Chapter 11

After the battle at the park at midnight. Marco was confined to bed for a while. After all, he overdid it as his wound from the rooftop wasn't healed yet, and on top of that he suffered a grave wound from having his stomach pierced.

Even so, he didn't go the hospital because Yuki gave him a magic medicine that aids recovery. He told the school that he had a summer cold. Same for Rebecca as well.

It has been a week since the incident. Although Marco recovered after two days but he didn't go to school just yet. He needed to plan their next course of action.

And then, Marco was slowly going up the stairs at school, heading for the rooftop. Currently it was right in the middle of fourth period. In other words, he was skipping.

Originally he wasn't supposed to take his eyes off of Rebecca, but

"Well, it should be okay…"

The enemy didn't attack again after the battle at the park. First Marco, then Rebecca and Yuki were injured and took a couple of days to recover, which should've been a perfect chance for the enemy to strike. Despite that, nothing happened at all, so apparently the case was settled for now.

"Rebecca's "certain power" remained inactive.

Agitated by seeing Marco nearly dying, Rebecca ended up letting the power she innately possessed to go out of control. But a full awakening didn't happen.

Afterwards she tried to use the chaos magic several times, but it never worked. In the end, she was back to how she was before. Back then, Marco's <Vanishing Shift> succeeded and completely erased Rebecca's rampaging power.

Maybe it erased the Chaos magic along with it--- was what Yuki speculated. Now, the reason for dark organizations to go after Rebecca was gone.

Likewise it eliminated the need for the hunters to be wary of Rebecca and have Yuki observe her. The situation was developing favourably. But,

I'm afraid that's too good to be true.

At best, Marco's Vanishing shift only erased the torrent of Rebecca's power that had leaked to the outside. Most likely, if he tried to erase the power inside her, she herself would've gotten erased along with it. But that is something he didn't want to do.

Thus, not everything was over now. Even so, it was peaceful for now. Right now, he should be happy for at least that.

After finishing the climb up the stairs, Marco got onto the rooftop. First his vision fell onto a clear blue color. The beautiful blue sky that could only be witnessed in the summer. At times a cool and refreshing wind was blowing, gently caressing his body.

Then Marco noticed that someone else was already present in the corner of the rooftop. It was a boy with dirty blonde hair that looked up at the blue sky like Marco with both arms in his pockets. It was Jack, his best friend.

"Yo, Mark." Back to school and skipping already." Jack said with a teasing voice while making a wry smile. Marco slowly approached him.

"You're one to say. You boldly skipped before me."

"Got over your cold? Guess you really caught it from Rebecca the other day?"

"Well, could be… Anyway, were you alright?"

"…Hmm? Ah, you mean from the school store?" Right, Jack remembered.

"What's the big idea anyways? you suddenly attacked me and left me behind like that."

"My bad… But I didn't mean that." Seeing Jack confused expression, Marco smiled and continued.

"At the park, I cut you up quite bad--- I'm impressed you didn't die." In that moment, a cold silence spread across the rooftop.

"What're you talking about?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Trying to play dumb, in that case, how about this?" After saying so, Marco swung his arm towards Jack neck at blinding speeds.

Instantly, Jack dodged and jumped far away. That wasn't something possible for a normal human. All emotions had already vanished from Jack's face, seeing this Marco laughed.

"Don't blame yourself, Jack, that's a natural reaction. After you didn't die from my attack, you should have witnessed how I erased Rebecca's power. Needless to say, anyone would absolutely choose to dodge when I emit killing intent, even if it's only for show." Hearing Marco's words, Jack remained silent for a while before releasing a big sigh.

"And here I thought I had you fooled." After saying so, Jack came over to him.

"When did you notice."

"After everything was over. Thanks to you I was bedridden… While I lay in my bed covered in bandages, I had time to think about a some stuff." Marco said as he shrugged his shoulders.

