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Crimeblind Episode 9

"Dubito ergo cogito, cogito ergo sum,"

David stumbled back, taken aback by the sudden psychological strike at him.

“Your companions…they're quite altruistic. One even sacrificed himself to weaken me and destroy the spike disease, huh?”

Just as Isaac had predicted, the team didn't really care about his death. Or maybe they just had more important things to deal with right now.

“Aw, you don't care, Ma'at? Not surprising,” David tutted.

Scarlett looked down, no more eye contact for David while she was in mourning. “Why exactly are you doing this,”

David beamed even more dubiously. “Why? Oh, you mean my motive…that's right, I never told you…

Well you see Ma'at, I'm a disease right now. I infect and kill people, just like any disease would. You don't ask the diseases why they do that, do you?”

“The diseases do that because they want to reproduce. I'm sure you don't want more Culpables surfacing, do you?”

“And even if you actually treat me as a patient and not the disease itself…don't patients do all sorts of terrible things?

Some may throw up all over their house, some cough their phlegm onto their bed while they're lying down, and some…”

He stopped himself for a moment there, cackling quietly to himself.

“Some hallucinate and go crazy, and ruin household items or even injure other people in the process…some people would hold these people accountable, even though it's not really their fault.

They can't help it, it's just a symptom of their sickness.

Some might get a pardon for the first one or two times. But some's sickness spreads over many, many years, and some never get well-funny, they're the ones who are the saddest, because they're the greatest victims of their own sicknesses.

But all I've ever seen are people shaming and spitting at them.

Attention-seeking, faker, not serious enough, not real enough, it can't be that bad, the disease isn't real, it doesn't exist, weak, why are you crying, strong men don't need help-

Need I say more, Ma'at?”

Scarlett hung her head low. “You still have not answered me. You could have told me the exact same words. I'm sure you didn't think that the message could ever be properly conveyed if you did all this…”

“Oh, hahahah, no worries, Ma'at, I was just getting a bit sidetracked there. The main point isn't really about the true victim of diseases-it's the true victim of your cases.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The way you handle cases leaves nothing but death and destruction in your wake.

As the greatest victim of this Culpable disease, my pursuit for absolute justice brings me to extremes no human would ever have gotten to-even if the sky falls down, I must have justice be upheld.”

“So you do believe in justice. But what about all those you killed for the sake of justice? That isn't very judicial, is it?”

“That brings back the question of ultimate pursuit…am I willing to forsake everything else for justice? Even if the path I tread is one laden with wrongdoings? Shall I purge evil through doing evil? Is it justice to sacrifice the lesser justice to purge the greater evil?”

“There's no greater evil you're purging here. Don't you think I'm even more likely to destroy even more lives with the cases I pick up after this?

Or are you planning to kill even me in order to uphold your so-called ‘justice’?”

David didn't say anything to that. He just cackled maniacally and almost fell over laughing.

Seeing no reaction, Scarlett continued. “You say you're willing to uphold justice above everything else…but what about the memory core? Why'd you give it to us if that would mean the end of your plans then?”

To that David could not stop bursting out in laughter. “Ma'at, you truly are a funny one…now that I've pointed you out, don't you think every judge in the world would have their spotlights on you right now? With the way I praised you…every case you take on surely, it must be a foregone conclusion, surely every defendant you represent is innocent…”

Scarlett gulped. Something about that made her sorely uncomfortable.

“So you believe Xue Long and Sean are truly innocent?”

“Xue Long was my other half of the Culpable…and Sean's right there. Of course they're innocent. Which also means I think Kaedon, Master Hai, Dragon Lang and Alex are indeed guilty…”

“But why then? If your whole purpose was to seek justice for Xue Long and Sean, why kill so many people? Even if you needed to demonstrate a point, you didn't have to kill them. Merely occupying the masseuse parlour would have been enough. You could have just given me the memory core like that…but why?”

“You really think you're funny, aren't you, Ma'at? I…” David raised his glass katana which he probably obtained from the same place as Arivalagan, but hesitated while answering. “Because…I…”

“Think, David, think, I beg you to think, why exactly did so many people have to die for the sake of justice?”

“Be-b-because I…because I…” David dropped the katana, smashing it into pieces, as he too clutched his head when he had reached this key point in self-reflection.

Wait…where's that voice that's always telling me…

No, no, no, I have a strong reason…it's…it's…

Have I…long since forgotten it?

Then, just as the katana did, his black rock-hard carapace armour developed a tiny crack around his chest area.

Nothing but a mere tiny crack. Probably not even the size of the memory core.

But this was more than enough for Scarlett. Her white hair charged up into a mass of violet energy, breaking free from the restrains imposed by David-and in an instant, she lunged straight at David, piercing him through that tiny crack with a sword of pure violet energy.

And the whole world was plunged into darkness.

—------------

David opened his eyes.

It was a scene of complete darkness.

Darkness as far as the eye could see.

A patch of black and nothingness all four corners around.

He cautiously stood up, instinctively reaching for his weapon in case this turned out to be another trap that they had laid.

Then something tapped his shoulder, and he spun around, waving the dagger in front of whoever he was expecting.

He was not expecting that person to be

A complete mirror image of his Culpable form.

He took a quick glance at himself again. Normal boots. No claws. No horns. No crow mask. It was all on this man instead. He was now a normal human.

“David…” The Culpable reached out to him, and in his panic to get away from it David sliced off its hand.

But it was no matter for it. It grew back in an instant.

“David…I am your power. You are nothing without me,”

He held up the dagger even higher now, slashing it in the air threateningly.

“Don't forget. I saved you from drowning all those years ago,” It held out his hands, possibly requesting for a hug.

“What…no…this has been the first time in years I've seen you separate from myself…you musn't c-” David had his speech cut short by an aggressive attack from his Culpable shadow.

“Those who reject justice must embrace its punishment!” It screamed into the air, its all-mighty and powerful spear inching only a hair away from cutting through David.

David fought back as hard as he could, parrying the spear's attack as much as he could with that flimsy dagger of his.

But it was obviously no use. With a single strike the Culpable shadow pierced through David's chest, sending him tumbling.

He lay there, in pain and bleeding out, forced to watch as his enemy summoned a massive lake and stood above the waterfall with which it was pouring out of.

“Since you reject me,” It muttered, “You must die the same way you would have!” It unleashed a torrent of water, splashing against the already wounded David and plunging him into the ice cold ocean.

He had no strength to continue struggling for the surface as he once had.

The torrent of water continued suffocating him beneath layers and layers, as he slowly sunk deep into the bottom of the ocean.

Despite being about to drown, he recalled everything that he had previously done, for the sake of ‘justice’-and now, finally without all the negative energy from the Culpable clouding his perception, he mouthed-

“I am injustice…”

And closed his eyes for the final time, the last scene of a white-haired lady diving into the water and wrapping her arms around his body before swimming back up to the surface enveloping him-

Wait-Scarlett…was saving him?

