Author’s note- He he, so I decided to write a chapter from the other Nathaniel’s PoV. It was quite interesting to write, and I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did when writing it.

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Spying

Chloe- “Nathaniel, the bell is ringing! It’s time for lunch.”

An ugly and annoying girl was shaking my shoulder, clearly both annoyed and nervous. Ahh… Aside from that, it’s good to be back. My eyes suddenly opened with a golden glint, but I quickly let the light fade. Pretending to be like that careless idiot, I exclaimed sleepily.

Me- “What?”

Chloe looked somewhat annoyed. She exclaimed in an exasperated voice,

Chloe- “Nathaniel, lunch!”

...She was interrupting my monologue. Well, I’m sure she doesn’t care; I don’t even know while Nathaniel bothers anyway. She’ll only betray us later on.

Me- “...”

Chloe frowned, clearly even more pissed for no apparent reason. But I wasn’t paying attention to this. Something was off…

Shifting to second gear or as that idiot would put it, activating the hot feeling, I listened for any suspicious sounds. I could hear the sound of suppressed breathing, one coming from outside the door, and the other coming from outside of the classroom. We were surrounded…

But what were their intentions? They didn’t seem to be performing surveillance. Deciding I’d make my move after understanding the situation more clearly, I smiled back to Chloe. I didn’t want to make her nervous; a girl with such intelligence would definitely alert the enemy.

I took out a water bottle from my bag, and Chloe and I started to walk towards the door. Upon hearing our actions in the classroom, they started moving. The one outside the classroom door positioned him/herself behind one of the hallway, while the other moved up onto the roof. They were trained…

“Growl.”

Chloe- “You hungry?”

I shrugged my shoulders, attempting to keep track of their locations in my mind. But unfortunately, I probably had to respond to avoid making the girl suspicious.

Me- “You?”

I opened the classroom door, and streams of students were starting walking down the hallway. I cursed under my breath. These people would hinder my movements, but they didn’t have much value as meat shields. Although, with my ability they would constitute a big variable…

Chloe- “Yeah. But I don’t know what I’m going to eat; it depends on what they’re selling at the cafeteria. What about you?”

Me- “I dunno.”

At this point, we had slipped into the crowd. I activated the golden aura underneath my darker clothing; we might need the extra luck. But Chloe smiled, still unaware of the potential crisis that could fall upon us at any moment. Obviously, she wasn’t taking the one-word answers as hints to stop talking.

Chloe- “Their pizza isn’t the best, but if they have hamburgers then get those. They’re delicious.”

One person was within the crowd as well now, while I had lost track of the other’s position due to her stupid insistence on talking. Adding to the confusion, this was a school with 3 floors, and sound doesn’t travel well over long distances. I couldn’t find his traces easily again... Hoping the one on the roof had lost track of our position as well, I responded while thinking of the best way to shake our unwanted admirers.

Me- “Really?”

I looked over my shoulder, but a f*t*ss was blocking my line of sight. I smiled darkly, if you wanted to block my way that was fine. Their bullets would have to get through you to hit me.

Chloe- “Yeah. Well they aren’t really good per se, just decent.”

The pursuer in the crowd had started to shorten the distance between us. It seems that fatty was bothering more than one person, and I could use that chance.

Me- “Hey, just go on ahead to the lunch table. I have to use the restroom.”

Chloe- “Ok, but is anything wrong? You’ve been acting slightly strange lately.”

I put on a fake frown.

Me- “I have a stomachache; was it that obvious?”

The other me had certain qualms about lying, especially to Chloe. But I personally thought that was just stupid; just as long as there were foreseeable benefits, why shouldn’t I lie?

I could hear her heartbeat calm down. It seemed like she didn’t have any suspicions.

Chloe- “Ok, just don’t keep me waiting too long.”

Finally, I shook one quite annoying unwanted guest. Now it was time to shake the others as well.

I turned into the bathroom, and went into an open stall. The toilet was clogged, and there was a large amount of toilet paper floating on the surface of the water. No wonder the boys bathroom smells so bad… Luckily, I wasn’t here to use the bathroom.

Closing the stall, I sent my mental farewell for the janitor who has to clean this up. But now, it was time to disappear. The golden aura responded to my desire, and my body vanished from sight.

The only way for me to exit the stall unnoticed was to crawl under it. And I have to say, I will be filing a complaint to the school about the cleanliness of their floors.

But sanitary matters aside, I exited the bathroom when another student pushed open the door (without washing his hands). And then I heard the distinctive footsteps I identified to belong to the person following me in the hallway. The person was still walking with the crowd, heading towards the lunch area.

I didn’t hold any value to that girl, but the other me would probably abhor me if I let anything happen to her. Ugh. Annoying.

With the help of invisibility, I weaved my way through the crowd unnoticed. And I finally found my target, the one who was stalking Chloe and I, right behind the f*t*ss. It was a 30 year old woman with black hair and glasses, someone you would mistake for a teacher if you didn’t know any better. But I did. It was Sparrow.

I noted her way of walking as a friendly, but I still continued to follow her around. I had no interest in honoring my promise with Chloe; it would be more fun to surprise my bodyguards. I wonder how’d she react.

Using my ability to make my footsteps so light even I couldn’t hear them, I tailed her to the library. She sat next to a tinted window with a clear view of the table Chloe and I sat at. Unwanted surveillance, but I have to say, she was good at her job.