"I got the clue after I defeated you, the masked man, at the park. When I tried to approach Rebecca, your subordinate "Shadow" stabbed my back with a small sword. But that's strange. It tried to continue fighting even though its leader was defeated." Marco paused and continued shortly

"After all, you guys received orders from whatever organisation you are in, to retrieve the power that dwells within Rebecca. Normally, one would retreat at once and report the situation."

"What about the possibility that it feared punishment for failing the mission and tried to save face at least?" Jack suddenly asked

"Well, that's possible--- But, there's another possibility." Marco replied.

"That the 'Shadow' wasn't a subordinate of the masked man, but was a puppet created using magic."

Then it would explain why the "Shadow" remained there. The "Shadow" wasn't all powerful. Most likely it was a type of puppet that could only execute simple commands. It probably just obeyed Jack command and attacked Marco.

"But if the 'Shadow' was a magic puppet, then that raises new questions. You were surprised upon seeing the "Shadows" in the school store during the black-out at night. But you know, Magic can't be perceived by normal humans. So naturally, those shadows that was created by magic, shouldn't be visible to the normal human eyes.

"I see. But wouldn't you normally think then that the 'Shadows' aren't magic puppets?"

"But it was worth testing out. If you had been a normal human, you wouldn't have reacted to my killing intent. A safe method to get confirmation, don't you agree."

"From your argument, it sounded like you were already sure of it" Jack still wasn't convinced, whereas Marco said "Not at all".

"I was just testing a theory of mine and it turned out to be true."

"I see." Jack said shortly after with a disappointed wry smile.

"So? What now, Mark?" Jack asked with a gruesome smile.

"I don't really mind if you want to continue our business from the park." Upon that, the air around Marco and Jack suddenly became tense.

For a while they confronted each other wordless. Marco made the first move. Relaxing his shoulders, he laughed.

"Nope. Rather than fighting, I came to negotiate."

"Negotiate." Jack asked puzzled, whereas Marco nodded with a "Yeah".

"I guess you got dispatched from your organization to observe Rebecca. I'm sure you were also ordered to stimulate the awakening of Rebecca's power if possible, but seeing as you went out of your way to pretend to be a normal student and attended the same school as her, I can only imagine that you sent to observe her." Jack responded with silence. Taking it as an affirmation, Marco continued.

"The reason you chose a forceful method this time is because the hunterssent an observer to spy on Rebecca. If they declared Rebecca as a harmful existence. Then they set her as an elimination target and things will become difficult for you. As such, you plotted to have Rebecca awaken her power from shock of seeing me in a near-death state."

"Well, you're partly right. If the hunters do that, things will become difficult for me." Jack said while scratching the back of his head. Marco smiled faintly because the killing intent coming from Jack in front of him vanished. He must have gotten interested in what Marco wanted to say.

"Either way, you got hasty and fucked up. Your boss, who wants to get his hands on Rebecca's power, only ordered you to observe, because it's possible that the power will disappear along with Rebecca if you carelessly killed her. But, now you got exposed as as observer. You even failed in your forceful method. Isn't that bad in a lot of ways for you? Wouldn't you lose face if they knew you failed? "

"I wonder… I think it won't turn into a problem if I killed you."

"Even if you kill me, you can't afford to kill Rebecca. You can't cover it up. Jack, you're in trouble. That's why you were lamenting here alone." Hearing Marco's words, Jack frowned.

"So what's the deal?" Jack asked. This was a good chance. So Marco continued

"Due to your failure, they'll surely send in a new guy. A more troublesome one that's stronger than you, to avoid the same failure. They might even give up on surveillance and make a forceful approach. But It took all of our current strength to compete with you, so we have no chance against such a person. Even if we manage to win, just an even stronger one will appear next. At worst, they'll press on us with numbers. Then we really have no chance of winning. So it's much better for us for you to keep doing your observation like nothing happened for a while longer." Marco said so in a single breath.

"Like that, no one will know about your blunder either. Not a bad deal, right?" Joining hands with his enemy Jack. That was the idea he got from the advice he received from the nurse Miss Charlotte.