He was too weak to fight back against whatever she was doing to him, and gladly complied to be brought back to the surface, slowly losing consciousness as they surfaced.

—-----------

“Wake up, David,” Rai's eyes flashed that familiar blue, expecting healing powers to be able to wake someone up.

Indeed he did, however, but probably not because of the healing powers-more of correlation rather than causation.

Spitting out the water and slowly getting up-ok, maybe Rai's healing powers did work, which is why he's able to get up so quickly-David observed the surroundings.

The team was there. Mano, Louis, Ahmad, Baizurah, Rai-and Sean and Scarlett.

Surrounded by a domed barrier of some kind, held up by Sean constantly maintaining it-and shielding them from the very vengeful Culpable shadow on the other side of the barrier.

David jumped back when he saw him again, shivering (probably from the cold). “Why…why did you save me?”

Scarlett gasped slightly, then closed her eyes and smiled. “Because it's justice,”

David avoided eye contact then, staring at the ground. “I…well, what am I supposed to do now then? How do I return to the real world?”

Sean answered that question for him. “It's simple. Kill that Culpable shadow and you can return. However…”

He turned his body to face David.

“Without that Culpable, you're unable to be alive because that Culpable is what's been keeping you alive this whole time. In order to fully return to the real world, you need a new body…

Which is precisely what I'm here for.

I will, indeed need the help of our four Ikigai and dear human here, but I'm not so rusty yet, so I should be able to help forge a fully new body for you.”

“But…I…I mean, I won't be able to take on that idiot without any weapons…” David hinted.

Sean smiled, and snapped his fingers, signalling for his four Ikigai to get into the plan. They each got up, stretched out a palm in front of Sean, as well as Mano too, and each of their hands and eyes glowed their respective Pillar's colours, and with magical assistance from Sean-

Soon they were projecting a 3D hologram of a sword. Mano reached out a hand, breathed in, then grabbed the hologram and pulled the sword out of the hologram, then handed it over to David like it was nothing.

“Go, do what you must. We'll forge a perfect body for you by the time you're done,” Sean beamed at the now ever-confident David unsheathing his sword.

He admired the blade of his sword one last time, the way it reflected the light-then drew it and charged straight out of the barrier.

The Culpable shadow wasted no time, either-as soon as David took a step out of the barrier, he already shot three bullets at him-but now that David had a weapon, he was no longer afraid, and parried 2 of the 3 bullets perfectly.

The last bullet was deflected by a sword belonging to a white-haired lady who had decided to join him in battle. Strange, considering that she was never the best in battle.

The Culpable shadow must have thought it was strange as well, because it was stunned for so long (seems the trait runs in the family) that David and Scarlett had the time to come at it from both sides, each with their swords, and lunged straight at it-

Impaling it in the heart and cutting off its head.

"Goodbye, David, from this moment forth, I am you no longer..."

And in that instant the world was plunged into an even greater darkness again.

—------------

He woke up in the hospital, this time with a new identity and a stranger's face in the mirror-

“Evan Lim,”

His previous identity was now dead. He was Evan now.

A bit of an old-school name, but would do wonders at concealing his old identity.

He got out of the bed, clutching his chest wound where it still hurt-he'd been impaled there, hadn't he?

He limped over to the window and drew the curtains, shielding his eyes from the bright light of the sun that would shine in.

It was so bright…

but…he had to admit…

It was so ‘bright’…

—--------

Clarence cleaned Isaac's cell after having cleaned Xue Long's cell, and relocating Sean's cell to be closer to the two of them.

“You know, Isaac, you're right. Your mother never came to your funeral,” He whispered while wiping the cell.

Bandung, as usual, leaned against the wall nearby and stood in a pensive state.

“Xue Long, I…

I'm sorry…

I couldn't even save your son,”

—--------

Ananya sat with Arivalagan and Terrence among the audience, eager to see what move Scarlett (now no longer scar-faced) would play next.

Rai and Baizurah looked like they didn't even want to be here, playing among themselves like little children and needing to be shushed by the adults multiple times.

Ahmad, Louis and Mano conducted themselves regally-like truebloods of the court of law.

Louis, for once, was no longer wearing such thick coats all the time, and Mano, for once, was no longer wearing his gloves and PPE-this has to be one of the positive outcomes of David destroying the Culpable shadow.

“Your honour, allow me to offer the true rendition of this case.” Scarlett spoke with conviction, to which she was granted approval to speak.

“Kaedon Wong and Alex Neo are corrupt police officers, who bribes Dinesh Raizal , who is a chief superintendent, who has an agreement with Kaedon Wong and Alex Neo where he receives monthly allowance in return for helping cover up for them.

Kaedon Wong and Alex Neo are part of a black market gang syndicate, and serve as the undercover in the police that report intel about the police's latest work to their boss, Dragon Lang, son of Dragon Ho.

Kaedon Wong works in the CID and Alex Neo works in the CAD. They also have spies implanted in the CNB.

Dragon Lang and a gang leader of another gang, Master Hai, have a partnership of helping to launder black money in exchange for Master Hai receiving all kinds of rare exotic illegal goods.

Under Kaedon Wong and Alex Neo's leadership, the police force suffered, cases that were transferred to them were either done half-heartedly, covered up with made-up evidence, or accusing random innocent people and calling it a day. However, Kaedon Wong and Alex Neo continued to remain in their high-paying jobs, slacking off and abusing their power.

This continued until Dinesh Raizal unexpectedly had a stroke and was unable to continue his service (and also to cover up for Kaedon Wong and Alex Neo), and was replaced by a competent and honest chief superintendent.

After going though a few documents, he soon realised that certain numbers didn't tally up, and he quickly realised it was a case of fraud and embezzlement. However, Alex Neo was working in the CAD at that time, and upon receiving the case, he falsified information that led the investigation team astray and wasting a lot of time and resources.

Soon, he realised what was going on, as there was no progress with the case so far. He soon realised that this was a case of corruption. He opined that Alex Neo could not have pulled this case off on his own, and would have needed the protection of another powerful person in the Force, like...Dinesh Raizal.

He silently transferred the case to the CPIB without alerting Alex Neo or Dinesh Raizal, however he was not aware of Kaedon Wong's involvement in the case yet.

The CPIB received the case and acted upon it immediately, and Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau Officer, Investigations Operations Department, Private Sector-Wong Xue Long was placed as the head investigator for the case.

Xue Long investigated with brutal efficiency-uncovering both Kaedon Wong and Alex Neo's involvement in the money laundering for their gangs, their numerous spies in the CNB, and Dinesh Raizal's obstruction of justice. However, he only managed to uncover the part about Master Hai on the day Dragon Lang started the transaction of a Culpable seed.

