to talk to Evan, "Hey pass me the bag, I need to put this in." Archer said as he pulled out a flash drive from a drawer that remained intact.
As Evan handed it over to him, Archer noticed Evan had snuck a vial into his pocket. Archer said nothing about this as when he stuffed the flash drive into the bag, he quickly nabbed a vial for himself.
"So this monster killed more than just animals." Emmra said looking at the destruction of the homes, "How could someone do something like this?"
"It was willing to do anything to survive. It decided that sacrificing everyone here would allow it to live. I can understand it." Evan said seemingly speaking from experience.
Archer glanced curiously over towards him as Emmra had a far more disgusted look on her face, "You can understand it? You can understand this?" She said gesturing at the destruction.
"Grow up Emmra, you were always such a coward when it comes to combat. Real life isn't a safe dreamland! Aren't you a part of a hero academy? Maybe you should start a bit more mature." Evan said suddenly growing angry, "People die from softness like yours. If you don't like it, then quit."
"Grow up? You don't even know me! And if you cared so little why are you here?" Emmra shouted back.
"Hey maybe we should continue this elsewhere." Archer said awkwardly, "You know, away from everything."
"And why are you here? What are you up to?" Evan said glaring at Archer, "You come from across the planet for what?"
"I heard that this was a good school, and I was told that I needed to experience the world more." Archer said with a shrug.
"As if I would believe that." Evan said with a scoff, "Why are you taking this mission? And why are you so chummy with Mercy?"
"Oh you think she likes me?" Archer said, "Personally I'm beginning to worry if I annoy her. She always seems to be in a bad mood when it comes to-"
"Stop fooling around!" Evan yelled, "Nothing is going right, some stranger helped Esme, now we have a monster going around draining people's blood and you're involving yourself in business you shouldn't!"
"But I took a request. I was offered it due to being there for the animals." Archer said looking confused, "Why are you acting like I'm responsible?"
"Because you are!"
"How?"
Evan wanted to scream out that Archer isn't supposed to even be here. How after Esme was infected, she would go on a killing rampage to eventually be stopped by Ran Almer. But that hasn't happened, instead this brand-new monster is roaming around and another masked maniac was running wild. The only connection Evan could make was that Archer was here and he wasn't here in his past life. Everything about him was wrong.
"You're up to something." Evan said pointing a finger at him.
"Don't point at me." Archer said.
"Or what?"
Archer about what he knew of Evan Case from the research he did after the broken window incident. He was the bastard son of a relatively rich family who unfortunately blew most of the money he got on superfluous things. Lazy and lacking innate talent, he barely made it as an E-rank and was rumoured to be flunking out by the end of the month unless he passed some test.
It seemed that this fear of expulsion was what was needed, as within the first week of Trinity Academy he began using its forest as a base camp, spending all his remaining money for passes in the forest. There he had been training and working ridiculous hours trying to get better while living off the rich, mana-filled land. Well, at least those who observed him chalked it up to fear.
Archer with his own run-in with a pair of goddesses, had the inkling that there might be some sort of divine intervention at play. Which likely meant that Evan was aware of the potential apocalypse.
Time travel was definitely an option for the change, so perhaps playing with Evan's reality might give the reaction Archer wanted. If he was willing to change his lifestyle, mentions of his lack of talent likely weren't the correct attack. But he doesn't seem to do well with unexpected variables, perhaps dredging up painful memories might do the trick.
Archer stared at the finger thrust at his face for a brief moment before staring Evan dead in the eye and proceeded to choose his next words carefully, "I don't have anything to prove to someone who openly chose to let everyone who once cared for him down. You think trying now fixes anything you've already done? You think you deserve to be redeemed?"
Archer then saw a flurry of emotions race across the eyes of Evan. Logic now flew out of the window and was replaced with rage. There was only one course of action for Evan to respond with. Rearing up a right hand he struck Archer across the face as hard as he could.
Rolling with the punch, Archer fell to the floor with only one thought in his head. Really doesn't know how to strike. As he toppled to the floor.
"Evan!" Emmra cried out in disgust.
"I'm leaving." Evan spat and without another word left.
"Archer, are you alright?" Emmra said rushing towards him in concern.
"I'm fine, didn't think he would actually hit me." Archer said rubbing his jaw.
"That was partially your fault. You shouldn't have said that to him. He's still a rank higher than us." Emmra chided.
