You do know that you don't have to stalk him like he's some kind of prey, you know?

Byleth watched the man known as Mr. Bubbles from a distance. His request to become a caretaker went over quite well. He was being shown around by a priestess and being introduced to the children. He greeted the children with a warm smile. The child known as Sally tried her best to accentuate how grateful she is to Mr. Bubbles. Of course there was the exaggerations of a child in her recounting, but the children seemed to play along, perhaps even believing it. The introductions were short as the priestess decided to lead Mr. Bubbles to his newly appointed quarters.

Byleth was about to follow, but one of her students, Mercedes, noticed and called out to her.

"Oh, Professor!"

She turned around to see the gentle woman casually walk up to her. Her hand slightly twitched on instinct to grasp her blade. She stopped herself before anything could come of it. She had a few incidents here and there for pulling blades on both staff and students for seemingly no reason. It was still slightly a bit new to her that people don't stand on guard around each other. No one can just walk up without expecting to get stabbed...something which she had to get a bit drilled out of her in her time here.

"Here to see the children?" Mercedes put up her signature radiant smile.

Byleth shook her head.

"I see, you're just passing by then?"

She nodded.

Byleth took a cursory glance to where she last saw Mr. Bubbles, only to see that both him and the priestess were long gone.

"Oh, you were looking for someone." Mercedes spoke up, this prompted the woman to look back at her, "Do you need any help? I'm sure two people looking for someone will make it easier."

Byleth shook her head, "I don't want to waste your time."

Mercedes giggled, "Come now, Professor, helping you is the least I can do. Now who are you looking for?"

"I'm not looking for someone. I was watching them from a distance."

Mercedes raised a brow, "Watching them from a distance?"

She nodded.

Mercedes slightly giggled, "I'll be honest Professor, if someone like Hilda or Dorothea encountered you like this they would think other things."

Byleth tilted her head at the comment, but didn't question what they would think out loud to Mercedes.

Mercedes chuckled nervously as her professor only just stared at her. The nervousness was alleviated as a child approached the two, Mercedes looked behind Byleth "Oh, Sally! It's great to see you again."

Byleth turned around to see the girl beaming, "Hello, Sister Mercedes! Mr. Bubbles showed up today! He's okay!"

"That's wonderful, Sally! By the way, this is Professor Eisner. She's the reason why you and Mr. Bubbles are okay. You should thank her."

Sally nodded and directed her beam towards Byleth, "Thank you, Professor. Mr. Bubbles is strong and he protects us. I hope he protects you too."

If anything he's the one that needs protection from you. I guess it would be a stroke of irony if he knew he was protecting the person that killed him once. I swear you've grown attached to him even though you don't know him well.

Attached? Byleth questioned inside her own mind as Sally and Mercedes have a back and forth.

I jest. I jest. Goodness forbid you take a joke. Though you need to learn to not be obsessed over every little choice. You spared a man, big deal. You just need to prepare for when you can't save anyone no matter what you do.

"Professor, are you okay?"

Mercedes shook the woman's arm a bit, snapping her out of her trance.

"I'm fine."

Mercedes gave a quizzical look, but it wasn't the time to question the woman, "Sally ran off a moment ago to play with the other children and I see you have something on your mind, so I'll leave you to yourself."

Mercedes nodded, turned around, and was about to walk off, but before she could get any further Byleth called out to her.

"Mercedes."

She turned back around, "Yes, Professor?"

Byleth carefully contemplated her next choice of words. Her string of thought almost saying everything that came to mind, but she simply stopped herself from speaking nonsense, "What do you think of Mr. Bubbles?"

It was Mercedes turn to tilt her head in confusion. "Huh? I know him as much as you do Professor. I only know what Sally told me of him. Are you suspicious of him?"

Did she suspect anything from a man she barely knew? Of course, that's what her instincts told her, but that's natural suspicion cast on a stranger. So, no she wasn't suspicious of the man entirely. She was...curious. Absolutely curious to say the least. And of course she couldn't explain why she was curious to Mercedes. Even she wouldn't believe that she altered a man's fate by rewinding to a specific point in time and is currently observing the fruits of her decision.

Byleth simply shook her head.