As the Culpable seed was a never-before seen item, Dragon Lang demanded a token sum of 13.85 million and as a show of their friendship. This helped to stall and buy time for Xue Long and his team to raid the place while Master Hai got pissed off and argued with Dragon Lang.

When Xue Long and his team raided the place, they caught and arrested Dragon Lang and Master Hai, but unfortunately, in the ensuing fight, Xue Long briefly came into unprotected contact with the Culpable seed and it merged with him.

Screaming out of fear and of the horror that he would soon become, Xue Long reached for his gun just as the black mass of Culpable was about to swallow him-and he shot himself in the head.

This worked to kill him, but not the Culpable-half of the black mass slithered away, severely injured, but was invulnerable to the gunshots shot at it by Xue Long's team.

However, due to the fact that a Culpable's body quickly disappears after they are killed, there was zero concrete proof of what happened, and Dragon Lang, Master Hai, Kaedon Wong and Alex Neo used this to their advantage and made up claims about how Xue Long made up all the evidence pinning them, and planned to run away that day...

They also successfully bought off the rest of Xue Long's team, and none of them testified against the accusations.

However, they were still incredibly suspicious, and were at risk of being investigated at any time, so they cooked a plan to frame fellow investigations officer Sean Goh.

He was convicted on the death row for 'murder of partner-in-crime Wong Xue Long'.

Thus, the four were cleared off as completely innocent, yet Sean and Xue Long were treated like criminal thugs post-mortem-

until today. Your Honour, I trust you have eyes to see who the truly guilty are in this case?”

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

Crimeblind Episode 8

"Finally, finally, finally free..."

She jolted back to reality in the room with a jerk of her body, panting heavily at all that she just saw.

She glanced around the room once again, at everyone who was also collecting themselves after witnessing the full truth with their own two eyes within that memory core.

“Scarlett…you…” Louis stared at her with trembling eyes, like he was looking at a monster.

“...what?” She didn't know what was going on. She must not have seen the complete physical appearance change she underwent, then.

Ananya shakily passed her a random hand mirror Clarence kept in that basement wardrobe full of white suits and clothing. “Is this what Sean meant by…the power in you would awaken?”

Scarlett accepted the mirror, holding it up to her face-and almost dropping and breaking it out of pure shock when she saw her reflection.

Her hair turned a complete white, she had a perfectly straight silver scar right smack in the middle of her face like someone had slashed at her with a really sharp knife-she didn't look anything like she used to.

“The…this…what…” She clutched her face in front of the mirror, thus begging for it to be reverted back to the way she was once she removed her hand.

“Don't be scared, Scarlett, it's normal,” A familiar voice came from behind her, and she frantically turned herself to meet face to face with-

The final piece of Sean's soul.

Appearing the same way he was when he received his sentence that day, just a lot more…transparent.

“S-Sean? Wait, did everyone see the same…” Rai hinted.

“You should have, the contents of the memory core won't just randomly change, after all,” Sean smiled at them.

“So…what…” Ahmad asked. “You said you wanted to ‘cure’ David. How?”

Sean cupped his hands together and took in a deep breath, then stared up at the ceiling. “I'm already dead. I'll need you guys’ help for that,”

“...How exactly?” Mano wanted to know.

Sean smiled radiantly. “We waver his will,”

—-------------

Isaac sat outside the unit. His mother was lying in there, the only thing keeping her alive being the breathing machine she was attached to.

He was on the verge of tears. Once again, he couldn't do anything right. Not even keeping his own mother alive.

He buried his head in the sand, praying that when he arose once again, this would all have been nothing but a bad dream-

“Want a drink?”

And he arose, stopping his shaking body, to come face to face with Clarence and Bandung, the former offering him a carbonated drink.

“Uh…sure…” He accepted the can, holding it close to his chest and cooling his aching heart.

“Go get some rest. You haven't eaten anything since yesterday, have you?” Clarence said as he too made himself comfortable on the seat beside Isaac.

“Well, no, but aren't you the patient here? Shouldn't you be the one resting-wait, you don't seem to have any spikes on you…”

“What? A Luminary Guardian's body heals very quickly. I'm only in this state because it'll be good to have some people let their guard down,”

“Aah, ok…I see…”

“...You ok?”

“Oh, yeah, I'm…”

“Wanna talk about it? I'm a good listener,”

“...When you were being a servant for your family…did you also have this same feeling of…worthlessness?

It's like…you try your best in so many aspects of life…in your academics, in being a good son, even in the little things that brought joy like your hobbies…

But…you can't even excel in any of them. You can't be the best. But you already knew that. So you probably shouldn't try, it'll save you the shame.

There's nothing that you're good at…

You're just…so…average. So…ordinary. You're nothing but another face in the crowd…no one ever recognises you as a person-you're just the latest input of statistical data.

But…I don't wanna be that! I don't wanna be just another number on a graph! I…I wanna be…exceptional…I wanna be…a person.

It's like the way you said you wanted to be a great investigator. I'm sure you wouldn't want to settle for a less-than-average investigator, would you?

…I feel like…I should just…be focusing on taking care of my mother and my studies at times. Don't waste my energy on…the one thing that brings me joy…not like I can be good at that either anyway…

That's what Mother tells me.

‘Isaac, why can't you be like me? I'm so smart, why didn't you inherit my smart genes?'

‘Isaac, why are you always so stupid and forgetful? What's wrong with you, Isaac?’

‘Isaac, do you have a mental illness or something? Is there something wrong with your brain?’

‘Isaac, it's just such simple instructions, I think you're going crazy!”

‘Isaac, how many times have you screwed this up again and again! I have to take time out of my busy day to clean up your mess, and you don't even say sorry or thank you! Today was so tiring for me, I just want to rest, and then you go and do this!’

‘Isaac, you're always so incompetent. You can't do one thing properly. I wonder what will happen to you if I get into an accident one day. You're not gonna be able to get by without me!’

‘Isaac, I wonder how you'll be able to get a job in the future. You're so stupid, Isaac, you'll probably get fired on the same day they hired you!’

‘Isaac, I can never trust you to do something properly, why do you always try to make my life difficult?’

‘Isaac, why are you crying? You got something wrong in your head? No, your brain is empty anyway, there shouldn't be anything there,’

‘Isaac, why care about problems related to that singing competition? It's not like it's important anyway,’

‘Isaac, don't listen to your ‘friends’, I, your mother, am the only one who will love you unconditionally. This family is the only place that you will ever be important, you can disregard everything else!’

‘Isaac, just withdraw from that singing competition, it's taking up so much of your time, you're gonna fail your exams again if this carries on!’

‘See, Isaac, they kicked you from the singing competing team representing the school once they found better people, just don't sign up for their events anymore! They wasted so much of your time…only I love you!’

Isaac failure disappointment Isaac crazy mental illness Isaac sick child Isaac Isaac pointless no future Isaac…

Isaac…I've cried myself to sleep every night praying that this name wasn't mine, praying that I wasn't as much of a disappointment and failure as she said I was-I've cried so much until I eventually had no more tears left.

