Banished(Under Rewrite)

Part 23 - How am I...me?

I walked back home, returning to my identity as Jay Walker, my suit in my bag.

The air breezed through me, ruffling my hair like a mother patting her child's back. It was a sense of reassurance that hope was still a usable word. The cold feeling the wind gave me felt more like a warm memory. My thoughts raced back to when I experienced snow for the first time as a child. Even though that memory was far from home, I felt closer to home.

I reflected back to the implications of my speech.

Villains aren't necessarily born; rather, they are created. I don't know if that applies to everyone, but a bad experience shapes the thoughts of someone. I don't know what caused The Swordsman to join The Vipers, but Shockwave was forced into it by being abused by everyone around her.

"Focus," I muttered to myself.

Right now, I needed to do a very urgent task: find out who the fighter ranked 7th in The Vipers was. The fighter ranked 7th in The Vipers was a mystery, but his strength was something that I couldn't ignore. Ripper was said to be stronger than him in his Phase 2, but seeing how Ripper pushed me past my limit and I had to use a diversion to win, it's likely that the ranked 7th fighter would produce an equally hard fight.

The Swordsman went A.W.O.L. after he revealed the truth about what happened to Shockwave. He probably began his training arc and won't accept any distractions, so I would have to take a break on contacting him.

Come to think of it...maybe Emily knows.

I called her number.

"Jay?" Emily's voice came.

"Yeah, it's me," I replied. "I need your help,"

"What's up?" she asked.

"The ranked 7th fighter, I need information about him," I revealed. "He's going to be a target before I fight the executives,"

"That's hard..." she replied. "He lost to Electro-Punch and then Deathstroke had a conversation with him. After that, he was never seen again,"

"Hmm..." I wondered. "Ripper is said to be stronger than him in his 'Phase 2.' Isn't he a former executive?"

"He was around their level at the time of Electro-Punch," she said. "But now, all the ranked fighters of The Vipers have gotten quite stronger, including the executives,"

"So...he's not as strong as the current executives," I concluded. "And this would imply that Ripper in 'Phase 2' surpassed him at one point, right?"

"Correct," she affirmed. "But it's completely possible that he's A.W.O.L. rather than punished,"

"So...how do we find him?" I asked.

Emily went silent for a moment before responding.

"Are you...for real right now?"

"What?"

"I just told you that he was never seen again,"

"He can be found though, right?" I asked. "I think he could be similar to my case. Nobody looked for me because everyone had forgotten about me. Maybe if we just looked into the situation-"

I gasped.

Damn it...I didn't intend to tell her that everyone forgot about me. Well, I was doomed at this point: the only other person who talked about isolation was Power-Punch, a.k.a, me. Worse, she was there during the speech, meaning that she heard me talk about my past. Even if she doesn't figure out that I'm Power-Punch, it will not be long before she finds out.