Chapter 5

There's a certain moment when you can just feel an opportunity waiting right at your fingertips and this was most certainly one of them.

Benjamin waited for a few minutes as Leo's group left the classroom before he grabbed his lunch and followed them all the way to the roof, hiding behind the nearest stone structure just in case they could see him, and because it was hot for fucks sake!

"Now can you explain to me what's happening?" Leo asks in exasperation, a tired look resting on his face as the two girls give a strict nod in unison.

"But of course. You do remember what I told you when we met do you not?" Claire begins, elegantly taking a piece of paper out of her pocket. "We are here on an important mission from the Mythos Company, and as such have decided to take the guise of students for the remainder of our stay in Itsumo.'

"Oh right, that thing that you mentioned when we first met!" The blue haired boy exclaims, snapping his finger. Benjamin swears he can see a light bulb over his head as Claire rips the paper to shreds and stuffs it in her pocket.

Well there goes that piece of information.

"Protocol." She replies at Leo's confused look, before taking a deep breath as her expression changes to a tired and sad one "It must be followed after all... sorry for my current mood... yesterday was tough..."

"I'll let Patricia explain as it's not my place to say anything on the matter..."

For the first time since Benjamin ever laid eyes on the girl, her icy aura melted away only to be replaced by a fiery passion that made her tremble in pure waves of anger- no, fury.

"My brother was… he was killed yesterday during the investigation of a rogue mythos." A shiver crawls down Benjamin's back as what looks like tears began to form in her eyes. "We... had to spend all of yesterday investigating his murder and preparing for his funeral, that will be held today..."

Well… shit. He didn't really have high expectations that it couldn't be them but that's really the final nail in the coffin. Just like that losers.

...Okay that was a bad joke even by his standards.

'I like it.' Comments Jack from inside his head but Benjamin shushed him away in order to focus on the conversation.

"No, i-impossible! Matthew can't be…" Leo stutters, a horrified expression befalling his face as he took a couple steps away from the group before his back was against the railing.

Claire picks up for Patrica as the girl in question can't bring herself to respond. Benjamin spots a trace of tears flowing down from her eyes as she stared at the ground, her fist clenched and twitching ever so slightly, and he get the feeling that anything that touched her in the moment would be destroyed by her thorns.

"I'm truly sorry. I know he meant so much to you even though you only knew him for a day... we will held a ceremony today for him, if you wish to go, me and Patricia will accompany you." Claire replies, putting a hand on his shoulder in comfort.

"How…how did he die?" Leo asked, lowering his head.

"...His organs were lacerated from the inside out." Claire declares bluntly, now getting angry herself. Her grip tightened on Leo's shoulder as she continued her tirade. "That's not even the worst part. Matthew was carrying a suitcase which contained some highly sensitive information, and by the time we got there it was nowhere to be found. We're absolutely certain that a third party made a contract with the Rogue Mythos that he was hunting, killed Matthew, and stole the suitcase before escaping the scene of the crime."

...Well shit. Turns out, stealing the suitcase was a bad idea. At least he can take some pleasure in their "absolute certainty" being wrong.

Suddenly a burst of energy appeared in thin air and a handsome blond knight appeared next to Leo, putting his hand on Leo's other shoulder.

"Be calm, Leo. We shall find the one who did this to Matthew an avenge him." The knight declared. "We cannot let a killer walk around our town once again.'

"I know that Arthur but-" Leo began, only to punch the door that connects the roof to the lower floor before he had even finished his own sentence. "He didn't deserve it!"

'...Shit I'm stuck with the goddamn killer.' Benjamin thinks to himself, only for Jack to reply back.

'Remember what I said kid, there's no going back to your life before.' There was a short pause before he began again. 'And he totally did deserve it!''

'Guess I'm going to have to keep my head low.' Benjamin sighed, 'Neither of us seem to be combat specialists, and I don't even know if we could take all of them down even if we were.'

Benjamin blinked before in a sudden moment the blond Ojou had switched to hugging Leo in an effort to calm him down.

"We're all angry Leo, and Patricia and I made a vow to found the killer and punish him ourselves." She declares, hugging him even more tightly. "We will not let him get away with this."

"...We're going to find that bastard. No questions." Patricia replies, having stopped crying. She whipped her head back up to look up at the group in a fluid motion, raising an arm to hide a part of her face as she clenched her hand into a fist. "Leonardo Yuusha! Me and Artemis are one on this matter! No matter where this bastard may hide, he will not escape from the hunt!"

Claire lets go of Leo and crosses her right arm over her chest before giving a bow. "You have mine and Joan's help as well."

Leo raised his head, a new fire burning in his eyes as he stared back at his friends. "Thank you, everyone. We will punish this bastard. For Matthew!"

"FOR MATTHEW!" They all yelled, clenching their hands together.

Ha! They'll never find him! Benjamin's secondary bomb has no weakness!

...Wait wrong serial killer.

Hm, that was a quite the scene coming from a bunch of high school students, Benjamin even bet that there were more anime tropes than the amount of fingers he had on both of his hands. And if that were true than the only way the scene would be complete is...