Like now. I'm not really crying. I won't even look sad if I try hard enough. All I can do to express my feelings is to stare off silently into the void, expressionlessly-

Now, would you think I'm just attention-seeking?”

Clarence folded his arms and fell into a pensive state, Bandung too staying respectfully silent, ignoring the sorrowful-but-tearless Isaac-then Clarence smiled genuinely.

“The man who cannot cry is far more sorrowful than the man who cries all the time. Isaac…

you are a person,”

—---------------

“There it is…where he's been hiding this whole time,” Sean pointed to the tiny hut in the middle of the god-forsaken woods.

The team-now with Arivalagan and Ananya missing-tried their best to remain as stealthy as possible while navigating through the thick bushes.

But it seemed like that wouldn't be possible, what with the bullet that rushed straight through Rai would indicate.

“...We've been spotted,” Slash-face Scarlett said.

Stumbling back, Rai fell to the ground and held up her hand to her wound, instantly healing it again with another bright blue flash.

She realised that, however, no one cared about her-or, rather, no one had time to care for her, as their main target had just surfaced-

David, strolling elegantly, his fully body clad in a rock-hard black carapace armour, adorned with violent long goat horns, his black boots clacking and clicking with each step he took.

And him with a black crow mask covering his face. Even with that, it didn't take perfect eyesight to tell that he was back to his diabolical laugh again.

“Heheheehheheh….Ma'at, looks like we both underwent our secret transformations! How did the memory core taste?”

Slash-face Scarlett held up the dagger just like she had when she confronted him with Lionel. “The memory core…was never with Lionel in the first place. You put it there,”

“Brilliant!” He said, putting his hands together, causing the sound of what two rocks scraping against each other would sound like.

“Ugh, we shouldn't play this guy's games,” Mano growled in annoyance, reaching for his gun and firing one straight bullet in David's direction before anyone could stop him.

And just as quickly as Mano had shot the bullet, David easily dodged it, and covered everyone's eyes with the brightest glow black could easily be-and in the instant it took the glow to vanish, everyone found that-

They were bound to a chair in a small room in what appeared to be inside the tiny hut.

“Welcome to my…temporary residence, Ma'at,” He smiled. “And you too, Mister Goh,”

Sean paid him no heed, intensely watching the scene.

“Ugh…” Baizurah whispered while struggling in futility to break free of the magical black chains-of course that didn't work. “My Ikigai isn't working,”

“...”

“Oh? Cat got your tongue, Ma'at?”

“You DEMON.”

David jumped back in surprise. How could the previously subservient Scarlett dare call him a demon?

“...Do elaborate, Ma'at,”

“You…are a Culpable. You've become infected with the negative energy that was once a separate entity, and now you've went around killing people, yelling out about justice…is that now what a demon does?”

“Ma'at…killing people and yelling about justice…seems like what you do more,”

“At least I get something from my victims. With every one of my victims, life-saving evidence is achieved…unlike you. You just kill for fun. You're a demon,”

“...So I'm a demon because I kill people?” David said as he paced back and forth around the room.

“Although, I don't think you'd treat me like a human even if I didn't kill people,” He finished.

“Is that so?”

“Reflect on yourself, Ma'at. Is my killing truly the only thing that's repulsive about me?”

“...”

“I thought so too.

Ma'at, you're always like this. My Culpability has already passively caused so many around me to die.

Do you know what it's like to go to school with all your friends and teachers dead, to go home with your entire family dead, and knowing that you're the reason why?

But then again, it's always about the friends and the family and the parents and the teachers.

‘This boy is causing the death of everyone around him…’

‘This boy is killing them!’

No one had ever stopped to think about how I was a victim in all this as well.

I was the greatest victim of them all. I was the one having to deal with my own negative Culpable energy. I didn't choose to have this.

It's always about how I'm tiring to be around. That I bring down and kill others with my negative energy. But no one stops to think about whether I might be tired, whether I might be brought down and killed with my own negative energy.

People shunned and spat at me. The greatest victim in all of this.

I'm treated as a disease. But not as a patient.

Ever wonder how that feels, Ma'at?”

—-----------

Ananya and Arivalagan arrived, panting, at Terrence's house.

“Don't ask how I know him,” Ananya panted, but Arivalagan was not prepared for who was walking out of that door.

A half-asleep Terrence jolted awake when he saw Arivalagan-

“ARIVALAGAN? YOU-”

“Oh, you know him?” Ananya asked.

“Yeah, he's a Deathbringer, just like you-”

Arivalagan's face instantly turned red at that moment and he slapped himself.

“Guess the cat's out of the bag,”

“Wow, oh gee, what a surprising revelation, I never would have guessed that,” Ananya clapped slowly, narrowing her eyes like a cat's.

“What did you find me for?” Terrence yawned.

“Well, basically,” Ananya took it upon herself to explain everything.

“Deathbringers, basically just being vampires except that sunlight only causes us to feel fatigued easily and doesn't burn us and we don't necessarily need blood to survive, have a reason for being so similar to this strange mythical creature.

We're the mutations that survived David's negative energy. I’m sure you've seen the news of what David can do. Arivalagan…he seemed so familiar to me before, but I didn't remember where I first saw him…but now I do.

He's our father, Terrence,”

Terrence spat out his water right into Ananya's face upon the receipt of such information.

“Adopted, yes? Surely, it's adopted, otherwise…”

“Yes, yes, it's adopted, he sort of made the relationship more complicated because of him turning into a Deathbringer, and resulting in him being able to care for his original adopted son who he thought had forsaken him and the lady who had been turned along with him, causing us to technically be siblings, so…”

“Aah, so that's what you mean by ‘father’ *clears throat* You nearly gave me a heart attack there…”

“Ok, enough about the complicated family system! Can we get to the point Ananya?” Arivalagan snapped at Ananya, who was definitely doing this on purpose.

“Ok, ok, so anyway, Terrence, us Deathbringers need your help to quell the crisis. By which I mean the crisis of people randomly falling sick and growing spikes over their body.

In fact, we Deathbringers have the power to cure all that-but we'll need the help of a Luminary Guardian, the lifeblood of a human willing to basically be used as a soul sacrifice and a human that will serve as the medium for us to channel our power. And what better human than my brother?”

“Stop saying brother, it's so weird…ok, I can be your human medium. But where are you gonna get a soul sacrifice and a…Luminary Guardian?”

“That's…” Ananya stopped herself and breathed in and breathed out. “What I'm here for too,”

—-----------

Isaac and Clarence both watched as the number of victims of the mysterious disease came pouring in into the hospital.

There were just more and more and more and so many more and more and more, the doctors and nurses had been so swarmed with work since the other David situation.

The two-no, the three, plus Bandung who passively disappeared as he absolutely could not be seen in such a crowded environment, continued to sit outside the unit in silence.