She had said: If you make enemies, increase your allies. And for both allies and enemies the quantity wasn't important, but the quality--- One can't weigh the odds of quantity and quality. It must have meant that you shouldn't treat an enemy as an enemy to the bitter end, but make an effort to make your current enemy into your ally, when you wanted to gain new allies. Even if almost all the boys were against him right now, it was no reason to give up. It could be perfectly applied to the current situation around Rebecca as well.

Enemies and allies changed, depending on the time. If so--- The determination to join hands with Jack was needed for Marco and the others to persevere.

"I see, your deal isn't bad." Jack mumbled after hearing Marco's proposal.

"But you're forgetting that we're enemies. It wouldn't be strange to betray each other when the situation changes. So how do you plan to join hands without any trust?"

"I don't think we have to worry about that."

"Because we're best friends.. isn't that enough? Marco added while scratching his cheek.

"Yeah, I'm afraid so." Jack said

"Well I'm still alive, after all." Marco added

"What you tried to do was basically a shock therapy." Marco declared in front of Jack.

"Because choosing a method that shocks Rebecca as much as possible would have been the most effective. But you didn't kill me. Not only that, the 'Shadow' clearly avoided my vitals with it's sword. Pretty much like threading a pin with utmost caution. Precisely because of that I could save Rebecca and was saved myself, even after late treatment."

"That just means that you got lucky."

"No. Like you had said, we were supposed to fight to the death. Sorry, but I'm not so naive to brush it off as dumb luck after being saved from such a situation."

There was no reason to leave him alive because Jack plan was to shock Rebecca to forcefully awaken her power, therefore killing Marco would have been the right choice. So what if he was working as a double agent. That said, Marco certainly wouldn't speak that out. It was merely a guess filled with his wishful observations.

But if Marco's guess turned out to be right, that fact should've been Jack's secret, never to be revealed to others. But if Marco were to suggestively tell him that he realized that possibility--- and that he sympathized with his standing.

Then a trust would certainly be established. Big enough to join hands.

"That's the reason I trust you, Jack. I hope… that it'll become a reason for you to trust me too." Then Marco cut off his words. Because he had already said everything he was supposed to say.

He had played his cards right. Now he could only wait for Jack answer. For a long time, Jack didn't say anything. He pondered about something the whole time. He was hesitant, which had to be positive.

"Sorry, but your story doesn't tell me anything, Mark."

"…I see. No luck, huh."

"But, this incident really jeopardized my position." Jack said with a sigh.

"For now, I'll accept… your idea." He spoke out the words Marco wanted to hear with a wry smile.

"Thanks." Marco returned the smile.

He didn't know if his earlier guess was right or wrong. Given that it was right, it would be a betrayal against his group if Jack admitted it and at the same time, he would fail his secret mission. There was no way Jack would unnecessarily admit that, even if Marco guess was right. But at least for now, Jack agreed to cooperate. Then it was a job well done today.

And then the chime rang the end of the fourth period. Lunch break started.

"Now then, I'd better go back." Saying so, Jack started heading for the door of the rooftop.

"Yo, Jack." Marco called out. In the end, there was still one thing he absolutely had to ask.

Someone attacked Rebecca's parents on the day of the accident, he needed to know who it was.

"Do you know who killed Rebecca's parents?"

It was the first tragedy that befell Rebecca.

"Yeah, I do."

"His name? What's he like?"

"Yo, Mark. we're technically allies now, right? It's not fair to get information one-sided."

"But..! Marco immediately tried to pester him, but held himself back. If he were to force things here, the gained truce with Jack would break. As such,

"No, you're right. Sorry, forget I asked." Saying so, Marco cast down his eyes and he suddenly heard a sigh from Jack.

"Drakken." Marco clearly heard the name Jack spoke out.

"Drakken. It's the guy, who observed Rebecca before me… But for now it's better if you don't know anything more." Jack said before turning around to leave.

Marco stared at Jack back as he leaves the school's rooftop.