We didn't commission new costumes. We went home. Immediately. If Zeke felt the need to tell me Mr. Jack-tastic was in town now there had to be a reason for it. I didn't believe for a second he'd just been informing me because it was amusing. This had some relation to me, and I wanted to know what it was before those absolute lunatics filled my car with spray cheese or something. I still had nightmares about the day I spent in Jerks territory.

Callie apparently was at least sympathetic, because she agreed to head home with me. Benny decided to stay back at the academy with Grimmengap and most of the wolves, though Jin, Rallia, and Lily came with us. Without Cark and Benny we had the room to barely squeeze everyone in. When we got home Jessie went to go deliver the two thousand chits to Cark while Callie and I cornered my Uncle. He smirked when he saw us. "Ah, hurried home I see. I'm not surprised. I figured you would be curious."

I dropped down onto the couch across from him. "Ok, let's get the obvious out of the way. Why or how are you allowed to tell me they're in town in the first place. Doesn't this fall under the whole 'do it yourself' category?" That was going to bug me all day if I didn't get it settled. I was still figuring out the rules for how all of this worked. The more I found out about Zekes geas the more I could work around it if necessary.

That got me a disappointed head shake and a tsk of disapproval. "That was a waste of a first question honestly. I told you, Stella called. She would have passed the info to you all eventually anyway. I was just acting as an intermediary. I didn't tap into any resources or information lines you couldn't normally access." He grinned at me tauntingly. "Now that you asked the dumb question, how about the smart one?" He didn't even try to hide the condescending glee he felt at making me dance to his tune.

Sighing, I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Why does it matter to me that Mr. Jack-tastic has come to Rajak? You wouldn't call and tell me that just because that stupid gang haunts the darkest parts of my nightmares." At least, I hoped he wouldn't. Though saying it out loud like that made me wonder how accurate it was. Zeke's sense of humor could be obnoxious sometimes.

He gave a satisfied nod, and I felt more and more that I'd just stepped into some kind of trap I really should have avoided. "Because they came here partly for you." He paused. "Well, no, they came here because breaking through to E rank means Mr. Jack-Tastic is a top tier existence on this planet now, and as such being at the center of the action means he gets a bigger slice of the pie, but you being here definitely helped them make the decision to come over more quickly. After all, you're very important to them."

Ok, I liked the way that sounded even less than I liked how gleeful he was being about this whole thing. Despite the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach though, I didn't take the bait. I stayed calm, and said in a very level voice, with absolutely no teeth grinding. "And why, exactly, would I be important to the Jerks, when I met a total of like six of them in the entire time I was in Velan?"

His smile got wider, if that was even possible. "Oh, you don't know?" I had to literally force myself not to lunge across the room and try not to choke him. "I just assumed that you were aware. Apparently you were responsible for foiling the grand entrance of Mr. Jack-tastics only son into the criminal underworld of Velan. He decided that you were his nemesis, and has decided to accompany his father to Rajak in order to do glorious battle with you." I believed he must have been tapping into his seven digit Focus score to get that all out before he dissolved into gales of laughter.

The blood drained from my face. "Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me. Please tell me his kid wasn't Carl." Granted it could have been Stephen the Shoe, but Carl had at least had SOME brains, not to mention he had seemed like the one in charge. Zeke just grinned at me, clearly savoring my pain. I pointed at him accusingly. "You are WAY too bored if you're this amused by my misfortune. Forgetting for a moment your complete lack of any sort of life,how exactly did Mr. Jack-tastic of all people hit fucking E rank?"

His smile dimmed but didn't vanish as he rolled his own eyes at my critique of his entertainment. Still, his voice became more serious, and honestly slightly impressed. "In a similar way to how Unity did it actually. In retrospect it's actually kind of brilliant. By making his name both ridiculous, and included in the name of his gang, combined with picking the weirdest and most eccentric people possible, he was apparently farming renown for years, building up his profile in a way that the other gang lords just couldn't."

I blinked. "I mean, I figured he was pushing the crazy angle for renown, I think we all did, but I guess I never really noticed how any interaction with the Jerks was filtered through the lens of them being his subordinates. Even more so than the Queen of Hearts and The Nobody Man. I got the impression they were all sort of equal. If he kept from tipping people off he must have been playing things pretty close to the chest. I guess the whole 'genius or idiot' question kind of answered itself huh?"