Clarence folded his arms and looked like he was almost about to drift off to sleep, while Isaac stared off into the void.

“This is literally the hospital. There is the best place to perform the incantation,” A soft, faint voice that sounded awfully like Ananya resounded in Clarence's ears, awakening him.

He was met with Arivalagan, Ananya and Terrence sauntering over once they had caught sight of him.

“Haven't seen you in a while, buddy. Feeling okay?” Ananya asked.

“Never been better,” Clarence kept his arms folded, but held eye contact with Ananya. “What are you guys here for anyway?”

“...” Ananya shied away, not wanting to be the one to say it.

“...Long story short, we're looking for someone willing to be a soul sacrifice to help us cure everyone afflicted with this disease,” Terrence spat out what Ananya couldn't say.

“...Not exactly ideal to be saying it so casually, eh?” Arivalagan patted his son on his back.

“What…does the soul sacrifice need to do?” Isaac asked, curiously.

“Nothing. Just be human and die to save everyone else…wait, please don't tell me…” Ananya explained the terms and conditions of the soul sacrifice.

“Isaac, what…” Clarence held up a hand reaching out for Isaac. “You…”

“...Clarence, I know you know this feeling. Finally, the fire that engulfed me in the only warmth I knew…has come…”

“...But, still-”

“No buts. This is my decision. I…I don't wanna become just another statistic. This is perhaps the only way I could ever hope to be useful…”

Clarence almost formed tears in his eyes-which was rare even with all the emotional scenes he's been in.

Arivalagan signalled to Ananya and Terrence to leave. “Let's…give the two of them some time alone…”

Now Clarence and Isaac were left alone.

“Isaac…you sure about this?”

“Yes, Clarence. I've…always longed for such a moment. A moment when…my death could bring happiness and joy to others. Or perhaps it always had…

I can save Mother with this. I can save so many other lives with this. I…I'll be recognised…as a person…”

Clarence watched for Isaac's microexpressions as he once again stared off into the void.

“You really are convinced. There's no point trying to dissuade you…”

“Correct.”

“...Is there anything else you wanna do?”

“...I'd like to be able to sing my heart out. I've always loved the performing arts…especially singing…”

“...So be it then,”

—----------

“Death to him, they chanted,

He's a demon, they said,

I've suffered too much,

at least death is a

redemption

What did I do wrong? Someone please tell me

Perhaps my only sin

was merely existing

I should just go now,

Maybe it's better

If I'm lying in a wooden dusty coffin

I've sinned way too much

No way to repent

Nothing but a sinner

No regrets for death

Please don't shed tears for me, because

I'll be going soon

But shed tears of joy for me

Cos I'll finally, finally, finally be free

How I wish I could see those topaz

roses again

They're truly beautiful

But maybe I'll

receive them only when I'm gone…”

Clarence stared sadly at the empty spot on the stage that once stood Isaac tall and proud. But now the incantation was complete.

Ananya, Bandung and Arivalagan hovered above the air, eyes glowing black and red, and in a blinding flash-

They ended the spell in a crash.

And opened their eyes while still hovering, reflecting on their actions.

The single life of a child, full of hopes, memories, dreams, aspirations, ambitions, emotions-a person-in exchange for the lives of countless others.

Whether it was ‘fair’ or not didn't really matter to them-a life for a life was never fair.

But they did wonder, though-

was he ‘finally, finally, finally’ free?

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

Crimeblind Episode 7

"Pulvis et umbra sumus..."

“Is…the kid gonna be with us?” Arivalagan pointed a finger at the startled Isaac, who panicked to rearrange himself.

Clarence looked up and down at Isaac, then up and down at Arivalagan again, then displayed a look of pure question on his face.

“We have someone who just gained magical powers or something, a terrorist who says he is now an employee of ISD, don’t worry, I trust you, and also an aching feeling that this is related to that case and him…I think the issue with Isaac can wait,”

Arivalagan raised an eyebrow. “By that case and him…you don’t mean…I mean, well, there’s a reason you brought us here…in your little shabby basement with all the notes…”

Clarence didn’t know what to say to that, but quickly adjusted himself when Scarlett carried herself into the room bringing with her another set of documents.

“Why, hello, Miss Scarlett. Though what brings you here?” Mano tried his best to greet Scarlett in a most respectful manner, but clearly he is not the best at differentiating sarcasm.

“I got her here. If this has issues with that case and him, then I think she’s ever necessary here,” Clarence explained the situation to Mano and the rest.

Scarlett didn’t say anything, wearing an expressionless look on her face, and carefully retrieving the documents. She turned to Clarence just as the papers were in her hand, awaiting an answer.

He closed his eyes for a while and thought for a long and hard time, then nodded his head in approval.

She too, nodded and affirmed his decision, then presented the papers to the whole team and began to speak.

“Since Clarence trusts you, even though I don’t really know all of you, I guess it’s ok for me to.” She sighed deeply.

“As you should know by now…there’s just this aching feeling that everything is connected in some way or another. And it all leads back to…

The Corrupt Crimefile case.

David.”

Rai nudged Baizurah with a look on her face.

“We…have reason to believe CPIO Wong Xue Long is in fat innocent, and that the Culpable wasn’t fully killed that day…a part of it became the entity we know today as ‘David’.” Scarlett shifted the documents into full view of everyone in the room. “I’ll explain.

The current case-I’m sure you all know what it is-dictates that Sean Goh, officer of the CID, was convicted of all crimes that previously belonged to the now-acquitted gang masters Dragon Lang and Master Hai, Alex Neo of the CID, and Kaedon Wong of the CAD-as well as receiving gratification in the form of monetary bribes for a favour from Xue Long, and thus sentenced to death.

But, in fact, Xue Long had already completed his prior investigation on the previous four criminals, and had very sufficient evidence that they were, in fact the culprits-therefore, he was planning to ambush the four of them on a raid he would go on with his team.

But that raid just so happened to be conducted while Dragon Lang and Master Hai were discussing the sale of something rare and exotic- a Culpable seed.

When they raided, somehow, something happened to Xue Long, which caused him to disappear and kill a fellow teammate as well.

Thus, with no bodily evidence, the four criminals made up some excuse that Xue Long was actually the criminal and planned to run away-then planted a puppet investigator to ‘investigate’ their case once again-but of course, they would turn out innocent.

They pointed out the culprit to be a man they never really liked-Sean Goh of the CID, and pushed all of their sentences onto him. And then…”

Scarlett stopped herself there, catching another glance at Clarence. He had his eyes closed in deep contemplation.

“That’s quite the interesting twisted fairytale, Miss Scarlett…but how exactly can we know you’re telling the truth?” Mano folded his arms and cocked an eye towards her.

Scarlett said nothing to that, picking out a particular document from the spread laid out on the table and flipping to a particular page.

