Not a “Fan” of Training

(Saturday, 11th of Lover's Harp Moon, 2021)

"Mr. Librarian, why do I suck?"

There was silence in the library.

"Oh right, you can only communicate using sign language."

Jack was in the library, a week after Joan attacked. Amazingly, Elizabeth's treatments worked wonders. Sure she used no special tools or magic, but her ability to precisely tell what and where the pain was made all the difference. Jack and the others recovered soon. Days passed, and now Jack was at the library, flipping through the alchemy book to see if he can get any closer to solving the mystery of the liquified cows from a while back. To prevent any unnecessary noise, Jack left Jojo in his dorm room. The librarian was putting books away behind Jack, but his hands stopped putting books away so he could talk using sign language.

"As far as I can tell, you're around average." The librarian gave you his honest opinion.

"Yeah, but before I lost my memories and got this," Jack lifted his prosthetic up and shook his leg a bit. "I was apparently a badass archeologist who could harness a bunch of powers at once."

"Why can't you do that now?" The librarian questioned with a tilt of his head. "If you know magic, then you can do it by muscle memory?"

"I'm not sure, but I think Alice said while I can absorb magic, if I forget about that magic, I can't use it." Jack thought before putting his foot back on the floor. "Plus my class has three features, with the ability to learn ancient magic being one of them."

"I think I have a book on class features that's organized by class, which is organized alphabetically." The librarian looked on the shelves beside him for a minute before pulling out a single book.

"I still find it mildly terrifying how you can just remember the place of every book here." Jack commented as the librarian flipped through the book. He found the page and set the book down on the shelf, still opened so he could read it while signing.

"The three skills of the archeologist class are Power of Ancients, Bone Collector, and History Maker." The librarian then looked at Jack. "The first one is all you can use for now, the other two will be unlocked later. "In case of memory loss, there is a potion that can bring back lost memories. In other words, it's possible for you to regain all your previous abilities."

"A potion?" Jack perked up upon hearing that there was something that could get him back to the level he was at before the accident. "What do we need for it?"

"Just to clarify...this potion won't grant you all of your memories back, only the spells and possible items you possess." The librarian informed Jack, and while that was something of a downside, it was better than having no memories and no powers.

"I know, but I'll find another way to retrieve those memories." Jack closed the book he was reading.

"Well the ingredients we need are Rainbow Petals, Time Teeth, Tears of the Siren, Demon Bones, and Goddess Bath Water." The librarian informed Jack, and the last one sounded odd.

"Um...where am I supposed to find those ingredients?" Jack wondered if Goddess Bath Water was available on Valley, since they apparently have everything in the universe.

"I have an idea as to where you can gather those ingredients, but it will be difficult." The librarian thought for a moment. "Are you up for the challenge?

"If it means I can actually help people, then I don't really have much of a choice now do I?" Jack got up from his chair, and the librarian handed Jack a piece of paper with a list of components. "I'm still, 90% sure the Goddess Bathwater can be found in some neckbeard's basement though."

"No, that would be False Goddess Bathwater, it's only use is giving people STDs."

"Fair."

(Sunday, 12th of Lover's Harp Moon)

Jack was now in the middle of a forest clearing, sitting on a rock with all Jack's collected Artifacts laid out beside him. Jack received a letter from Geppetto, telling him to go in the forest for no reason. Jack was on his phone, looking at memes on a social media platform. Jojo was fighting some kind of cobra with three necks, and winning by using its impressive bite force to tear through the cobra's torso. Jack put his phone in his pocket and laid on the large stone, looking straight up into the sky.

"Why the hell am I out here?" Jack asked himself, and Jack looked at his watch to see it was 3:30. "It's been 3 and a half hours, and nothing showed up. Maybe it's a prank."

Before Jack could get up to move, he heard the sound of leaves rustling. Jack looked up at the source and saw the most peculiar weapon. It was a staff made of black steel, with one end of the staff having a long, metal, folding fan. It made Jack think someone took off the blade of a spear and replaced the blade with the fan. This was sending alarm bells through his head, and the fan suddenly folded open. Given its glint against the sunlight, it was a steel fan. There was someone holding the fan, obviously, but the darkness obscured their features. The unknown person then swiped the fan downwards, causing a wall of wind to fly towards Jack. Jack used his prosthetic leg's strength to kick himself over the rock he laid on before. Jack landed behind the rock and picked up the first artifact he could, the Fox and the Hound. Wait, it's a pair of dual swords? Do they still count as one singular artifact? Jack looked in front of him, and a white line appeared. The line appeared to be a path, and it led him to the mysterious person. Jack ran along the path, running into the forest. Jack noticed that the head of the person was looking around for you, as though Jack was exactly in the blind spot of their eyes. By following the line, Jack went down the path that ensures he's not seen.