"I see." Mercedes took a moment to ponder, "I don't believe Sally is lying when she praises him, but there is some exaggerations as expected from a young girl. If what Sally has told me is any indications, I believe Mr. Bubbles to be a strong, kind hearted man, whom I feel I can trust even without knowing him personally." Mercedes paused, "Is that all you needed from me, Professor?"

Byleth put a finger to her chin and pondered on what she can ask next...what should she ask next. She wondered if she should ask about herself, but perhaps now wasn't the appropriate time to ask, "That's all I needed to know."

"Thank you for your time Professor. I should probably get going, if there's anything you need from me don't be afraid to ask."

Mercedes took off, this time without Byleth interrupting her. After the woman left, Byleth took a few seconds to observe her surroundings. Now she had to find the man again, which shouldn't be too hard. The completely devoted to the goddess get their own dormitory, which Mr. Bubbles does not fit the criteria of. There were also guest rooms located closer to the gates of the church, but it was something for temporary guests, not workers. The dormitories near the classrooms were exclusive to teachers and students of course. So that left...somewhere she hasn't been before...perhaps it would be a bit difficult to pinpoint where to find him.

….

"Ah, Professor Eisner. I do hope you stopped by today to let me examine your crest closely, but I know I'm not that lucky. What happens to bring you today?" Professor Hanneman looked over form his bookcase. The crest analyzer in the middle being spick and clean, like the rest of his office. Of course whenever Byleth entered it's almost like the crest analyzer was the cleanest thing in the room.

She kept her eyes on Hanneman and shook her head, "I'm looking for Mr. Bubbles."

"Ah yes, Jack. I had requested that he stop by later after his tour, to which he agreed. He looks like a man who keeps his word. Perhaps we can wait here together?"

Byleth nodded and took a stance next to the door. She leaned her back against the wall and crossed her arms. She shut her eyes and let the rhythmic process of herself breathing in and out occupy her mind. Hanneman seemingly went back to his studies, casually glancing towards the corner Byleth was meditating in. After a few minutes of just Hanneman only making noise he took another glance towards Byleth and opened his mouth.

"I do have to wonder what Jack's crest happens to be. It's why I requested for him to stop by later. I gathered testimonials from your students, but it appeared only Ashe, Annette, and Dedue had anything substantial about Jack. From what I could gather from them, Jack is perhaps a powerful mage, though a sloppy melee striker, he has killed before according to Dedue and Ashe. His magic was almost instantaneous according to those three! I can only wonder which crest increased his enchantment capabilities!"

Byleth kept her eyes shut, but Hanneman continued to drone on. He did bring up a good point that she contemplated earlier, but questions were not ideal in the middle of combat. His magic was...foreign to say the least. She's observed her students and their practices with magic and read about the more advance magic out there in the world. Of course she has experience against Mages and the like before as well, but they were cut down before they could get many spells off. She might not be too familiar with how they work herself, but even someone as magically inexperienced as her knew that Jack's magic isn't natural. Even in the far off coasts magic casting is similar to how it's done in Fodlan. She couldn't think of it clearly, but it was like magic, yet it wasn't.

She heard Sothis slightly giggle at her contemplation. Was it not as complicated as she was making it out to be?

"-gain I need to get a better look at that strange wand of his. It's like it's not designed to be a weapon, not designed to be a staff either-"

Hanneman was still prattling on.

Byleth sighed, followed shortly by Sothis giving an exaggerated sigh. Byleth simply envisioned her doing the stretch that went along with such a sigh.

….

Jack ended up being separated from the priestess that showed him around after he got into his room. She had other duties to attend to and simply wished the man good luck. His room was more of a closet sized space, but he didn't need that much room anyway. His mind tried to compare the room to a false memory of a farm, but he shook his head before it could go any further. It's been a while since he's seen that false vision. No need to dwell on it, it'll only remind him of even more horrid memories.

He simply needed to get out and get some fresh air. He was told to simply rest until they call upon him to fulfill his duties. Perhaps a few days from now, or perhaps tomorrow. The children needed to be ready for him.

Jack gave a final look around the small room, his wrench had made its way into here. Lying on the sheets that was squeezed between the walls. His hand slightly twitched causing a small flame to dance inside his palms. This had to be a trap, no one had a perfectly neat bundle of sheets and a clean weapon in a closet like this. He spun around and checked his surroundings to find the closed door behind him and his rational mind piecing together that he was not in Rapture. Jack wasn't sure the potential what if about finding out he was in Rapture the whole time be a cruel joke...or a blessing in disguise.