Callie looked absolutely thunderstruck. She'd been an executive in the Velan branch, not to mention a frequent visitor to the WCP. A case could be made that she was the member of the Unity with the most connection to the underworld in all of Velan, and this had obviously completely blindsided her. I knew how she felt. I turned to Zeke, trying to convey with my tone that I wasn't kidding around anymore. "So, this Carl thing. How much trouble can the son of an E ranker make for me? I mean I know you can stop Mr. Jack-tastic himself from messing with me, but what about the other Jerks? Also, why didn't we know about Carl to begin with. I figured Cap would be aware of something like this."

Zeke looked a little annoyed at that. "Apparently it was something of a secret. Carl is an idiot, but he's a prideful idiot. The only reason we found out about the connection was that Mr. Jack-tastic ,gods that's such a stupid name, because JACK exerted personal influence to spring him from jail. As much as we might pretend otherwise after a certain level powerful cultivators can basically do whatever they want. Just him showing up in person was enough to pressure them to let Carl go."

It was hard to throw stones there, I'd benefited from Zeke's powers when he came to help with the sleepers. Still, Mr. Jack-tactic wasn't the only F ranker in town at the time. Even if he had been approaching E not many people knew that. "Wouldn't that be a huge risk though? Putting pressure on the authorities like that? I mean, rank isn't a magic medicine that makes you invincible. Even without being as high in stats the other F rankers would still be a threat if push came to shove. Unless his ability is really that overpowered? I dont think I've ever heard what he can do."

Zeke didn't seem to care, but given his insanely high rank that wasn'ta shock. "He's a beast caller. It's similar to what Benny does, but with animals. He binds the spirits of monsters and beasts into his skin like tattoos and can tap into their abilities at will. It's less versatile than an embodiment skill because it's permanent, but it's also more powerful because the beasts can actually still grow as he does. But you aren't wrong, Jack isn't invincible at F rank by any means, but he doesn't have to be. He just has to be strong enough to be inconvenient."

Realization dawned on me. "The F rankers in Velan are balanced. Taking on Mr. Jack-tactic means potentially getting hurt or even killed, leaving your territory open for the others. Stella might not have that same problem, but she also can't afford the blow to her image. If she wants to keep growing she needs to be the unassailable guild master. It's the only way she has a chance of making an impression after someone like Midknight passed the torch to her. Stopping him from springing some random weakling, son or not, isn't worth burning those bridges so they just ignored it."

It was interesting to hear more about the way people interacted at higher ranks, and more than that it made some of the unspoken rules clear. It was obvious that the E rankers in the capital could have converged and destroyed all the criminals on the planet if they wanted, but what would be the point of that? Heroic cultivation required spectacle, and spectacle required enemies.

Of course, there were certain things like Stricture's killings that crossed the line, but even then there seemed to be rules in place. They had sent a single F ranker to deal with the issue, keeping the power structure in the city mostly intact. Even that had been compromised for Callie to get the credit (which she ultimately hadn't, I could only assume she'd gone out of her way to make sure my role was disclosed, I'd never asked her about that) showing that the E rankers had even more complicated motivations past the preservation of the current order.

So the question became, what was Carl going to actually do? I doubted he was going to ignore me, but I wasn't exactly running around town, and the city was way too big for that to matter anyway. The only thing I could think of would be coming to the Academy, but it was a Unity exclusive institution. Then I paused. Was it? The Unity pretty clearly didn't care about outsiders attending, Celine made that obvious. "Is it possible that Carl might end up at the Academy? Like could Mr. Jack-tastic pull some strings to make that happen?"

Zeke didn't seem surprised by the question. "Sure. Building good relations with an E ranker would be worth admitting someone to the school. They do that kind of stuff as a political gesture all the time. In fact, that would be a decent reason for coming here. The Academy isn't just a concentration of force, it's a recruitment tool. The events they hold weed out the most promising candidates from the student body and give them a chance to see what they're capable of. It's one of the fastest ways to get to a higher ranked planet."

That was good to know. I'd have to look into how that worked, but however that was, I was guessing it was aimed at F rankers. Given their status in the academy, it would make the most sense. In fact, I'd always wondered why the F rankers stayed on as student instructors and helpers after graduation, but if it involved some kind of opportunity for promotion that made perfect sense. I shot Callie an excited look, and I was sure she was having similar, if not identical thoughts.

We thanked Zeke for the news, and ignored his snickering about the fact that I had an insane stalker. This had given us a lot to think about, and we both headed to the training room for a spar. We had Balam lessons to continue, and after the big power boost we both needed to get used to our new capabilities. I was happy to take some time off from thinking for a while. Not that it would necessarily end soon, I was pretty sure with the Jerks in town, none of us were going to be making much use of logic.