“There is one way to prove it…Sean had told Clarence and I all this before he went, but purposefully withheld key information from us. It seems he might have connections to those ‘Ikigai’ you speak of…” Arivalagan’s ears shot up like how Bandung’s would the moment the word ‘Ikigai’ resounded.

“He left us a whole stack of documents, and over the past three years, we’ve managed to use those documents to investigate what we currently have-it’s not much, but at least it proves Xue Long’s and his innocence rather than what’s reflected in the actual case file.

But over the years, there’s still been one single document that hasn’t been used in our investigations at all…this one that contains only a single, handwritten note.

‘Meet with Lionel Rahman on 30 June. Memory extraction. Culpable episode.’”

Rai slowly raised a hand to ask a question, but Clarence, as if psychic, opened his eyes and answered it for her.

“Lionel Rahman’s the corrupt investigations officer who was paid by the four criminals to produce an innocent result,”

Rai put her hand down and nodded her head.

“30 June…wait…isn’t that today? But he didn’t specify the date…” Baizurah remarked.

“Yes…Clarence and I have always followed this man from midnight to midnight every single time this day comes each year…but nothing. However, David has already made a move, the first in years, which makes me think it might be this year…”

“So….you have eyes on him right now?”

Scarlett turned to Clarence once again, who pulled up a projector screen-detailing the very current action Lionel was doing. Eating his breakfast, a meal of a chicken and cheese egg sandwich three metres away from the bus stop he was due to take on his way to work.

“Before you ask, no, it’s not exactly illegal, and it’s not something we’d like to do either, but the circumstances…are special,” said Clarence, his eyes glowing a bright hot pink and pseudo-transparent pink fox ears stemming off the top of his head.

“Woah, is that what Bandung can do?” Isaac’s eyes sparkled once again, country bumpkin-esque.

Scarlett raised an eyebrow at him.

“It’s ok, Isaac is…Xue Long’s son. And…from some other things I’ve observed, he’s definitely trustworthy.”

She thus dropped her suspicions of him.

“What’s…Bandung?” Arivalagan questioned, resting his head on his chin.

“Ah…that…” Clarence stuttered.

And so began another long storytelling session.

—-----------

Lionel happily skipped (well, not literally skipped) his way to the bus stop after finishing off his chicken and cheese egg sandwich, painfully unaware that he was being watched by multiple different people with two intentions.

The first was because today was an auspicious day for them, and a certain friend of theirs had told them always to watch this man every year on this specific day, and they were watching him for any news on how to clear the names of two innocent men and how to bring four criminals to justice.

The second was because today was an auspicious day for him, and his gut told him that he should be acting on this exact day-

And so, from Lionel’s back, he put a gun to his head.

Silently, at that, so as to not alert the crowd.

It would appear he wasn’t interested in crowds anymore after that last encounter.

“Who are you? Who sent you? What do you want?” Lionel whispered over his shoulder, not daring to look at the face of the man who dared kidnap him.

David shushed him. “I’m who you think I am, of course…why don’t we go somewhere quieter? Like…that deserted alley over there,” He pointed over to a narrow alley across from the bus stop Lionel was planning to get on.

“Um, sure, sir,” Lionel agreed, carrying an awkward smile on his face even though David probably couldn’t see that.

David led the pair into the alley, still with the gun to his head like a shepherd leading a flock of sheep-in this case the sheep not even willing to make a sound-no, it’s possible he might not even be daring to breathe.

Once they had walked far in enough, David swiftly retrieved the gun from Lionel’s neck and, before he could attempt to retaliate, knocked him out in one fell swoop.

He swayed slightly like a palm tree in a thunderstorm before falling to the ground, his palm still stuck in the position he was attempting to slap with.

David still wore that serial killer’s look even with no one around, but instead without the devious smile and more of a ‘what shall I do with the body next’, his facial bandages flowing with the wind.

He knelt down next to the body, seemingly to extract something important-then stopped dead in his tracks with his hand still extended and reaching for the body.

“What a fortuitous encounter, Ma’at,”

He got up, not even turning his head to look at Scarlett and her team standing behind him, all armed with weapons-he probably didn’t really care all that much.

“You still haven’t answered me yet, even from our last encounter. What exactly is your motive?” said Scarlett whilst pointing the knife at him the same way Arivalagan had at Mano while he was ‘acting’.

“Oh? Did I not? I already told you…look at the world, look at the greed and cruelty and selfishness of humanity…”

“If your main motive was simply to convince me, I’m sure you’d know I wouldn’t be convinced if you tried to murder 163 innocent people to prove your point.”

David shrugged his shoulders, his fingers clenching the gun in his hand even tighter.

“Besides, you’ve read the news. The point you were trying to prove wasn’t exactly a reality,”

“Perhaps, not…but you must have come here today with a specific goal in mind? It can’t surely be because you miss me, can it, Ma’at?”

Scarlett lowered both her head and her knife in response.

Rai, who was at the back, spoke up when she saw Scarlett at a loss. “David, you remember me?”

David’s ears perked up, and he tilted his head. “Yes…you’re that Ikigai girl…”

Rai smiled and stepped forward. “That’s right…and today I’ve even brought another Ikigai with me…”

David’s grip on the gun could never get any tighter than that as he raised it up to Baizurah who too stepped forward. “She just received her Ikigai,”

David most likely could not believe his ears, because another second he was caught in shock would have given the team the perfect opportunity to take him down once and for all.

“An…Ikigai…that was just received? You…you saw ‘them’ again…”

Rai nodded her head, and Baizurah proceeded to demonstrate the show of her power on a rock nearby.

She picked it up, and, without warning, decimated it pretty easily just like she had with Arivalagan’s penknife. She must be a natural at this.

David watched in amazement. Well, pretty much everyone except Scarlett and Rai watched in amazement. Isaac most of them all, though he was all the way behind, and Clarence was more focused on protecting him.

“You…you just want ‘it’, right?” David lowered his gun, just as Scarlett dared to lift her own head.

“I think that’s quite obvious,”

“Forget it. I’m happy enough that you shared such an amazing little thing with me, you can take it all you want,” David knelt down and retrieved a strange puzzle-piece looking object from Lionel’s back pocket and tossed it over to the team.

Mano hastily caught it, then immediately stared David up and down. “This seems a bit too easy to be true..you’re not really acting like yourself today either…”

David practically rolled his eyes at that. He’s probably just tired. “And how did you know to find Lionel on this day?”

Scarlett cocked her head to the side, not replying to him.

“Forget it, why am I even asking, it’s probably him again, predicting my every move…

You know why I chose to be here instead? Today’s actually my birthday. I'm only giving it to you because I'm in a terribly good mood today,” He twiddled around with his gun while starting to smile diabolically to himself.

“Oh, uh, happy birthday, I guess,” Arivalagan muttered, not knowing what else to do with that piece of information.

