With the Public Security
"Is everyone in here?" Wise asks as he looks around the crowd before glancing at Zhu Yuan and Qingyi.
"Yes, my detector has scanned all of their presences in the train. Neither officers, civilians, nor the criminals were left behind." Qingyi says, as the Bangboo that Wise possessed a nod.
"It's surreal to see the infamous proxy in the Inter-Knot being here," Zhu Yuan mutters.
"To be fair, I wasn't expecting to team up with Public Security as well," Wise says while the Bangboo rubs his head. "It seems that Caelus had purposefully done this."
"...speaking of him, will he be alright?" Qingyi asks in concern.
"It's surprising to see you show this much care, senior officer," Zhu Yuan points out.
"He's young, and he had lost his family not long ago," Qingyi says with a frown. "Not to mention, I don't know how to tell Meilian if anything happens to Caelus. That woman seems to be fond of the young man..."
"Ah..." Zhu Yuan mutters before glancing nervously, wishing that the rag-tag team of an infamous squad, a tragic young man, and a random little maid would succeed. Zhu Yuan pauses as she blinks owlishly, realizing something is wrong with that team.
Why does a maid have an oversized, deadly pizza cutter with her!?
Before she could voice out her confusion, the Bangboo that Wise had possessed started to twitch like crazy as its eyes continued to change at a fast pace. This made the two officers wary before; suddenly, a display of numbers and a percentage symbol was shown on its screen.
"Notice: The Dead End Hollow has shrunken its size at a rapid pace. Approximately, the Hollow has shrunken to its 1/3 of its original size." A familiar mechanical female voice comes out of the Bangboo before the screen replaces the numbers with a pair of wide, innocent eyes.
"They did it..." Wise's voice comes out of the Bangboo, awed at their success. The Bangboo glance at the crowds. "Everyone, take your seat! We're getting out of this place!"
"Wait, already!?"
"Does that mean those groups filled with random youngsters did it!?!"
"Oh, thank you!"
"Let's get out of here!"
The entire crowd had cheered for the group, which surprised some of the Public Security, as they didn't expect a group of lawbreakers to truly help them instead of running away. Seth is one of the officers as based on his first impression, he only saw them as criminals.
Seth was a bit disappointed when he noticed that Caelus had joined the rag-tag team of criminals, but now, he had reconsidered his thoughts. He also can't stop thinking about what that man had said earlier, before the group joined him on the supposed suicidal mission.
"They did it..." Zhu Yuan says with a surprised tone, and a hint of relief can be heard in her voice. Qingyi didn't bother to hide her relief as she collapsed into one of the seats, which ironically is a priority seat.
"Young man, you are in so much trouble..." Qingyi says, but a hint of smile is visible on her lips. Zhu Yuan sits next to her as the train starts moving.
"Caelus?" Wise's voice can be heard from his Bangboo as he attempts to call Caelus, which catches the two officers' attention.
"Phaethon, give me one good reason you're hacking into Slyboo's system without consent, or else, I swear to every living cosmic gods in this universe, I'll come to you and butcher your ass like this dying Dead-End Butcher did to most victim," Zhu Yuan and Qingyi were taken aback by Caelus's aggression as they didn't expect to see this side of Caelus while the Bangboo in front of them shakes like a leaf in a tornado.
"....c-calm down, Caelus," Wise says shakily, which is understandable since the man just threatened the proxy that he'll kill him. "I-it's the only way to communicate with you through the Hollow. I-I'm connecting our calls with two Public Security Officers."
"...Is it connected now?" Caelus asks.
"Y-yes!" Wise replies.
"Oh, hey Zhu Yuan, hey Qingyi," Caelus' switch of tone made everyone on the range sweatdrops.
"...did you hate me or something, because this type of greeting is biased," Wise mutters.
"You hacked into the first companion I ever had since I escaped the hell that took my parents' lives, so I say it's justifiable," Caelus exclaims, causing whoever hears this to wince before looking at the Bangboo with a hint of disapproval.
"L-look, I'm sorry for that," Wise stammers. "If I had another way, I wouldn't be doing this."
"...I suppose that's true," Caelus sighs. "So, the Vision Corporation, huh? We're gonna ambush those sons of bitches? Pincer-style?"
"...that is actually not a bad idea," Zhu Yuan mutters before pausing. "Wait, no. You guys are outnumbered. Who knows how many guns had been hired by Perlman."