He blinked three times. Some tears falling down his cheeks. He wiped the droplets off with his sweater and shook his head. He just needed some air, that's all. Even when he faced the many horrors of Rapture he never relented or cried, but things can and will change all the time. He once again gave a cursory glance towards the wrench, a strange feeling of safety instead accompanied his thoughts. It was his first weapon, reliable and sturdy.

Jack looked forward, took a breath, opened the door, and walked out of the room. The door seemingly blended into the walls, one wouldn't even know that there were a couple of rooms nearby as well unless all the doors were open. The room location was surprising as well as it was a high foot traffic area, where students and staff alike traveled down without a second thought. As a result some students jumped at the sight of the man exiting and casually closing the door behind him. His guided tour of the Monastery was immensely helpful, if a bit short and to the point. He was curious of some areas, but the priestess wanted to be sure he got a good look at the important places.

He walked in the direction he remembered peaked his curiosity, a training ground. Perhaps it was the inner fighter within him, or he was just interested on a whim. He tried to maintain a brisk stroll as to not stand out too much. Which was currently failing.

"Who is that? A teacher?"

"I think they're a guest."

"He's pretty handsome."

"That's a nice sweater."

No one bothered to stop him anyway, so he didn't pay too close attention to the comments passing by. It took a few minutes but he finally ended up near what he assumed to be the training grounds. Students and staff were going in and out of the giant doors. The ones going out were covered in dirt, bruises, blood, etc. Relatively clean compared to what he's seen. He didn't plan to stop and interrupt the foot traffic so he walked in.

"Ah, damn that stings."

"It could be worse, you could've faced Dimitri."

There were actually multiple open areas to train. Some obviously specialized in specific avenues to combat, such as archery, magic concentration, lance training, open ended mixes where students could duel with the skills they have, etc. From what he observed as he walked through; most of the students went for clean, precise, and practiced maneuvers. Even when they sparred against each other, their maneuvers were straight and to the point. Nothing to insinuate that they perhaps haven't been in a life or death fight.

He stopped and leaned against a wall as he came upon a peculiar sight. A lone fighter against four all carrying wooden swords. The four had encircled their target, a lone woman with her blond hair tied up, white armor, a slightly tanned complexion, and an almost relaxed pose. In the perspective of the the four encircling her they had the advantage, they simply needed to attack her and overwhelm her. To Jack though, he could see that the woman was simply about to win. Numbers vs a single person would give even the craziest denizen of Rapture a sense of security and underestimate their enemy. Why he was so sure the lone woman was going to win? He's simply been in many similar situations before.

The four decided to charge her all at once, in hopes of not even giving her a chance to react to them from all sides. It was over before it even began. In the matter of a couple of seconds She kicked the shin of one, used one of them as a shield, threw two of them into each other, then finished one off with a simple gut punch. Not once did she ever use the wooden blade to deflect or attack. Her four aggressors only groaned in pain as the almost relaxed woman...completely relaxed and gave a deep breath.

For a brief moment Jack saw a Bouncer Big Daddy in all it's hideous glory over a pile of Splicer corpses. It's drill covered in blood, red glowing portholes shifting to yellow, and it letting out a roar of victory to potentially scare away any other assailants. The scenery was simply falling apart, water leaking everywhere, walls peeling, stairs destroyed, cracks in the floor... then the scene quickly snapped back to reality.

A grin appeared on her face as she helped her aggressors up.

"Told ya I didn't need to use my weapon for this. Your plan was by the book, but that's just it, by the book. In a real battle you can't expect the enemy to sit back and take a blow right out of the book. They'll scramble, kick, scream, cry, and try their hardest to fight back. So, you ready for another round?"

A chorus of "NO" was the simple answer. The woman was obviously disappointed, but she relented and told them to continue practices. She made them promise to come face her again in a week to see how much they improved. The four quickly shuffled out, leaving the woman alone, perhaps waiting for anyone else to arrive. Jack took this as his Que to leave and looked around some more.

"Impressed by my moves, new guy?"

The woman simply turned around and looked directly at Jack, her blue eyes directed at his own.

He nodded.