"Yeah I know, should watch my mouth." Archer said as he picked himself back up. Using part of a wall for some support.
"Still I can't believe he would hit you like that. Irresponsible." Emmra said shaking her head.
"Hey, did you two know each other before? He sounded like he knew you."
"Huh? Uh, kind of, I guess. We went to the same middle school but we barely talked."
"Strange. Well let's go wait for the bus." Archer said as he placed the bag, "Huh, looks like Evan left on foot."
"Good, you two won't fight again."
"Well I would try to avoid him either way." Archer said, "I can't believe I accepted this quest."
"Hey it's one step closer to bringing that monster to justice."
"True. Hey, how is Ran's training going?"
"Oh he's already getting really strong. Honestly it's part of the reason why I decided to start taking on more missions. I feel like I'm going to lag behind." Emmra beamed.
"You'll be with him every step of the way."
"I hope so." Emmra said before looking at Archer, "You know, you should start joining in with us too, the more the merrier."
"I don't know, I'm more suited to the background research stuff." Archer said with a shrug.
"You can't think like that Archer. You've got just as much potential as everyone else. You can be far stronger!"
Archer smiled and nodded as they waited at the bus stop, from his periphery he saw Riley leave his home and angrily get into his pickup truck. Archer smiled and thought of the bike as the bus came to a stop.
***
As the sun had now set and the moon now filled the sky, Esme stared at the ceiling of Julia's guest room, bored out of her mind. She had been forced to stay inside the whole day with the blinds drawn. It didn't help that sunlight stung her like a bad sunburn, she was actually thankful that the sun now set.
She simply sat in her room and scrolled on her phone waiting for news. He could at least keep me up-to-date. Esme complained to herself. It's my life on the line afterwards. She thought as she pulled the bottle of plasma and uncapped it.
Is this going to be my life now? She thought glumly as she ate a pinch of the powder straight. She hated how good it tasted to her. Looking at the bottle she sighed as she saw it was half full.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard knocking at the door. She heard Julia's voice through the door to stay put as she went to go check. Esme peeked through the curtain to see Archer standing by the doorway waiting. Almost immediately Archer locked eyes with her, and he motioned for her to close the blinds.
How did he see me? Esme fumed as she did so. A moment later she heard him enter the house and she quickly opened up the door to greet Archer.
"Did you do it?" Esme asked excitedly, "Did you find a cure?"
"Took a while but thankfully the academy had some very good lab equipment. That vial I took from Amadeus's stash helped make this." Archer said as he pulled out a syringe, "Sneaking this out was harder than I thought."
"Is that the cure?" Julia asked as Luna slid down the stairs.
"Archer! You're finally back!" She said excitedly as she noticed the syringe, "You got the cure?"
"Oh yeah, Zoe helped a lot, now all I need to do is inject this and you'll be stabilized."
"What does that mean?" Esme asked.
"You'll keep the need for some blood." Archer said hesitantly, "But you can now eat normal food and your strength and constitution will be better." Archer added trying to look at the bright side, "You know, there are positives."
"No, it's alright." Esme said assuring him, "Better than being a mindless blood-sucking monster, besides if it will make me stronger, I'll take it."
"Wait really? Being part of a science experiment is alright with you?" Archer said surprised.
"You'll be surprised by the lengths that we students go to trying to get closer to S-rank. There are plenty of examples of people taking very dangerous artifacts and skills from dungeons and monsters. Let alone the experimental medicine." Julia said.
"Trinity Academy is something else." Archer said as he injected Esme with the syringe.
"I don't feel any different." Esme said looking at her arm.
"It'll take about half an hour, you should feel better then."
"So what about Esme being wanted? I asked Professor Doyle, he said Esme is still wanted, and there's a chance for expulsion." Luna asked.
"With the bloodlust dealt with all we need now is the culprit to admit to everything." Archer said.
"So we just wait for the S-ranks to finish the job?" Luna asked.
"No, I think I'm going to go get a closer look at them. Maybe pry a bit of information for myself." Archer said with a mischievous smile, "I'll be back in a couple of hours. You said you had some black spray paint right?" He asked Julia.
"Yeah."
"Perfect, I'll be back soon, Professor Doyle will update you in a bit." He said as he waved goodbye and left.
"I hate it when he does that." Julia said as Archer left.
"Do what?" Luna asked.
"Smile like that." Julia said, "He always causes havoc with that."