(Sunday, 28th of Verdant Garden Moon, 2021)
"So you took this man with you to Sanctuary's hospital?" Herakles sat in his desk in the office, while Jack sat across from him, holding onto his newest weapon, a briefcase with a golden skull on it. The briefcase was the artifact known as Pandora. "Can't say I approve, but I won't say I disapprove of your course of action."
"Well I don't exactly know any other hospitals, so this was my best bet." Jack answered whilst fiddling with Pandora.
Be careful with tha-" Herakles looked at Pandora. "When the hell did you get Pandora?"
"Hell if I know, I think the author got lazy with this one's explanation." Jack shrugged whilst tapping the top of the briefcase with his finger tips. "So can I go now?"
"Fine, get your ass going, I have to arrange a meeting with Oneiro's hospital to perform surgery on this guy." Herakles watched as Jack got up from his chair and took Pandora with him, but as Herakles watched Jack leave, he suddenly said something.
"You know, I think one of those things I'm preparing everyone to fight against is responsible for Kaimu's condition." Herakles had a grim look covering his eyes, and Jack could tell he was serious.
"Are there still victims like Kaimu out there because of their actions?" Jack asked, and Herakles' silence was his answer. "If that's the case, then I will not only work on becoming stronger, but also collecting every artifact in this world."
"Good, now you see why I made your collection my pet project to begin with." Herakles leaned back in his chair. "Tell you what, focus on using Bone Collector, History Maker, and Power of Ancients. I'll handle gathering Artifacts for you. Just a heads up, you can't get 2 for now. Happily Ever After is unknown, while Once Upon a Time was in possession of Arthur when he left. So make do with what you can."
"Will do, boss." Jack gave a two fingered salute to the man before exiting the office.
Jack exit the office and took a deep breath in, calming his nerves before heading back to his room. Jack currently had 26 of the total artifacts, more than a third of them, yet there were still 46 more to obtain, two of which were unavailable. On top of that, Jack had to learn two more of his class abilities, Bone Collector and History Maker. Power of Ancients is passive, so no need to worry there. How does he even use History Maker in the first place?
"You do realize that forming a pact with us is what History Maker is, right?" Ariel appeared in front of Jack like an illusion. "Well, it's more like borrowing the power of deceased historical figures, and I guess that counts us."
"You know, you guys are pretty complicated." Jack walked past the phantom of Ariel. "Ghosts, elementals, immortals, make up your minds already."
"I don't know, which answer is easiest for you to understand?" Jack saw Ariel smile before he blinked, and the redhead was missing.
Jack shrugged and decided to walk to his dorm to get some studying done. Jack walked through the halls of Sanctuary, feeling as though he knew the academy like the back of his hand. Speaking of the academy, Jack got four of the five ingredients the librarian wanted him to get. Rainbow Petals, Demon Bone, Goddess Bathwater, and Time Teeth. The latter of which Cronos gave Jack on the way back to Sanctuary. All that leaves is the tears of the siren. Now how was he going to get that ingredient? Jack reached his dorm room door and opened it to reveal Simo holding a movie case. Meanwhile, Jojo was resting on the couch, chewing on the bones of something.
"Hey Boss, I found this movie from my home world, looks like it just appeared." Simo held up the movie so Jack could see what it was.
"Willy Wonka...?" Jack didn't finish the rest of the movie's title because of copyright. "Is it a good movie?"
"It's not my favorite, but it's decent." Simo seemed excited to have something from his home world. "If I could, I would have shown you my favorite movies."
"Do you miss your home world?" Jack asked out of the blue, and Simo took some time to think about it.
"Sometimes, I miss my parents, siblings, and their kids." Simo sighed. "Still, compared to my home world, this world is so similar, yet so different at the same time. Compared to my world, this world is a peaceful Utopia."
"You didn't have any family left behind?" Jack asked, and Simo shook his head. "Damn, that sucks."
"It's fine, killing hundreds of people probably made me not interested in romance and stuff." Simo looked regretful, but was suddenly met with Jack placing a hot pocket in front of him. "What?"
"Hey, in this world, you may actually be able to land a date, you never know." Jack tried to cheer up his sniper friend. "Say, maybe we can host a movie night with that movie? Just for the heck of it."
"A movie night?" Simo asked whilst pulling down his mask so he could eat the hot pocket.
"Yeah, since that movie's from another world, I was thinking we can watch it with my class." Jack suggested the idea, and Simo thought about it. "Molly can probably make a projector, or we can play it in my dorm."
"Can this dorm even host 35 people?" Simo sounded unsure of the idea.