“My, my…you all even wished me a happy birthday, but you forgot about one key thing…

That little girl that I took with me.”

With that, his eyes flashed black and once again his entire body radiated with heat that would burn anyone that dared to come close.

"Heehehehehhe, good luck trying to utilise that memory core. It’s useless without the girl,”

And with that he pulled off the same trick 8he did last time and teleported off into thin air.

—-------------

They had already searched Lionel. Nothing useful. No clue as to how he even obtained that memory core in the first place.

They couldn’t exactly keep him for long-his employers would start getting suspicious if he were to arrive at work even a minute late (he’s a very punctual person).

And so they sent him off on his way-and what that meant was that they brought him to the bus stop he was supposed to wait at, and would wait for him to wake up and catch the bus on his own-by then, the team would have already scurried away.

Now that they had successfully ran away from both Lionel and all the passersby that were staring at them hurling a whole grown unconscious man onto the bus stop bench-but of course, just as Rai predicted, none of them would dare to say anything about it.

Hmm. A strange wonder how she knew about that. Experience, maybe?

Well, there was no use staying out in the dangerous open anymore.

Back to Clarence’s little lair they went.

—-------------------

Scarlett held up the small memory core, only about a baby’s palm big, and carefully placed it onto the table still spread with case documents.

“So…we can’t use this without that little girl he mentioned?” Isaac asked.

“Most likely, yes…but…that girl could be anywhere…” Clarence closed his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows.

“...Today’s been a tiring day. Why don’t I take you back home, Isaac? Your mother might be worried…” Clarence offered.

“Oh, right, I suppose you all should get some rest too, ok then,” Isaac put on a bright smile and nodded his head.

As Clarence put on his coat and the pair ascended the flight of steps out of his secret basement, Mano watched them, his mind deep in contemplation, then he asked,

“Rai…do you think Ahmad and Louis would be interested?”

“Why the sudden question? Though…I guess they would be…should I call Ananya too?”

Arivalagan’s entire body shot up at once at that moment, looking all refreshed and energetic upon hearing Rai’s words.

“Did you say…Ananya?”

“You know her?” Baizurah questioned.

“...This entire case, it….it might not just be this case alone…” Arivalagan turned and gave Rai serious eye contact.

“You, Ahmad and Louis…you guys must have received your Ikigai in a big event like Baizurah’s, right? Do you also get the feeling that…you guys, as well as Mano and I…we’re all connected?”

Rai folded her arms, smiling while staring at Baizurah, provoking her thoughts as well.

“..You think so? That would require you to share what exactly you mean by that, as well as the exact scenario Louis, Ahmad and I were in…

Can I really trust you?”

Arivalagan smiled at the thought that his theory was actually being considered and not just dismissed as random nonsense.

“Yes, of course,”

—-------------

Clarence sat in the car silently, focusing on the road in front of him.

Bandung sat in the backseat, again in his favourite position of folded arms and crossed legs, while Isaac sat in the front passenger seat-not daring to make a sound lest he distracts Clarence either.

After a long, awkward silence, he blurted out of nowhere, “C-can I ask you a question?”

Clarence didn’t look at him, keeping his eyes on the road. “Go ahead,”

“I…I want to know…what exactly was your relationship with my father?”

Clarence almost slammed the brakes, the question shocking him so much he stopped dead in his tracks. Again not looking at him, he replied,

“He was my mentor, back when I was still a young child like you. He taught me the art of case investigations, and back then…he was a brilliant investigator…he still is…”

“But…that can’t just be it, right? There must be some other factors at play…there’s no way you would have gotten this emotionally invested into someone who was merely your mentor,”

“...But I too was quite emotionally invested in Sean. But you don't really believe me when I say he's innocent, do you? Your face tells it all,”

“You're quite good at telling when people are lying, are you?”

“Another skill I learned from your father,”

“But…why? Is there something else that pushed you to him?”

“...Yes, there is. My family.”

“..?”

“They're…not exactly model. They always showed favouritism to my sister, they always forced me into doing the chores and labour for them and starved me, they always excluded me from family events and acted like I didn't exist…I was a laughing stock to them.

At first, I always thought all families were like this. One was born to be the servant, and the other the throne's heir. But then I learned about what a family really looks like in school-it was warm and loving.

But the only place I ever felt such warmth was from the fire for cooking their meals. Meals that I would never even dare to smell their fragrance of.

Afterwards, I didn't know when, but I started to cry myself to sleep every night. I was scared of what would happen if I dropped tears in front of them during the day, so I supressed all my tears for when the night fell.

Would they laugh at me? Call me ungrateful?

Funny, if I had described this from their point of view, this entire thing would have probably turned out like I was being an ungrateful, spoiled child-that this was what every child should have been doing.

At that point, I…I wished…that I could just die. I thought of slitting my wrists multiple times, but every time I held up the kitchen knife the only thought that occurred to me was:

Blood on the knife meant for cooking would cause your family to fall sick.

You ungrateful child.

Hanging wasn't an option either. I was scared I'd traumatise my sister if she walked in and saw a corpse hanging from the ceiling-funny, I considered so many options, but I was too much of a coward to go by them.

If I told anyone else about this, do you think they would just dismiss my claims as attention-seeking?

‘He says he's suicidal, but he's never even tried before. He's just trying to get attention again,’

Then one day a fire broke out due to my carelessness while cooking.

The entire house was engulfed in flames, in the only warmth I knew.

Of course, the family long escaped without me, and probably were celebrating outside that all of them were safe and sound-all of them, yes, all of them indeed.

I was inside the storeroom at that time, and by the time I realised what was going on, the fire had already spread to cover the only door out of the storeroom-and there were no windows either.

The only thing for me to do was to sit and wait until help came. And, in fact, I did hear people arrive, who were screaming for anyone still trapped inside. But you know what I did?

I…ignored them. There were lots of metal pots and pans in the storeroom. I could have easily made enough noise to attract them. But I chose not to.

How…how could I? This was the very moment I had been waiting for. I could go in peace, no one would even know, and no one would ever call me an attention-seeker.

I laid back and relaxed, waiting until the fire eventually consumed me. But…as luck would have it, that was the day I met Bandung.

He joined forces with me and I became his host, and now, with another life on my hands, I once again could no longer bring myself to die.

I escaped with my newfound powers-but ended up homeless and wandering on the streets, with my family refusing to take me in to their new home after ‘I caused the fire’.

Then one night it started raining particularly heavily, and the shelter Bandung created wasn't even enough to block the rain-but another umbrella that came to my aid was.

That umbrella…belonged to your father.

He took me in, treated me like his own son, and taught me to become a great investigator like him.

So…you're asking me why? I want to at least complete this last case that he left behind. I want to be able to do at least one thing for him, after all he's done.

I…I wanna become a great investigator like him,”

Clarence finished his long speech on his backstory, his voice shaky and his breath trembling with emotion.