"Guns are no problem for us. Remember how I protected you all earlier from the bullets?" Everyone pauses before remembering the flaming barrier.
"But, can you do it after all the injuries and exhaustion you accumulate from earlier?" Qingyi asks with a frown.
"Oh, let's not forget about the huge explosion you made by killing the Butcher earlier," Nicole's voice can be heard in the background.
"What?" Everyone says blankly.
"I'm okay! I'm not that tired yet! Besides, we're gonna need as many hands as we had. Not to mention, there's a certain person who is more dangerous than any of the Vision Corporation's employees and hired guns." Caelus says, earning everyone's attention.
"What do you mean?" Qingyi asks with a frown.
"I...don't know much, but this person, she keeps referring to this 'creator' and brought salvation to humanity, like they're from a cult or something," Caelus says, which made everyone confused.
"We need more information than just a crazy woman talking," Zhu Yuan says, earning silence from the other side.
"I suppose that's fair; perhaps it was just paranoia." Caelus let out a sigh. "So, still with the pincer idea?"
This earns an exasperated sigh from both Zhu Yuan and Qingyi.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
With the Vision Corporation
"Come on...why is there no response from the other side?" Perlman mutters as he shakes his communicators. Currently, he and his secretary can be seen behind a stage while waiting for the demolition event. Earlier, he had summoned his hired guns to check on the civilians he had attempted to hide from the media for months, since he noticed there were more Public Security officers near the Hollow, fully equipped with gear.
He had no idea why they were here, but if it involved the trapped civilians, he couldn't take chances. Meanwhile, a dark-browned woman can be seen standing next to Perlman. She didn't show any reaction, but in her mind, she was a bit confused by everything that happened.
First, she heard reports about the Dead End Butcher fighting an unknown figure. At first, she dismissed it as a suicidal Hollow Raider or Hollow Investigator attempting to gain fame, but she was surprised that it was the Butcher who sought this figure like it were its prey.
Second, the report didn't give the details about the figure, only saying how they were accompanied by the Cunning Hare and Nekomiya Mana, a former member of the Red Fang Gang. This made the woman itch for more information, while wondering how there was little to no information about them.
Third, the explosion in the Hollow caused by the battle between the figure and the Ethereal is enough to cause tiny tremors outside the Hollow. This alarmed her and made Perlman panic as he feared his Ether Explosive would go to waste, but much to Perlman's relief, the explosive was safe. So, this raises another question: how did this figure cause such an explosion?
But, she didn't get the chance to say a word as both the woman and Perlman had heard a scream. They peek out of the stage and notice a group of people has barged into the event and caused a ruckus. Perlman's hired guns attempt to fight back, but they're no match as they are easily dealt with.
Perlman walks off the stage in anger, unable to handle the mess these 'nobodies' had caused. Today is supposed to be a big day for his company, and they decided to ruin the day.
"What's the meaning of this, huh!?!" Perlman asks in anger. "Have you all had any idea what you're doing or who you're messing with?"
"Huh, Perlman," The young man with grey hair muses. "You look shorter and rounder than on television."
Despite the situation, everyone can't help but let out a chuckle at that remark, including some of the hired guns. This made Perlman's face turn red as steam comically came out of his ears and nose.
"Guards, seize them!" Perlman exclaims as his hired guns start pointing their weapon at the group of 'troublemakers'.
"I suggest you all stay down, or you'll only get a heavier sentence," The young man says with a smug smile, causing everyone to look confused. Perlman and the hired guns can't help but chuckle at his words.
"Oh, so you think you're on the side of the law, brat?" Perlman asks mockingly. "You're either a fool or an escaped psychiatric."
"Well, I'm pretty sure I am, given I just busted out the civilians you trapped near the explosive zone." The young man says, which caught the reporters' attention as they watched Perlman flinch at the accusation.
"Y-you dare!? Did you think the Vision corporation would do something that low!?" Perlman tries to lie, but the cold sweat starts dropping from his fat ass.
"Well, the evidence was there," The young man shrugs as he stabs his oversized lance down and lazily leans on it. "I mean, seriously? You somehow manage to gain the rights to demolish this old metro rail at a lower cost than the Belobog Industry? The lack of news reports regarding the evacuations? And there's no single news about issues of renting a living place despite the massive number of citizens 'supposedly' evacuated out of the Canvas Street? You don't need to be a detective to know something is amiss there."
