Third-person POV
After that flashback, Sora is now scrolling on his phone through the news articles of the Costa Concordia tragedy from Italy. He was astonished after Rathanak relayed his account of his survival in the cold waters at that time. Even Lorenzo was shocked at Rathanak's story; his jaw dropped. "You did…" Lorenzo whispered while his hands were still up.
Rathanak then nodded. "Yes, and that is where this Invisible Force gets to work, fully for the first time since my fall down the stairs at an abandoned shrine."
Because of that, Sora confirmed it after looking at the manifesto of the cruise ship and gestured to his men to put down their weapons. He then walked up to the two boys. He then looked at Rathanak in the eye. "You're resilient, aren't you, Murakami-san?"
"Yes, I am," replied Rathanak while his hands were still up, "and that was just a part of the story of my near-death experiences all those years since that night at 11 years old."
Sora's breath hitched at his response: many near-death experiences.
But, he decided to strike a truce with him and Lorenzo, but with a condition: Rathanak must offer himself to him and his gang every few nights so they would satisfy their bloodlust and so as to prevent the innocent from being harmed by them. But then, Lorenzo came forward with his own story of the Invisible Force. He had been hiding that from anyone outside of his family in Osaka City. According to him, he did feel a rush of unnatural wind to him when he was 10 years old while in a vacation in France with his family, which consisted of his Japanese father, Spanish mother, 1 younger sister named Mina, and an adopted Japanese cousin named Aoki. In that story, he once got hit by a texting driver in his car in Marseilles, France and survived with no hospital visits or ambulance rides. And according to him, a local Sedevacantist nun considered that a miracle (Lorenzo and his family were mainstream Roman Catholics). He even showed a tiny permanent scar in the form of a 2-centimeter-long scrape on his right arm as proof.
Upon hearing his account, Rathanak and the Black Feathers were speechless. The fact that his own classmate from the freshman period had that Invisible Force a year before he did, and the fact that it happened outside of Japan, was a shock. But Lorenzo also mentioned that, since he was far away from Osaka City, the mundane life in a university dorm was eating his enthusiasm for anything non-ordinary. So, he wants to volunteer in this blood pact as well.
Now seeking a second target and source of fresh blood, Sora agreed, and Rathanak agreed as well. No contract was signed, just the promise of the two half-Japanese students to Sora and the Black Feathers. That Sunday afternoon, after parting ways with the gang, they were in a Catholic parish church, Lorenzo explained to Rathanak about his own Invisible Force.
"Man, I did not know that, Nishikawa-kun," Rathanak whispered.
"Yes," Lorenzo replied solemnly with a nod. "I wasn't comfortable at telling that to anyone outside of my family. Sorry for that, amigo."
"No, no, it's okay, Lorenzo-kun. Me too as well."
"Ah, okay."
After that, Lorenzo pulled out his rosary for his 3 p.m. prayer time, kneeling for prayer. Rathanak, ever the Baptist one who appreciated Dutch Reformed and Lutheran church tastes (which this parish church reminded him of the beauty of it), simply sat down on a pew from Lorenzo's and pulled up his Bible app, in Vietnamese, for a few verses. After that, they parted ways with each other. Lorenzo headed to his university dorm via a city bus, while Lorenzo glided through Tokyo Subway to his home, which was 10 minutes from the nearest train station. Their first torture session with Sora and the Black Feathers was tomorrow at 6 p.m. sharp.