Chapter Text
"Wow, so the private talk thing was serious."
John stood in the middle of the classroom, hands in his pockets. Despite everything that had happened over the past few days, he couldn't help but feel hopeful: Seraphina had finally stopped avoiding him and had come to talk.
"Not even a walk or a drink first? You're making me a little nervous, haha..."
But the purple-haired girl didn't react to his attempt at a joke.
"Stop pretending, John. This Joker thing... it's over."
His smile vanished instantly, replaced by a tense expression.
"Sera... I already told you, didn't I? I'm not the Joker."
"I saw you," she said firmly. "I saw you fighting the royals."
"My fight?"
A knot tightened in John's stomach.
"That guy wore a mask... It could've been anyone."
"I didn't recognize you by your face," she replied. "It was your stance. Your technique. The way you moved. Everything else."
John turned away, giving her his back. He couldn't bear to look her in the eyes while she accused him. He remained silent, waiting for his failed attempts at hiding it to finally collapse.
"I've known you for a long time... It was obvious."
"How many times do I have to say it?" he muttered, clinging to his last defense. "I'm not the Joker!"
Seraphina instinctively stepped back, startled by his sudden aggression. John turned toward her, visibly shaken, fists clenched.
"If you know me so well, then tell me why you don't believe me! I'm John, damn it! A cripple! I don't have powers! I like going out for drinks, hanging out on rooftops, working out, and wasting time on my phone! Yeah, I act like a know-it-all and mess up sometimes, but...! Do you really think I could be that lunatic beating everyone up? Do you think I'd act like that?"
He paused, breathing hard.
"Do you really believe I'm capable of doing that?"
Seraphina hesitated before speaking.
"No... not until—"
Before she could finish, John rushed forward and grabbed her by the shoulders, desperate.
"Sera, I don't care what everyone else says. Let them think what they want. But you... you have to believe in me. Please!"
She stared into his eyes. There was anguish there, a desperate plea—but also something else. Something broken.
"I'm not the Joker. I'm not a monster... right?"
The final word trembled on his lips. Seraphina noticed. "Monster." As if he wasn't just trying to convince her, but himself too.
"John... stop lying. If something's going on, you can tell me. Denying it won't help you..."
"I'm not denying anything! I'm telling you the truth!"
Teeth clenched, chest heaving. He was a storm barely contained. Seraphina paused. His behavior was growing more erratic, but there was no turning back now.
"John, I already know everything," she finally said, calmly. "New Bostin. Your expulsion. Your rank. That you hid it all this time..."
John's eyes widened, a flash of fury and fear. A whirlwind of repressed memories surged in his mind: chaos, blood, screaming. The battlefield of territorial wars. Unconscious students around him. Claire in front of him, calling him Monster.
He let go of Seraphina slowly. His hands trembled. He clenched his fists so tightly his nails dug into his palms. That persona of the friendly, ordinary guy—the one he had built so carefully over two years—was falling apart. He couldn't understand how she had found out. When? How?
Seraphina was never supposed to know.
Never.
"John...?"
Her voice brought him back to reality, but his reaction was explosive.
"WHO THE HELL TOLD YOU THAT?!"
Seraphina recoiled immediately, shocked. She hadn't meant to start a fight, just get honest answers. But the John in front of her wasn't her friend anymore. He was a stranger. Unhinged. Out of control.
To John, however, Seraphina began to blur—her image overlapping with another from his past: Claire. And that only fueled his rage.
"IT WAS ARLO, WASN'T IT?! OR THAT RAT ISEN! I BET THEY FILLED YOUR HEAD AND SENT YOU HERE!"
"No, it was me... I looked into it myself..."
"LIES! AND YOU STILL TAKE THEIR SIDE OVER MINE?!"
The purple-haired girl took a step back, uneasy.
"This isn't about sides, John! I did it because you weren't telling me anything!"
"SHUT UP! IS THAT WHY YOU IGNORED ME FOR A WEEK?! I trusted you, and you went digging through my past like it was nothing!"
Seraphina's voice started to crack with emotion. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could he play the victim like this when he was the one causing so much harm?
"Ignoring you was the least I could do. Do you even know what I felt when I realized you were the Joker? Everything I believed in fell apart. Our friendship—everything—stopped making sense!"
As John watched his image shatter, Seraphina saw something deeper break: two years of friendship that now felt like a lie.
"I had to question every moment we spent together, every word, every gesture. I had to rebuild myself, John! So don't talk to me about betrayal—you're the one who lied to my face!"
John glared at her with resentment, unable to absorb her words. She, in turn, struggled to hold back her fury—the torrent she had kept contained for days.
"DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO ME ABOUT BETRAYAL, WHEN YOU HID BEHIND AN IDENTITY—"
"SHUT UP! Nothing that happened is your business! My past doesn't concern you!"
The argument escalated to a breaking point. Neither noticed the strange tremor running through the floor.
"John, I'll say it one more time... I cared about you. That's why I got involved."
Seraphina's voice trembled, tears threatening to fall.
"Don't you see what you've done? The whole school is in chaos! You've hurt dozens of students! You're repeating what happened in New Bostin! Wake up, John—this has to stop!"
The ground began to crack beneath their feet, but neither noticed. John was no longer thinking clearly.
"You don't understand anything! I'M AWAKE—MORE THAN EVER! YOU'RE THE ONES WHO REFUSE TO SEE THE TRUTH! The royals, the abusers, the entire system... They were all complicit—and still are!"
Seraphina finally sensed something was off. The floor shook, the light grew intense—but John was too blinded by rage to notice. As she tried to reach him, he failed to see the space around them twisting.
"This is all their fault, not mine!"
"John, wait—!"
"They got what they deserved!"
A blinding light exploded in the room, enveloping them in a brightness so intense it erased the very outlines of the space. The floor vanished beneath them.
"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!"
John reached for Seraphina—but she was no longer there. Within seconds, neither she nor the room existed. Only a white void, enveloping and unreal.
"SERAPHINA!"
A moment later, his body hit solid ground. The light slowly faded, letting him make out his surroundings again. He was back in a classroom—but Seraphina wasn't with him.
"Sera...?"
He tried to stand, but his legs gave out. He stumbled before regaining balance.
"Seraphina?! Where are you?"
Confusion quickly turned to anger. He assumed she had used some trick to escape.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST LEAVE ME LIKE THAT?!"
Furious, he stormed to the door and threw it open. He looked in every direction—but she was nowhere to be seen.
"You're not getting away from me, I promise you that!"
Without a second thought, he ran down the hallway. What he didn't know was that he was no longer in the same place. Not even the same plane. An inexplicable exchange had taken place, sending him to a world that wasn't his.
And that fracture in reality wasn't random.
It was just the first sign of a much greater distortion, forming in the shadows—beyond the visible—like a silent crack in the backdrop of a world beginning to fall apart.
Or perhaps more than one.