"Well don't be shy, come over here. I wanna see the guy Seteth, of all people, allowed in. I'm sure you experienced it first hand, but he's not exactly the friendly to everyone type."

She smiled as Jack brought himself closer to her. It didn't need to be said between them, but the two could feel that they were fighters. The blond woman could see that the eyes of the man were so different from the many students, some staff, and even some knights. They were the eyes of a man who has killed and can kill. Yet, she can also see in his eyes the type of man who would put his life on the line for someone else, no matter what.

"Jack."

"Well then. If we're forgoing formalities, then you can just call me Catherine."

He raised a brow.

The blond haired woman gave a chuckle, "Pretty hard not to hear about the man called Mr. Bubbles. I can see why you just want to be called Jack."

Jack gave a small hum of acknowledged. No need to dwell on the name for too long.

"I was surprised that Seteth was the one to give you a pass. Usually Lady Rhea brings all types of people in and he keeps his eyes on them at all times. I believe he said you were a caretaker of sorts?"

Jack nodded.

"Let me take a guess you were an orphan? Then after growing up in a loving location you want to try and spread the happiness around?"

Jack stared at the woman for a couple of seconds. He wished he had something like that.

"There's no need to be embarrassed, I've met many caretakers in my travels. However, something about you tells me that I missed the mark entirely."

Jack crossed his arms and placed a hand on his chin, "It's a bit more complicated than that."

Catherine grinned quite openly, "I won't budge if you don't want me to. Whatever your business is- is your business. However, that won't stop me from being curious."

It was Jack's turn to smile, "Thank you."

Catherine chuckled, "And here I thought you were gonna be the serious type." Catherine put a hand up and walked to a rack with wooden swords, she grabbed one, walked back over to Jack, and tried to offer him the one, "Wanna have a quick spar? I've been itching to see what you got?"

While Jack had been internally critiquing the students he passed by, he wasn't exactly confident in his own abilities after seeing how Catherine wiped the floor with the students. He shook his head, "I don't think I can take you on." There's a difference between fighting a lunatic and fighting a rational thinking fighter.

Catherine continued to offer the wooden sword, almost shoving it into his chest really, "You can't be that bad if you're still alive. Not gonna beat around the bush, but you and I both know that we are warriors."

Jack shook his head once again, "I'm a killer. Not a warrior." Unbeknownst to him Catherine could see the despair in his eyes. A look she knew all too well, it was one that she's seen on herself more times than she could count.

Catherine frown and dropped one of the wooden swords she was holding. In a swift motion she closed the gap between them and grasped a hand on Jack's shoulder. She gave a squeeze and looked him dead in his eyes, "I know the difference between a warrior and a killer, something of which you need to know too. A killer wouldn't be saying they're a killer. A killer wouldn't become a caretaker with approval from a man like Seteth.. A killer wouldn't be having this conversation right now. Do you understand me?"

Jack kept his gaze on her for a couple of seconds, "Alright."

Catherine dropped her serious act and smiled once again, "Good." She was pretty sure she didn't convince him of anything at the moment, but she would be willing to play the long game. Though she did notice that his sweater felt quite nice. Almost made her envious, "So, want to spar?" She lifted her hand off his shoulder.

"Did you do that just to get me to spar?"

"I wouldn't say that was the only reason why. Maybe a majority of the reason really?" Catherine joked. She smiled as and readied her stance when the man decided to pick the wooden sword from off the ground, "Just tell me when you're ready." That smile quickly faded as the man simply walked over to the racks and gently placed the sword back.

"I'll see you around, Catherine."

"Alright, but next time I won't be asking."

Catherine watched as the man walked away and sighed a bit in disappointment, "I really wanted to see what he had."

After a moment or so of waiting, a pale, white haired girl, with pinkish eyes walked up to her.

"Ah, Lysithea..right?"

"Yes, I apologize, but have you seen a man in a sweater? He's apparently called... Mr. Bubbles?" Lysithea slightly struggled to say the name with a straight face without sounding like a fool.

"I did a little bit ago, he just left. Got any business with him or...?"

"I'm actually curious about his proficiency in magic. Sorry, but I want to try and catch up with him, so I can't stick around."

"Alright, but would you kindly direct someone my way? Haven't gotten my fill on sparring yet."

Catherine watched as Lysithea walked away, "I guess that's one reason why he didn't wish to spar."