"Not sure..." Jack thought for a bit before looking at the coffee table. "I know, we can move the coffee table and ask Alice to bring in the stools from her room."
"If you think it'll work, we can try it." Simo shrugged, going along with the plan before he walked to his phone to begin texting everyone. "Oh hey, what about that Catherine girl and Jauna?"
"Oh I'll text them too, and I'll have to head over to the rehabilitation center." Jack began walking to the door and left Pandora on the ground beside the door. "You think I should grab a weapon?"
"Nah, you have magic." Simo flatly responded, and Jack could feel a hint of envy from Simo's stare.
"Hey, maybe I can teach you how to use magic, if I one day learn how to use it properly myself." Jack smirked before leaving the room and closing the door.
Jack left his dorm room and went to the rehabilitation center. The rehabilitation center was kind of the closest thing to a dungeon this school has that focuses on rehabilitation instead of punishing criminals. Amazingly, rehabilitation has been rather effective, and some guardians are even former criminals. Granted, they're not exactly popular, but they exist. Jack reached the rehabilitation building, which looked like any other building from the courtyard where he stood. Jack pushed open the doors to the rehab building and were about to be questioned by the knights guarding the entrance, so he showed them the silver gear badge. Jack walked up to the front desk, and the knight in charge of the desk looked up at Jack.
"Hey, I'm looking for the hooded ones." Jack wasn't sure if that name would be helpful, but amazingly, the knight knew what he was talking about.
"Yeah, three of them left already to pursue different careers, but the last two are here and considering joining Sanctuary Academy." The knight gave Jack that helpful piece of information. "Their names are Milunka and Adrian, the Red Hood and Immortal. They're in rooms 24 and 25 respectively."
"Thank you, Sir." Jack put his badge on his chest with the three pins and began walking down the halls that were illuminated by a buzzing white light.
Jack never fought Adrian or Milunka, he only fought their leader and some other bloke. Instead, the person who fought against them was Damini, and she claimed to 'ship them together', whatever that meant. Jack walked down the hall until Jack came across room 24, and Jack adjusted his appearance to be more approachable. Jack knocked on the door, and there was no response, so he knocked once again. After getting no response, Jack was tempted to kick down the door. Jack had his prosthetic foot raised, ready to kick down the door before the door right next to it, door 25 suddenly opened to reveal a petite, blonde girl wearing a red hood. She kind of looked like little red riding hood.
"Oh hey, you're one of the guys who brought us here!" The red hooded girl pointed at you. "Jack, right?"
"Yeah, and you're Milunka?" Jack asked, and the girl nodded. "If you're Milunka, Adrian should be nearby, right?"
"I'm right here." The larger male appeared behind Milunka, glaring at Jack. He wore all black, had purple hair, and golden eyes. "What do you need?"
"Well we haven't met either of you guys yet, so I was hoping to invite you both to a movie night at my dorm." Jack explained the reason for the visit. "My class and some other people are showing up, so I'm inviting you guys too."
"I think that's a good idea, since Adrian and I never really get out, we don't have many friends." Milunka sweat dropped before looking at her taller companion. "We should go, Adrian!"
"What movie is it?" Adrian asked Jack, and Jack told him the title of the movie Simo showed you. "I don't think I've heard of that one."
"Oh, a sniper from another world I summoned found it, and he wants to show it to us." Jack answered flatly. "A lot of shit happened since we last met, well, since you guys last met Damini...who's also going to be there..."
"Yeah don't worry about it, we don't hate her." Adrian scowled, still salty from his loss, most likely. "I would like a rematch against her, but that's about it."
"Well please don't destroy my dorm, there's a training facility you guys can use." Jack requested the taller man. "By the way, is it cool if I get your guys' numbers, that way I can text you all next time we do something like this or something similar."
"Sure thing!" Milunka pulled out her phone and Adrian followed soon.
After Milunka and Adrian gave Jack their phone numbers, Jack went on his way to the market to pick up some snacks. Jack passed through the front door of the rehabilitation center and walked through the courtyard. In the courtyard, Jack saw that people in the courtyard were doing their own thing. Some people were running food stands and were selling fruits and vegetables while the children played in the courtyard. Jack saw that some construction workers were replacing the broken stones in the street and wall that were damaged by his fight against Dorian. Jack walked out the front gates of Sanctuary, and entered the main city of Oneiro. Jack didn't have Jojo with him, so no one was backing away from Jack while he walked along the street. Jack reached a convenience store called 'Hello Sunrise' and walked through the automatic doors.
"Welcome!" The store clerk greeted Jack, and he gave the man a wave in response.
