It Hurts Doesn't It?

"How did he know?" (Jack)

"Who is he?" (Jack)

"How did he know about Sofia... Sofia...?" (Jack)

"How could I have forgotten about... Who...? Who was I thinking about?" (Jack)

"Back then... Those days... With my mother... My Friends... With my..." (Jack)

"Why is it all disappearing...? Who was I? Who am I?!" (Jack)

Jack crossed his fingers into circles. Yin over Yang. He created the ultimate sign.

The Taijitu.

His black and white eyes peering out into the empty desert. He pointed at Frankenstein.

Frankenstein stepped up.

"You want to fight me? Now? For good old times sake..." (Frankenstein)

He reached into his trench coat pocket, pulling out a small crystal core. He held it out into the air.

He stepped closer.

Jack stood still, motionless.

They both stood motionless for half a minute.

Jack's face was stiff and still. Like an empty husk of what he once was. Within a flash, he had transformed into a vacant soul struggling inside and out. His mind battling for supremacy.

Frankenstein looked at him in pity.

"Hello! You there?!" (Frankenstein)

He walked right up to him. Right up to the inch. Face to face.

He didn't even flinch. His eyes were straight forward, unwatching, unfulfilled.

Frankenstein leaned to his left side. He pulled up his mask and shout right into his ear.

"WAKE UP!" (Frankenstein)

Not a single movement. He was still lifeless.

Frankenstein turned around confused.

"I guess I broke something inside you. Those memories. About her..." (Frankenstein)

He walked further away.

"She was right you know... About everything... You probably don't remember it now, but... I knew it was true... You just... Never wanted to..." (Frankenstein)

He suddenly ran back at Jack. His wrapped bandages, his bloody arms, his purple eyes. He punched Jack across the face. Sending him straight to the rubble below.

"You... You..." (Frankenstein)

He took five deep breaths in and out.

"Addition. Subtraction. Multiplication. Division. What am I?" (Frankenstein)

Jack laid out flat. His arms to his side. Perfectly still. His mind wandering in and out.

A tear down his eye.

"I am the villain! I have to play the villain!" (Frankenstein)

He turned around. His purple mask on tight. His purple eyes fierce and filled with determination.

He walked into the sunset.

"It's been so long... Playing the villain..." (Frankenstein)

---

Ten minutes into the soft sunlight. Jack laid out flat. His eyes stuck in the trance of the past. His memories stuck in his mind, circulating, disappearing, gone and back, and back and forth, gone and gone. Again and again.

Vlad appeared on the destroyed facility. His exhausted body, his aching legs. He walked toward Jack.

"Jack... Huf Huf... Is that you Jack?" (Vlad)

He stood over him.

"You ok?" (Vlad)

No response.

"Jack." (Vlad)

He kneeled over him. His hand stretched, touching his forehead.

"I used all my reserved magic on Marsh and Ginger. I only have a little bit left for you." (Vlad)

He focused his mind.

"Vitality Sight!" (Vlad)

He searched through Jack's mind. Looking for his injuries, his pain, his grief, his troubles, his flaws, his weakn-

He fell back. His hand aching, his face covered in confusion and fear.

He knew it the second he felt it.

It was more sinister, evilier, crazier, scarier, ten times more powerful than any magic he had felt before. Something unknown. Something unknown to anything he had ever touched.

"What are-" (Vlad)

Jack sat up like a vampire. He turned to Vlad's stunned and confused face.

"You saw it didn't you?" (Jack)

"I... I saw it... But... Are you Jack?" (Vlad)

Jack looked at his own palms, his right eye black, his left eye white.

He smiled.

He was not Jack.

"I wish I was him. He seems so happy. With new friends. A squad. I wouldn't want to belittle him, he's just so innocent. This Jack..." (Jack)

He stood up smiling a smile so mature, so calming, like he knew everything there was to everything. Like he was an experienced Sorcerer, who could do anything, control anything, do anything, be anything, control the world, become God.

He felt like an entirely different person.

"You're not Jack! Your something else!" (Vlad)

He ignored Vlad.

"Twenty seconds is enough for me. I'll leave him alone for now. But when the time comes and the end is near, and her predictions come true..." (Jack)

He turned to Vlad.

"Be prepared Sorcerer. I will come. And I will fulfill her wish." (Jack)

"What are you?!" (Vlad)

Vlad readied himself to fight.

But reading himself wasn't enough. He wasn't ready for anything.

It only took one glance.

With just one glance, with his black and white eyes.

Suddenly the world was spinning. The turn of life and death. Earth and sky. Hell and Heaven. Everything opposite of one another, living in unison. Human and monster.

He had control over it all. With just one glance.

He controlled all of Yin and Yang.

Vlad felt all that power in one push, one destructive force.

But before anything could become anything, everything went to become again.

And back to normal, it went.

Vlad was standing exactly where he was standing and Jack was standing eight feet away from him. The same as same as.

Same as.