Out of nowhere the door to the roof swings open revealing a pink haired girl who tried to be as sophisticated as Claire but obviously couldn't compete with that tired expression she had on her face.

"Ah! I finally found you guys! You guys left so fast I didn't get to introduce mysel-"Said the girl only to freeze upon seeing Leo holding hands with the rest of the girls.

Of course how could one forget the classic scenario of 'childhood friend entering in a very delicate moment'! Now the collection is complete.

If his memory serves him correctly, this pink haired girl is Yukiko Suzuki, the student council president and Leo's childhood friend.

"W-What's going on?!?!" She panics, pointing at the group as they all froze up.

"Y-Yuki i-I can explain!" Now Leo is the one panicking, trying to let go of the girl's hands only to find one of them holding it tighter.

Well Benjamin watched enough anime to know where this is going, his job here is do-

And of course his flawless escape is ruined by a stray twig on the roof that just so happened to be on the roof because fuck it he's falling for the cliches as wells.

"Who's there?!" Patricia yells, letting go of Leo's hand and whipping her head around.

Luckily for him this isn't the first time this has happened. Ever since the two girls incident, Benjamin has prepared himself for all scenarios that might occur in the habit of stalking!

Namely bullshitting your ass off and doing everything it takes to fuck with them.

"What's with all the noise?" Benjamin yawned, scratching his eyes a little. "Oh, it's the new transfer students and the council president. How're you all doing? It's such a beautiful… duwang don't you think? I just couldn't help myself and enjoyed a lovely afternoon nap."

"Who're you?!" Patricia demands, about to walk up and grab him by the collar only for Yukiko to hold her back.

"Schwartz please calm down. If I remember correctly he's in our class and I think his name is..." Yukiko stares off into space trying to remember his name for a moment before Benjamin decided to just end her suffering.

"Hahaha! Don't worry about it president! The name's Benjamin and it's such a pleasure to meet you!" He say with a forced smile on his face, pretending to introduce himself to the transfer students.

Benjamin watched as Patricia visibly reverts to her ice queen persona before responding back to you. "...It's my pleasure. Forgive me for my tone earlier."

"Hahaha! Don't worry about it!" Benjamin replied, still pretending to smile.

"Hm, Benjamin, do you mind if I ask you an odd question?" Claire asks, though Benjamin already has an idea on what she's going to say.

"Well it depends on the question." He shrugged, "If it's anything to weird than I can't answer but… nothing really gets passed the weird quota these days."

"Forgive me for asking but when did you arrive here?" Ha, nailed it. "You see, Leo, Patricia, and I have been having an important conversation and we don't really want anyone to know about it."

"Well arrived here at the beginning of lunch." Benjamin replied, before going into full on lies, "The roof is the perfect place for a nap you know? Oh but don't worry, I know exactly what you were talking about."

Benjamin watched as all three of them visibly tense before smirking and pointing at Claire.

"Leo was declaring his undying love to you, right?"

All three of their eyes widen as and he swears Leo choked a bit as Claire's face began turning red as a tomato.

"Hahaha I knew it! Did you know? Leo choked immediately when he first saw you!" And for the final nail in the coffin… "My mind was a bit groggy when I woke up but… I think I saw you hugging him earlier so you must have accepted right? Ah ha! Don't worry, I'll keep it a secret until you're ready to share it to the world!"

Benjamin turned around before dropping the fake smile and leaving the group to their mess. It isn't his fault they seemed to adhere to all the anime cliches.

'I'm impressed with your acting skills.' Jack commented as he left the rooftop. 'Wouldn't expect one so young to be so good in the ways of deceiving.'

'Every. Scenario. Jack.'

'Ha! You're going to have to tell me that story later. Now, onto business.' Benjamin can feel that is Jack going into serious mode as you navigated your way through the corridors to class before the bell rang. 'We currently have three vergers on a trial even if they don't know it. Luckily, they've made the ultimate mistake.'

'That being?'

'Rule number one of being a Verger, that's what you're called by the way, is that you never, ever, share your Mytho's name.' Jack tells him seriously, 'It's the equivalent of showing someone your porn stash. Revealing your Mythos might be good and all for dramatic effect but knowing their names means they're researchable. And with enough research…'

"...It'll reveal their Mythos' weakness." Benjamin declared out loud, stopping in his tracks as an evil grin begins to spread on his face.

'And we have their Mythos' names'

"Leo called his mythos Arthur and with the way it looks there's no doubt he made a contract with King Arthur." He mused, making sure no one was listening. "Patricia mentioned something about a hunt and Artemis so it's definitely the Greek Goddess we're talking about and Claire… well it's just a guess but the only person I can think of who's name starts with Joan is Joan of Arc or Jeanne D'Arc."

'Bingo'

"But there's one more thing that I'm curious, why did that Matthew guy say his Mythos name when you confronted him?"

'Either it was the result of whatever the Mythos company did to keep Hector silent or he was just plain panicking. Even then, it was a stupid move. If you want to merge with me, just shout Verge.'

"Noted. Now, let's go back to class"

Benjamin had a feeling that those three weren't the only bizarre people he was going to meet from now on.