"HIIIIISSSSSSS!" Jojo hissed towards the mysterious figure, and the unknown person flinched. Jack noticed that the path before him changed slightly to account for the fact that the unknown person's head was turned.

"What the-?" The voice sounded masculine, and the unknown man raised his fan upwards before swinging it down.

The gust of wind sent towards Jojo was powerful enough to send the badger up into the air, and Jack continued down the path towards the unknown man. Jack soon reached behind the unknown man and amazingly, he still hasn't noticed Jack yet. Jack got an idea, so he made the Fox and the Hound disappear using his watch, only to replace it with Giant's Path. Jack raised his axe into the air, and Jack was about to swing it down onto the man, only for him to fold the fan up and strike Jack in the stomach using the bottom of his staff. Jack crouched to use one of his hands to cover his stomach, then Jack was swiftly met with the man spinning to strike Jack in the face using his folded up fan. Jack was knocked back into the clearing and landed on his back. Jack was slightly dazed, but noticed a silhouette overhead, with an opened fan staff. They were about to swing down at Jack, so Jack swiftly rolled the the side, noticing that Giant's Path was too heavy for him to roll with, so Jack left it behind as he rolled away. Jack rolled past his collection of artifacts, and flicked one of them in particular away. Jack picked up Fire Maiden and clicked the trigger to turn it into its whip form.

"I wanna blow this guy sky high, what so you, Rumplestiltskin?" In the corner of Jack's eye, he saw the golden glow of the dice, but it was too far away from him to see what number he rolled exactly. Jack pulls the trigger to begin releasing the ignitable gas.

But then the weapon exploded in Jack's face.

Jack was sent into the nearest tree, causing it to crack under the force of Jack suddenly stopping. Jack tried getting up to ignore the pain in his back, but the sharp edges of the unfolded metal fan were suddenly centimeters away from Jack's throat, ready to cut Jack. You looked at the mysterious person, to see that the sun was casting a silhouette over their face, making it hard to see. The man then folded the fan and pulled the weapon away from you. He then offered you his hand.

"Man, I'm starting to see why Herakles wanted me over here." The man smiled while he helped you back onto his feet. "Some kid with multiple Slayer weapons lost to only one of these Slayers."

"Eh, that fan is another artifact?" Jack looked at the staff in awe, and the man nodded. "Wait, who even are you?"

"Name's Mansa, and this slayer weapon is called the Tempest." Mansa helped Jack get up from the ground. "Herakles called me from my mission to help you get good. With your artifacts I mean. So what artifacts have you got?"

"Let's see...I have Fire Maiden, Stone Cutter, Harlequin, Fox and Hound, Father Time, Rumplestiltskin, Little Daylight, Ebony Horse, Giant's Path, Wellerman, Red Riding Hood, Lang, Nursery Rhyme, and Storyteller." Jack recalled every artifact Jack had, but then Jack recalled the lantern. "Oh yeah, there's also this lantern we don't need to talk about."

"Fair enough, and it seems you got yourself a great collection of stuff." Mansa commented before he examined each of the artifacts. "Out of all of them Storyteller and Nursery Rhyme are your strongest. However, they're a bit complicated, so let's start off simple; Harlequin, Father Time, and Lang."

"I know Harlequin repairs stuff, but what about the other two?" Jack asked while looking at the three weapons.

"Well to be precise, Harlequin's ability to take things apart and/or put them together." Mansa corrected. "As for Father Time, aside from unlimited bullets, Father Time can control time. You can freeze time by cocking the rifle, and slow down people you shoot according to how long you hold down the trigger. Also unlimited bullets."

"Hehe, you said cock." You chuckled under his breath like a child.

"As for Lang, Lang can constantly secrete a powerful energy that is lethal to divine beings." Mansa informed Jack. "To everyone else, it's kind of like fire, but to any divine entity, it's like cyanide."

"Let's go with Father Time." Jack picked up the flintlock rifle. "So how does the slowing down thing work?"

"Unlike normal guns, the flintlock fires when you let go of the trigger." Mansa etched a target into a nearby tree using the Tempest. "Plus, you don't need to cock it, just pull the trigger back and let go. As for the slowing down mechanism, if you hold down the trigger for a minute, then that person will be slowed down by a minute."

"That wording makes almost zero sense, but I think I understand." Jack aimed the flintlock at the tree. "Gods, these iron sights are terrible."

"Yeah well too bad, you wanted to work with this, so now you must suffer." Mansa tapped the center of the target he made. "I want you to start by working on your aim."

"Aren't flintlocks really inaccurate or something?" Jack questioned as Jack took aim at the target.