"What is... You-" (Vlad)

Jack stepped forward. his face filled with confusion. His eyes green.

"Vlad what just happened?! I exploded the building and the next thing I knew I was right here. And now you're here? What happened to that masked guy? Wait, what happened to Ginger and Marsh?! Are they ok?!" (Jack)

Vlad was stunned and confused. He took a step back before looking at Jack's face and eyes.

His green eyes and regular face.

"Ummm... What just happened? I don't... I don't understand... But... Yes, Marsh and Ginger are stable, but... Wait...!" (Vlad)

He fell to the destroyed concrete below. The gore and guts of the destroyed monsters around them. He looked up to the sky.

"What the fuck just happened?!" (Vlad)

---

In Tokyo, Japan. Along the streets of Shibuya.

The night turned grim, dark, silent, and lonely. But Yaku wasn't alone. He sat next to Ono on a park bench, looking out at the city skyline in the distance. The flickering lights, the planes flying overhead, the clouds blocking out the moon.

Ono leaned in close, leaning on his shoulder.

"It was nice to spend time together." (Ono)

"I agree. It's been a long time." (Yaku)

She scooted closer.

"I... I never... I mean I couldn't really found the time to ask you this, but how long are you staying in Tokyo?" (Ono)

Yaku stared at the city skyline. His city skyline.

He reflected on his short week he spent at the Special Magic Squads Temporary HQ. He reflected on the mission he left behind, the mission Jack and Vlad took on. How he opted out for a date with a girl.

He thought about his regrets. To leave Jack alone on the mission. For how long and how much he knew Jack. For how much he knew Vlad. For how much he knew the rest of his squadmates. He reflected on how little he cared for them. For the ones, he never tried to talk to.

He looked at his green flower pin. His black uniform.

He pondered his life before the switch, on his promotion, his demotion, his future, his past, he came to a quick conclusion.

"Ono, I'd have no regrets." (Yaku)

She looked straight at his dark black eyes. His dark black hair.

He looked at her dyed silver hair. Her beautiful smile. Her beautiful light eyes, soft and pearly, masked by the darkness around them.

He leaned in for a kiss.

She leaned back.

"I'm... I'm sorry... But my job... I don't know how to say it... But... I'd regret it." (Ono)

Yaku felt a sour feeling in his heart.

She stood up suddenly. Her arms stuffed in her sweatshirt pockets. Her medium length hair flowing off into the cold chilly wind.

Yaku stood up as well. He didn't give up.

"We should... No... I understand... We should keep in touch." (Yaku)

"Yeah!" (Ono)

She quickly swung around. Her eyes not as bright as before. Not as shiny or pearly as a second ago.

They were instead filled with a mysterious aura.

An aura Yaku couldn't understand at first. An aura he wouldn't comprehend until it was too late. Until it was too far gone for his own regrets to take over.

She left down the park road, her body enveloped in the darkness ahead, as the chilly night took hold.

Yaku slumped back onto the bench, his arms tucked into his black jacket. He looked out at the city above. The sky above that. The clouds above them. The moon hidden in the shade.

He leaned forward staring deeply into his own palms. The cold breeze blowing his hair back.

"Ono. You always know what you want. But what do I want?" (Yaku)

---

One day later.

At the Special Magic Squad Temporary HQ, Jack laid across a sofa in the leisure hall. He was all alone, staring straight at the ceiling. He was reflecting on what Vlad told him. About what he said to him, about the thing that took over him, the other personality, his sinister magic, his overwhelming power.

"What am I? What am I? When that masked man asked me that, why did I ponder that question? Am I not Jack?" (Jack)

He looked at his palm. His empty palm. He took off his glove and tossed it across the empty hall. He then pointed his hand toward the far-reaching ceiling.

"Am I missing memories? But it all seems so clear... I remember my past so vividly. I lived in a small town with my mother. I went to school with my friends. My father died when I turned five. I started working at a diner. My mother worked at the school as a teacher. Then when I turned sixteen she became I'll. So I worked harder and harder. Then I... Then she died... And I..." (Jack)

"Jack?!" (Diana)

He sat up immediately. His surprised, confused, and lost face.

Diana strutted forward in her high black heels. She held a beige folder in her hand. The word classified plastered in red across its y-axis.

She tossed it to him.

"I heard from Vlad. About your mission. The Human Monsters and the Rogue Sorcerer with the purple mask." (Diana)

Jack stared at the beautiful woman in front of him, at the folder on his lap.

"What's in the folder?" (Jack)

"Information gathered from the locked room. The Intelligence Division put the most important information in a document. I'm not supposed to give it to you, but Vlad and I felt you needed to read the stuff inside." (Diana)

Jack opened up the folder.

"Take your time. Vlad told me about your mysterious outbreak, but I trust you. The look in your eyes is genuine. So I'll trust your judgment in this information." (Diana)

She walked away.

Jack pulled the single piece of paper from the classified folder. He read the first line.

"The Competitor." (Jack)