Out of Body Experience

(Saturday, 9th of Dawnstar Moon, 2021)

Jack walked out into the courtyard with a key to his dorm room in his hands and his prosthetic leg on. Jack saw Zane sitting on a bench, working his magic on the computer while Galahad watched over his shoulder. Mifu was sitting underneath a tree with beautiful pink leaves gently swaying in the wind. Jack saw Nico and Rico trying to put a beetle in her lengthy pony tail, but Mifu suddenly pulled out a set of kunai from her pockets, she menacingly held the knives with the intent to kill. Othelia was pacing until she noticed me. Othelia was about to say something until a black blur rushed towards Jack at dangerously high speeds before hugging him with all her might. This black blur had both her arms and legs wrapped around Jack's torso while screaming Jack's name.

""JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK, IIIIII DOOOOOON'T WAAAAANT YOOOOUUUU TOOOOO GOOOOO!!!!!!!" Alice screamed with tears comically pouring out of her eyes. "Maybe I can hide you in my room in my husbando body pillow..."

"Actually, I'm staying..." Jack showed off the key to his dorm to his friends, and Alice suddenly gained stars in her eyes.

"YAAAAAAS!" Alice took the keys from Jack's hand and held them high into the air. "Zane, your hacking worked!"

"But I didn't even get past the fifth layer of security yet!" Zane shouted from his bench.

"Hey, maybe that means you did such a good job at hacking the first four layers that they automatically registered Jack for you." Galahad guessed while he put his hands behind his head.

"Yeah, I'm thinking that's it." Jack quickly decided to change the subject of how he became a student of Sanctuary, since telling them that he's Hero's babysitter is top secret information. "So I heard there's a class system around here, what classes did you guys get?"

"Unsurprisingly, I ended up in a support class." Zane held up a white clover brooch. "Well, I'm on a team that's more focused on residential and urban areas, so I'm okay."

"I'm on Zane's team, and I'm the tank of the team." Galahad held up a golden shield brooch. "We have a DPS, but he went off to call someone."

"My teammates are off doing their own thing." Alice held up a black sword brooch. "Unsurprisingly, given my great warlock powers, I was put on DPS duty."

"My case is the same." Mifu showed Jack a black sword brooch. "My swordsmanship and speed weren't like Galahad's, so they put me on DPS duty instead of tank.

"Rico and I ended up on support, even though I was sure I could be on DPS." Nico and Rico both held up white clover brooches. "But then again, all we can really do is turn into magic household items."

"This should come to no surprise, but I was assigned the tank." Othelia showed Jack her golden shield, unsurprising because she drives a mech into combat. "What role did you get Jack?"

"Oh, I got a silver gear." Jack showed them his brooch, before he suddenly realized where he went wrong. Jack told them he had an unusual brooch, now they will be curious about his unique situation. SHIT. "A-As t-to show that I got in because I showed great promise even as I was losing!"

"Ah, I suppose you must be really talented to get in despite losing." Mifu pointed out, and Jack noticed no one seemed suspicious about how he got in anymore, did his dumbass somehow roll a Nat 20 on a deception check? "Now that I think about it, that Hero guy was rather...overpowered...so I for one don't believe fights against him should count."

"I agree, you saw how he tanked that explosion, it was like 20 pounds of TNT, yet that blonde muppet only took like...zero damage!" Zane threw his hands in the air. "LIKE WHAT THE ACTUAL FRICK FRACK FRECK FOCK DUCK FUCK!"

"What does ducks having sexual intercourse have to do with any of this?" Mifu wondered, she may be the airheaded princess trope personified.

"I don't know why but the idea of certain animals having sex was always funny to me." Nico joked before speaking in a seductive voice. "Like I'm just imagining a duck go: 'quack quack~'. 'Oh quack quack quack~"

"Quack quack daddy~" Rico joined in the fake duck sex, causing the entire courtyard to be filled with an awkward yet amused feeling.