"High King Alexander was the man who made them, so they're pretty accurate." Mansa walked behind Jack for gun safety reasons. "Just so you know, the slow down stuff stacks, and you have unlimited ammo, just like any gun slayer weapon."

"Ah yes, because fuck the law of conservation of mass."

"We're in a land where a talking stump can be related to a fish, fuck the laws of everything in general my dude."

(Meanwhile, Herakles' office)

Meanwhile, in Herakles' office, Herakles was sitting at his desk, with the curtains closed behind him to darken the room. The only source of light was directly in front of him, the blue light of his computer screen. Herakles had his hands covering his mouth as his eyes were glued to the laptop screen in front of him. On the screen in front of him, he was watching Jack's fight with Joan from the other day, the day when Juana was supposed to die. His eyes were glued onto Joan, her combat style, the way she held back, none of it escaped his eyes. Herakles' eyes were both confused and fearful. He was silent until a puppet head suddenly began clicking its teeth together. Herakles poked the left eye like a button, and the puppet began talking.

"Herakles, are you looking over the footage I sent you of the fight the other day?" Geppetto's voice came from the other side of the puppet head.

"I wish you'd come up with a less creepy way of contact, but yes, I see what you mean about the footage." Herakles glared at the footage.

"You see what I mean, that's Joan right there, your deceased wife." Geppetto's puppet moved its mouth up and down to match Geppetto's speech.

"That can't be Joan, she never used a sword, her weapon was a javelin." Herakles groaned while watching the footage intently. "Plus, her fighting style...Joan's class was a Maiden, she rarely used her fists."

"Women can use their fists too, Herk." Geppetto's cackle can be heard through the puppet he spoke through.

"But Joan never used a sword just like that, and you know this Geppetto!" Herakles slammed his fist on the desk, almost breaking it in half. "What the hell kind of sword even is that? Where does one even get that sword? Who even makes swords like that?!

"I think you know exactly who forged that weapon." Geppetto sounded serious. "It was the Black Forger. The fifth Child of Destiny."

"Impossible, he and the rest of the Children of Destiny are sealed in Mythia to help monitor...them." Herakles didn't want to say the name of the people who's been sealed there. "Why would the Black Forger make a weapon for some kind of imposter for Joan?"

"Herakles, what if he didn't know that they have the sword?" Geppetto suggested the idea to Herakles. "Need I remind you the Children of Destiny are our allies, and the Black Forger even forged our best weapons. My best puppet, your gauntlets, Joan's lance, Cheng's knives, Arthur's hammer, and...her wand."

"Speaking of her...I noticed that Alice hasn't been displaying the same...symptoms that her grandmother has." Herakles didn't want to bring up bad memories for his friend. "Maybe I should ask Jack to keep an eye on her and check up on her at least once a week to monitor her for the voices? The moment he reports that Alice is hearing voices, we step in."

"What is your plan?" Geppetto questioned, with concern and anger tinting the man's voice. "What if Alice starts developing the ability to hear the voices like her grandmother?"

"I am afraid I don't know." Herakles let out a depressed sigh, signaling that this was a sensitive topic to him as well. "Maui suggests we kill her, Elizabeth wants to put her in a coma until we can find a way to neutralize those voices, Vedmak knows a prison we can put her in should worst come to pass, Sobek suggested ear plugs, Cheng suggested we send her on a goose chase until we find a cure, Mansa suggested taking her under her wing, and Nikola thinks he can make a magic neutralization machine."

"And what do you think?" Geppetto questioned the warrior, who swallowed his spit out of nervousness.

"I don't know." Herakles sighed in admission while pinching the bridge of his nose with both hands. "I just want Alice to grow up happy and healthy, like you do. But at the same time, I don't want her to grow up and become a repeat of her grandmother."

"Then we'll find a way to make sure Alice doesn't become like her grandmother." Geppetto reassured his friend through the puppet. "I like the Jack idea though, but let's try not to overuse him."

"I'll try not to, but for the sake of mankind, we may need to push him to his limits and beyond." Herakles put his hand on his forehead. "Gods, I feel terrible for relying so much on these kids. All because of my bad back."

"Don't worry, we hired the best of the best to help them." Geppetto sounded hopeful through the puppet head he spoke through.

"You're right Geppetto, thanks for being there for me." Herakles looked at the laptop once more, noticing Joan's cold glare. "Still...what the hell is going on? Could this be...her warning?"

"Fuck if I know, dude, I'm trying to investigate it as we speak." Geppetto sounded confused through the puppet. "Speaking of, I think Nikola's dove is coming back with the sample puppet I sent out. I'll see you later, Herk."

"So long, Geppetto." Herakles then pressed the right eye of the puppet head, ending the call. Then Herakles leaned back in his chair to look at his laptop in concern. "Just how could Joan come back from the dead...could this be a sign?"