Jack walked through the aisles of snacks, trying to decide which one would be best for movie night. Jack checked his wallet, and he had 50 gold coins, enough money to buy several bags of popcorn, some candy, and a couple cases of soda. Jack put all of them on the counter one by one, since be couldn't carry all of them at once. The clerk scanned all of them one by one, and when he finished, he asked Jack a question.
"Would you like a bag for that, sir?" The clerk asked, and Jack shook his head.
"Nah, I can just use this thing." Jack put his glove atop the bags of popcorn, candy, and soda, then they disappeared in a flash of orange. "So how much do I owe ya?"
"12 gold pieces." The clerk informed Jack, and he gave the clerk 12 gold before leaving. "Thank you, come again."
Jack then left the convenience store, and began making his way to Sanctuary to begin getting ready for movie night.
(Later that Evening)
That night, you had your dorm ready for movie night, your coffee table was moved to the side, allowing you to set down some spare blankets on the ground. Alice and Simo were setting up chairs from Alice's room where they could while you set the blankets on the ground, trying to make them comfortable enough for people to sit in them. Jojo was on your bed, rolling around whilst a bone was in its mouth.
"I can't believe a movie from your world came here, any idea as to how?" Alice asked the sniper.
"I'm afraid not, this is the first time I've become a servant." Simo shrugged, not sure how the movie came here.
Jack finished setting up the blankets and began making popcorn by putting one bag in the microwave at a time. The door was knocked on, and Simo went to the door to open it. Simo opened the door to reveal Mifu, Galahad, Zane, Nico, Rico, Othelia, and Molly. Nico, Rico, Zane, and Galahad all sat on the ground whilst the twins held their bag of chips called 'Doridos'. Galahad and Zane were looking over Galahad's combat footage on Zane's computer, and Galahad began giving himself pointers. Mifu and Molly sat on the edge of Jack'a bed, with Mifu sitting straight up and respectfully whilst Molly belly flopped onto your bed.
"Oi, Molly, be careful with my bed." Jack shouted at the blonde whilst pouring the freshly made popcorn into a bowl.
"Sorry!" Molly shouted back, most likely not sorry in the slightest, but Jack let it fly.
The door was knocked on once again, and this time it was Damini, Eve, Medea, and Bruce walking in, with all four sitting on bar stools. The next people to enter were Saorise, Robin, Hel, Iris, and Goliath. Saorise and Goliath sat on the ground whilst Robin sat on the couch. Iris opted to sit on the bar stool, and Hel just floated above the room. James and Mary were next, followed by Hassan, and all three chose to sit at the barstools. Leia, Caroline, Ned, Freya, Gaia, Luna, Rasputin, TJ, Thor, Valerie, and TJ were a bit late, but they all found spots to sit on the ground somehow. Well, Valerie sat on the armrest of the couch, whilst Leia opted to stand, and Gaia rested on the bar.
"So that leaves Angelo, Hero, and Matt?" Valerie asked whilst Thor sat down beside him.
"Nah, I invited Catherine, Juana, Adrian, and Milunka too." Jack now had ten large bowls of popcorn as the door was knocked on once more. "That must be someone."
"Yo!" Matt revealed himself by opening the door, followed by Angelo and Hero. The three of them were covered in bandages. "Sorry for being late, we were sparring for the past five hours."
The first thing Jack noticed is how all of them have light injuries, including Hero. Keep in mind that Hero was able to fight off Joan without so much as a scratch, yet these two were able to inflict injuries on him...? Matt took a seat on the ground, while Angelo sat on the couch, Hero took a seat on the ground in front of the TV. Five minutes passed, and Milunka arrived with Adrian, followed shortly by Catherine and Juana. Adrian and Milunka chose to stand with Leia, while Catherine and Juana sat on Jack's bed. Simo somehow fit on the couch after putting the DVD into the DVD player. As the television sprung to life, Jack began melting butter and poured the butter on top of the popcorn bowls. Jack handed out the bowls of popcorn to everyone before sitting on his bed with Alice, Catherine, Juana, Molly, and Mifu. The movie began, and all of them were watching with curiosity.
"I can't believe we're about to see a movie from another world." Othelia watched with curiosity, and Saorise, who was sitting next to her, nodded in agreement. "It's like a secret all of us share."
"Then how about we call this secret the Chocolate Factory secret?" Ned suggested awkwardly from his spot on the ground. "That way when we all feel like screwing with people, we can talk about this movie and be pretty elusive about what it's called to screw with people."
"That's so cruel, let's do it!" Luna smiled while giggling to herself, and the movie began playing.
Days like this, where there's no fighting and just nonsense, is good for the soul.