How many of these kinds of moments has Jack forgotten because of his memory loss?

After a while of joking around with one another, all of them noticed that the sun had set a long time ago, and the area was only lit by several floating lanterns. Jack was curious about the lanterns, but decided it would be best to head to bed because they have their first class tomorrow at like 5 in the morning. Well, it was more like a tour to familiarize the students with the campus, but Jack still had to be on time. Jack looked at the keys to his dorm, which had a keychain that showed him his dorm number. Jack's room number was number 69, the perfect number for Jack. Jack walked to the dorm rooms, and one by one, all his friends separated until it was only Alice and he. They walked through the halls until they arrived at room number 69.

"Looks like this is my stop." Jack pointed out, and Alice looked both confused and excited.

"What a shame, if only I was in the dorm next to you." Alice did a series of over dramatic turns and spins before stopping at dorm number 68. "OH FUCKING WAIT."

"Gods you are so over dramatic." Jack chuckled at his goth friend's energy. "Hey, did you mean it when you said you would sneak me here?"

"Of course I did, I don't lie about shit like this." Alice informed her best friend with a small smile. "I also wanted to achieve our dreams together, like we've always done since we were kids."

"Alice, do you think I'll ever get my memories back?" Jack asked the girl, who looked at him with melancholic eyes.

"According to what the doctor said, the boulder hit your head hard, he said that your memories will be close to impossible to come back." Alice looked down towards the ground with sorrow. "So, I guess we'll have to make new memories to replace the old ones you lost!"

"Do you blame yourself for what happened?" Jack questioned the girl, and her black bangs covered her eyes.

"Yeah...it's kind of my fault to begin with." Alice quietly answered, and in response to this, Jack walked towards the girl and hugged her, catching her off guard. "Eh? What are you doing?"

"Trying to make you feel better, obviously." Jack sarcastically replied, causing Alice to let out some stifled laughter from how bad his joke was. "Stupid jokes aside, please don't blame yourself. I most likely threw myself in the boulder's way just to protect you, so don't go around blaming yourself for this, capiche?"

"Gods, you're one of the only people I know who unironically use the term 'capiche'." Alice laughed, and her laugh was nice to hear. Better than her crying.

Alice and Jack said goodnight to one another before breaking the hug. Alice and Jack opened our dorms, and when Jack went into my dorm, Jack lost sight of the girl. When Jack entered my dorm, Jack noticed how there was a large window on the opposite wall of the door, facing outward towards the city. Jack walked towards the window to examine the outside of it, and Jack noticed how high up Jack was above the city, and Jack felt like Jack was in a fancy hotel in a city, looking at the city below. It was nighttime, so Jack saw nothing but darkness covering the city like a blanket. However, in the windows of every building, Jack saw a light. To think that every light represents a person living their life.

There is also at least 1 person getting stabbed in a city this massive.

Jack turned around to look at his dorm, which was fashioned like a hotel room. In fact, the dorm itself only had two rooms. The bathroom and everything else. For the 'everything else' area, a kitchen area, and a kind of office area, which was just a desk and some bookcases, and finally, a bed and closet. The bathroom was also just a bathroom. There was also this painting of a cat next to the entrance. It wasn't haunted or anything, it just creeped him the fuck out. Especially with it's big sad eyes. Jack checked the time, noting that it was 9:30, so Jack should probably take a bath. Hygiene is important, kids. Jack entered the bathroom and took off his clothes and put them in a basket on the side of the bathroom, which looked like your average bathroom. Jack began running the water, and while Jack waited for the tub to fill, and as Jack did so, Jack checked himself in the mirror. Jack noticed a stubble on his chin and neck. Jack decided to shave it with an enchanted razor Jack packed, a razor that cuts perfectly fine without needing to apply shaving cream, and doesn't cut the skin. By the time Jack finished shaving, the bath was done, so Jack took off his artificial leg to ease himself into the water.

"Who was Jack before Jack lost his memories?"