I chose a bookshelf out of sight to cancel my ability, only leaving the golden aura underneath my clothes to eliminate unwanted sounds. Then I snuck towards Sparrow soundlessly.

She didn’t notice me even when I got within inches of her. A combined result of both my body strengthening and the golden aura helped me achieve this, but it doesn’t excuse her negligence. If I was an enemy, I could take her out just like this, and then I would have a clear shot at Chloe.

Upon realizing this, my other half surged with feelings of anger, betrayal! This incompetent woman didn’t deserve to guard me; I would have to get rid of this dead weight! Before she dragged both my life and Chloe’s to hell, I would take her down first!

A pitch black aura surrounded my hand as I reached out to the back of her neck, but then I seemed to regain some semblance of control over my irrational anger.

No. There’s no point in killing her. Chloe didn’t matter to me; only about as much as a random stranger on the streets would. In fact, she mattered even less because she was trying to get close to me. I had already seen what happens when you let one get close to you, and it would never happen to me again. If she died, that would be a result of her own incompetency. At least I could keep my life.

After I reached this resolution, the black aura, which was on the verge of taking her life, receded back into my skin with the suppression of the golden aura. I retracted my hand, and instead I moved my head right next to her ear.

Me- “Boo.”

Her reactions were undoubtedly that of a professional, but I sort of already expected them. The first thing she tried to do was to smash her head backwards, aiming to disorient me with the head-but. To avoid this, I kicked at the inside of her chair, making her miss her mark.

Almost the second after I hit the chair, she put her hand in her purse. Seemingly harmless, but if you thought that wasn’t lethal you’d be sorely mistaken. There was a handgun within the bag! My hand shot out like a snake, pressed the pressure point on her wrist, and thereby made her unable to pull the trigger.

But at this point, she must of realized something was wrong, as she stopped her attempts at attacking me. I then deactivated the golden aura.

Sparrow- “Nathaniel? What are you doing!? I could have…”

Me- “I was testing you. You failed.”

Sparrow looked at me for a second, contemplating the significance of what I said and the disappointment in my tone. She responded pragmatically,

Sparrow- “How did you get here?”

Was she trying to learn from her mistakes? Sorry, but life doesn’t give second chances. You only live one life, and her life would have been lost if I lost control to Blackmist.

Me- “I tailed you after I realized there was someone observing me. From the hallway.”

Sparrow nodded her head.

Sparrow- “It seems I had an oversight. When you disappeared, I should have been more alert.”

Me- “Yes. You should of.”

Honestly, she wasn’t as bad as I made it seem. She definitely exceeded the level of the mercenaries who accompanied the hunters in reaction speed, and her specialty seemed to be in subterfuge and intelligence, not close combat. However, the fact that I was able to both tail and catch her off guard left me hesitant about leaving my body’s safety in their hands.

Me- “It’s getting hard to trust in your ability as a bodyguard.”

Sparrow frowned,

Sparrow- “You would regret firing me.”

My voice became cold and apathetic. Was she still attempting to redeem herself?

Me- “Why.”

Sparrow- “My last name is not Stone. My ability allows me to detect the various intents toward my target, and their source locations to a certain degree of accuracy. If you were an enemy, then I would be able to find and eliminate you before you even got within a mile of me.”

…She had no reason to lie. But I was still suspicious.

Me- “Why didn’t you sense me? If you can read the intent and location, then surely you would have been able to sense my approach, no matter what my intent was.”

She pursed her lips.

Sparrow- “Do you know how eyes work? You can perceive general information about your surroundings, but you will not be able to understand what you need to know without specifically looking at that object. My ability is the same way. But instead of looking at certain objects, I was looking for killing intent.”

Interesting… Well, I guess I could pardon this mistake. It’s not like anything valuable was at stake.

Me- “Well then. I guess grandma didn’t hire you for nothing. And I assume Gabriel is the one on the roof.”

Sparrow smiled mysteriously, neither denying nor affirming my statement.

Sparrow- “Would you like to witness us in action?”

She was implying that it wasn’t their man? Did they already discover the person?

I nodded my head, and she pressed a button by her collar bone. Whispering, she said,

Sparrow- “Change of plans; the boss in training wants to see a show. Have you locked down their position?”

I didn’t hear a response even with my boosted senses, yet Sparrow seemed to receive some sort of confirmation from Gabe. She then flipped out a cell phone, and on her screen a 4-digit pin lock-screen appeared. She typed in 11 numbers in rapid succession, and then placed her finger on the home button.

Suddenly, the phone screen changed from an ordinary background to a screen bearing a remarkable resemblance to the inside of a CPU.

‘Linking to device, please wait a moment. Loading.’

‘10%’

‘50%’

‘…100% Loading complete’

The screen switched to a bird’s eye view of a school building. It wasn’t in color, but from the various details within the picture I could tell it was my high school. And as I had realized this, Sparrow turned to me with a slight smirk on her face.

Sparrow- “Want to play a game with me?”

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Author’s note 2- If you’re like me, then you probably skipped the author’s note at the beginning and went straight to the chapter. But humor me for a moment here, and take the time to realize how insanely fast this chapter came out. This is my apology for the ultra long wait from before. Sorry for being an unreliable author.