"T-that's just a mere coincidence!" Perlman exclaims, trying to deny the accusation. "A baseless claim without evidence!"
"Tell that to them," The young man says lazily while pointing at the tunnel behind them. Everyone instantly turned around and saw massive numbers of civilians walk out of the tunnel while being led and guarded by the Public Security officers. Perlman's face instantly lost its color as the reporters caught everything in the camera.
"Uh...Uh, I..." Perlman stammers, unable to refute as he shakes like a leaf.
"Charles Perlman!" Zhu Yuan exclaims as she raises her hand, showing her officer's badge. "You are hereby under arrest for attempting genocide!"
"Surrender or face a greater consequence," QIngyi says as she raises her quarter staff.
"Isn't it supposed to be 'Surrender or face the consequences?'" Caelus suggests, earning a dry stare from Zhu Yuan and Qingyi. Perlman collapses to the ground as several officers start cuffing him.
Meanwhile, the woman from before had hidden amongst the crowd as she tried to avoid being seen by the crowd. But, before she could go far, she sensed something and raised her arms. For whatever reason, she feels an unimaginable pain before noticing a chunk of her hand fly in front of her, and she was sent rolling on the ground.
She bites her lips to stop herself from screaming in pain as blood comes out of her missing hand. She turns to see the young man who foiled the entire plan standing in front of her, his eyes glowing under his hood. Behind him is a group of officers pointing guns at her.
"You know, that was quite cold of you," Caelus says as he raises his bat and points at the woman. "Leaving your boss alone while attempting to escape arrests? I mean, that's on another level of betrayal."
"...you have no idea what you're messing with," The woman hisses as she gets up and tosses a smoke bomb, causing the officers to start shooting. Caelus didn't hesitate to toss the baseball bat right into the smoke, and Caelus heard a loud crack from the other side before he ran toward the smoke. As the smoke dissipates, there's no trace of her except for the blood soaking his bat.
"..." Caelus clicks his tongue before grabbing his baseball bat and looking at the officers. To their surprise, he gives the baseball bat to them.
"Think of it as an evidence to help track her down," Caelus says as some officers nod dumbly before walking away. Some of them grimace as they pick up the torn-off hand from the ground.
"Caelus," Caelus turned to face the Cunning Hares and Nekomiya. "Where were you? We're just about to discuss where we're going to celebrate!"
"...is this another attempt to hire me again?" Caelus asks in amusement. Nekomiya looks at Caelus in confusion. Why would he think that way? She thought that Nicole may be an opportunist and a bit greedy, but after her confession about her attempt to murder her and an apology, she had given her a slap on the wrist by suggesting that she be part of her team, but without any payment for at least a year.
"Of course!" Nicole shamelessly admits, causing Nekomiya to give her new boss a deadpan stare. To her surprise, Caelus merely chuckles.
"Still no," Caelus says, earning a pout from Nicole. "But, I won't say no to a celebration. It'll be my treat, since I dragged you guys into this mess in the first place."
"YES!" The Cunning Hares seem to adopt their boss's shamelessness after hearing Caelus's words. Caelus then turns and looks around, seemingly confused.
"Has anyone seen Corin?" This made everyone look around, a bit confused about where the young girl was. Meanwhile, the wolf butler gazes from a distance while hiding himself, attempting to seek Corin in the crowd while feeling anxious.
After the maids talked some sense to him about Corin possibly still alive and getting him away from the Ethereal, the butler apologized to them before deciding to stay and look for Corin while they returned to report to their master. He had been staying and trying to look for her in the crowd, but much to his frustration, he didn't see her.
"Mr. Lycaon!" The wolf butler, Lycaon, snaps his head towards the direction of the voice and sees Corin approaching him. This made Lycaon rush towards her and hold her shoulder, glancing around to see any injuries.
"Corin! You're truly worrying us all!" Lycaon exclaims. "Did you get hurt!? If so, please show me! Did that young man do anything to you!? Please speak up, and don't worry if he threatens you earlier; I can deal with him quickly! I-!"
"Mr. Lycaon!" Corin exclaims, getting the butler's attention. "I-I'm okay! He didn't do anything bad; he saved me! And he, along with the Cunning Hares, had also saved the civilians."
"...oh," Lycaon mutters before awkwardly pulling her into a hug. "I am very glad you are fine, Corin."