Jack knew his name, sure, but Jack had no clue who he was as a person. Well, Jack did have friends, so Jack was a decent person at least. However, Jack didn't know a lot of people other than his cousins, aunt, uncle, and said friends, so Jack wasn't popular. How did Jack know these people? His contacts list only consisted of them and the Pizza Hut of the town Jack was from. Looking through his call history, it looks like Pizza Hut was his best friend. Jack examined the residual limb that used to be his right leg. Jack felt bad Alice had to cut it off...Jack should make her a cake or something. If it was the other way around, he would be traumatized. Jack finished washing himself and drained the water. After drying himself, Jack put his leg back on and put on some pajamas. Jack walked over to the bed before taking his leg off again and crashing on the bed. Jack closed his eyes and waited for sleep, but it took a while to get to him.

The sandman must hate him.

Jack was supposedly going to dream, but then Jack felt his body get lighter. Jack opened one of his eyes and saw his sleeping body below him. Wait, if he's there, then how can Jack see himself without a mirror!? Jack's eyes shot wide open and looked at himself. Jack looked at his hands and saw they were orange and transparent like a ghost. Wait, did Jack die already?! It's only the ninth chapter, how can Jack die already?! Even if the author wanted to kill him, he could have at least waited until the rest of his class was introduced! Oh wait, his body is still breathing, so he's not dead. Good, it was way too early for that. However, what is Jack doing now? Astral projection? Probably.

"Neat."

Jack decided to explore a bit. Jack decided to check in on Alice to see how she was doing. However, Jack stopped himself because A: she might be changing, B: It's an invasion of privacy, C: If she can see him, then it'll get hella weird, and D: It might be a crime. Jack decided to explore Sanctuary a bit to explore this new power of his. Jack walked to the door to try opening it, but his hand phased through like Jack was a ghost. Jack sent his face through the door to look outside his dorm, and Jack noticed Zane walking by with Galahad. Jack decided to test something stupid.

"So how do you carry your sword on your back all the time?" Zane questioned while Jack phased completely through the door and stood in front of them, but neither of them even noticed him, like he was invisible to them.

"Oh my old man made me carry around a bunch of steel scraps on my back all the time using a backpack." Galahad answered as Jack waved his arms in front of both the males, but nothing happened.

"Yeesh, it's a miracle your back turned out perfect." Zane suddenly turned red as he and the orange haired boy walked through Jack, like he was made of nothing. "I mean, I'm not saying the rest of you isn't perfect. The rest of you is perfect! I mean, perfect in a friendly way. Not too friendly though!"

Zane, you're Jack's homie, but your saves need some work.

Aside from Zane's disaster of flirting or whatever he's doing, Jack decided to try hovering, it was amazingly easy. Like moving a new limb. Speaking of limbs, his right foot was here, well, Jack thinks it's because his ghost foot wasn't lost, so that's cool! Jack tried hovering down, and Jack found himself on the hallway of the floor below the dorms, so Jack let his curiosity get the better of him and flew through the academy. Jack watched as paintings passed him by at high speeds, and Jack began thinking about where Jack should visit. Jack suddenly had a feeling Jack should visit the headmaster's office, Jack don't know why, but he felt as though he should head over there. So Jack soared upwards, phasing through the roof and looking up at the sky. The stars were shining a beautiful rainbow color as Jack looked around, trying to find where the headmaster's office was. It took him a couple seconds before his eyes landed on the large building that was the tallest amongst Sanctuary's large buildings, and it looked like it would have been a throne room if Sanctuary was a castle instead of a University for Guardians. Jack flew over to the room, only putting his face through the thick walls to peek inside. Inside, Jack saw Geppetto and Herakles sitting across from one another. Given how Herakles' chair was one of those fancy office chairs, it's safe to say that this was his desk.

"Hey Geppetto, did you know I assigned Jack to the room his father had back when he came here?" Herakles asked, and if he knew that, maybe there's files on who Jack's parents were. "I found that a pretty funny coincidence."

"Well if you did that, Jack might find some ancient secrets within his room built by his father." Geppetto laughed while pouring some wine for the two of them. "Speaking of Jack, have you looked into his pre-accident files?"

"Indeed I have Geppetto, and I have reason to believe Jack could be one of the War Potentials, a group of students I categorized as having some kind of trait that is so powerful that if we went to war against the Despairs, they'd qualify as unknown variables." Herakles explained. "These five students alone could turn the tide of the war if left unchecked, so we will focus on making them as strong as possible along with the rest of their class."

"This is my first time hearing of these War Potentials, mind telling me about them?" Geppetto questioned, and Jack considered himself honored to be considered the elite.

"The five war potentials are Hero's Gifts, Matt's Fighting Spirit, Angelo's Arcane Wisdom, Jack's Potential, and Alice's Blood." Herakles explained, and Geppetto shot a glare at Herakles at the mention of the last two. "For the record, I don't want any of these kids dying, so they'll have support in the form of us, the faculty, and their fellow classmates."

"So could you explain what you mean by each of their potentials?" Geppetto handed Herakles a glass of wine. "I wanna know how you categorized two of my best students."

"Well Hero's is the most obvious, combining all of the most powerful traits of the most powerful people in the world into one person." Herakles took the glass of wine. "He's getting used to...well, existing, right now, but in time he could surpass all of us. To prevent scheming, I made him unable to think silently."

"Hopefully that won't come back to bite us in the ass." Geppetto rolled his eyes, but Jack can probably take Hero on by surprise.

"Next up is Matt, he's a fighter class who lives for the thrill of combat." Herakles looked troubled. "His lust for battle is unseen even by my experience, and his power is called the Ultimate Martial Art. To sum it all up, the more powerful his opponent, the power dangerous he becomes."

"This guy radiating big villain vibes."

"Next up is Angelo, an Abyss Sorcerer with the unique magic known as Tartarus." Herakles continued his explanation while he drank. "His magic is devastatingly powerful, the most powerful here at the academy. He is also dangerously smart, being able to use his magic in the most creative ways possible."

"While those two sound neat and all, I'm more concerned about my own students than some people I've never heard of before." Geppetto seemed concerned about Jack and Alice? Wow.

"Well Jack's class abilities as an archeologist allow him to absorb the powers of the dead amongst some other things." Herakles didn't give him any clues as to what his third power is, which is NOT helping. "However, I get the feeling there's more to him than meets the eye, especially given how well both his parents' abilities worked together in conjunction."

"Well I wouldn't be surprised if Jack suddenly started developing his mother's powers as a Dreamer." Geppetto guessed, could this be his power as a dreamer manifesting? "So what about my granddaughter?"

"Her blood connection to you and Lucy gives her unparalleled potential, and she's already gotten this far with her grandmother's powers without any teachers." Herakles points out. "Now imagine what would happen when she learns how to use her grandfather's powers..."

"Fascinating, so maybe we can tell my granddaughter about all this!"

"No, bad idea." Herakles let out a hefty sigh. "If she learns what Lucy did, Alice may want to continue the project, so it would be wise not to let Alice know unless all hell breaks loose. The same for all these students."

"Except for Jack." Geppetto's body began radiating a soft green light that was increasing in intensity until it began taking the shape of green branches growing out of him. "Because he's a special case?"

"Because he ended up fighting Hero, I was hoping some rich snob would end up fighting Hero." Herakles sighed.

After that, the two elderly men began talking about the past. No offense to them, but Jack did not have the mental energy to deal with old man backstories. Jack decided to return to his room. Jack hovered his face out of the wall, so everything no longer looked like he was glitching through the walls. Jack flew back to where his room was and looked at his sleeping body once more, glancing at the place where his right leg should be. Jack laid himself into his body, feeling everything return back to where it's supposed to be. Once he finished putting his soul back in his body Jack woke up, looking at his hands to see he was back in his body.

"Trippy."