Isaac stared at him for a while, trying to comprehend all that Clarence had just said, but maintained a respectful silence.

“...I understand,”

—-------------

“Is it really appropriate to bring them here without Clarence's consent? I mean, it is his house after all, and all this stuff is his…” Rai gestured to all the prep work, stepping aside to let Ananya, Louis and Ahmad in the tiny basement.

“Hey,” Louis held up a hand to greet Scarlett, who didn't really know how to react to that.

“H-hi,”

“Baizurah! My best girl, how you been? You even got an Ikigai, huh?” Ahmad beamed to his ‘best girl’, while Rai mimed a vomiting action.

“Who are you calling best girl…” She said.

Arivalagan physically recoiled when Ananya laid eyes and walked closer, shielding himself with his hands.

“Ananya…”

“...Have we…met before?”

“No…you just…look familiar…”

“Mm…you too…give off…familiar vibes…”

Rai called out to the two of them, the only remaining ones not gathered around the table for more storytime. “Ananya, Arivalagan! Stop muttering to each other, come here!”

Arivalagan glanced over to the table, then gestured for Ananya to head to the table together (that table being literally only 5 steps away).

Ananya stood up straighter and took a moment to steady herself, before she too headed to the table.

“Right, now that everyone except Clarence is here…” Rai looked around at her audience, then smiled in annoyance.

“I'll relay the message to him,” Scarlett offered, knowing what she was thinking.

“Alright, thanks for that, that means we can start now. I'll be in charge of today's storytelling session, since I know Boss, and he particularly detests crowd speeches, and there's no way I'm letting Ahmad do something I'm able to…”

“What's that for?” Ahmad shouted from the back of the crowd, causing Baizurah to snicker slightly in pure amusement.

“Whatever, anyway, back to what we were saying. So basically:

Boss, Ahmad and I originally didn't really know each other at first. It was only after this most fortuitous encounter that we came to meet.

Yes, it was that very day, that very day that Xue Long raided the four criminals. Unfortunately we were not at the actual scene, and so we were unable to testify for him.

I was in the vicinity attending to Boss who had hypoglycaemia and had fainted on the street, while Ahmad who happened to be nearby was assisting me.

Just as I was going about the usual treatment procedures, from the bushes nearby, something pitch-black was slithering closer to us.

Keep in mind it was almost midnight then, and there were absolutely no streetlights around.

However, Boss’ case back then was more serious, so I decided to put off whatever that thing was and focus on treating him.

Then, all of a sudden, that black snake thing jumped at us and tried to attack us. It was just a hair away from having disfigured this beautiful face of mine, and it even caused me to jump back scared like an idiot.

I think it might have been blind, but I'm not sure.

It just kept attacking-just kept jumping and hissing at us-and getting closer and closer, until it hit Boss once, which was probably when he was cursed with his inability to regulate body temperature thingy, and I don't know why fear took over me that day, but I closed my eyes then, but when I opened it, I saw the same scene that Mano probably saw-

Those same six motorcycle people, red, white, grey, gold, green and blue-with the blue one, once again, shielding me from the hissing black snake thing.

At that time, I felt an aura about me-probably the same one Baizurah felt when she received her Ikigai-because that's what happened to me. That was the moment I received my Ikigai.

At that moment, I just felt a strong sense of…connection to the blue motorcycle lady. It was like our hearts were beating as one, like I could feel her emotions and whatnot-she might have been the one to grant me my Ikigai.

I also did feel the same feeling when she came back again, but just not as strong anymore.

Anyway, after I recovered from the shock, I found that I now had an Ikigai-and that Ahmad and the now-fully conscious Boss had gained one too.

Ahmad and Louis used their powers to destroy the black snake thing and reduced it to smithereens-though not as easily as Baizurah did to the penknife.

Then, when the danger had been neutralised, we turned back to find those six motorcycle people again-but they were all gone.

In fact, if it wasn't for our Ikigai powers, I'd say we all collectively hallucinated it.

Thereafter, Ahmad and I decided to follow Boss from then on."

Scarlett sat on the chair, her head buried in her hands, her mind flashing through everything Rai had just told her.

“So…Ikigai are granted…through…those six motorcycle people?” She questioned.

Rai removed the smile from her face and regained a serious composure in an instant.

“It would seem so,”

—-------------

“Mother! What…” Isaac gasped in panic, rushing to his unconscious mother's side and fiddling around with whatever he was trying to do to save her.

“What…happened…” Clarence too rushed to Isaac's aid, adjusting his white gloves to prepare for first aid-but reaching out to pull Isaac back once he realised something abnormal about her.

“Isaac, stop-your mother, she…seems highly contagious right now,”

Indeed, the body had secreted slimy fluids that solidified into sharp spikes all over exposed skin areas-her arms, her legs, even one impaling straight through her head.

She didn't seem to be breathing, as there was no chest wall movement-but then again, with the black fluid-spike things covering her entire body, it was hard to tell.

The black fluid-spikes weren't the only bodily fluid she was covered in, however-and in this case it would probably be more of a relief to see that than this black fluid-spike-she was covered in perhaps her entire body's worth of blood.

The fresh, crimson liquid dripped down from protruding spikes, from her mouth and other orifices, shining and reflecting much of the ceiling lamp's light.

“Stay back, Isaac, it's not safe, I'll call an ambulance,” Clarence held up his phone and deliberately pushed Isaac back from the body.

Isaac didn't object to that, but still craned his head and looked over Clarence's arm that barred entry with a concerned expression.

“I've called *cough* the ambulance…Isaac, let's go *cough* outside the gates for now, it's seriously *cough* not safe here,” He said as he forcefully led the boy out, who did not show any sign of aggression towards that.

Clarence stumbled out of the gates, supporting himself on them as Isaac proceeded to take a seat on the common corridor bench nearby.

He took another step forward, but appeared to lose his balance and was only saved from a terrible fall from fame by Bandung who had appeared out of nowhere.

Or maybe he was always there. He has a habit of staying very silent and not offering his opinions even if he's there.

Isaac immediately rushed to his side as he had with his dear mother, offering his own aid as Bandung had.

“What…what happened?” Isaac whispered as he guided Clarence to the bench.

“Luminary Guardian's hosts are far more susceptible to magic-related spells…yes, this is definitely related to that Culpable…black fluids and spikes…” Bandung too whispered back in a much more caring manner as he sat down along with Clarence and Isaac.

“David…I hate to say it, but…

I think…*cough*

I'm infected,”

—-------------

Isaac ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, all the way back to Clarence's place, as much as he could remember of the very destination he had only been to twice in his life.

His mind was in a turmoil right then-both his mother and his father's disciple had fallen ill to some strange spike disease which seemed to be very fatal. They even needed to be sent to the hospital urgently.

His only pillar of support in this investigation was lying on a hospital bed unconscious right now-without him, he certainly didn't have what it took to keep the case running.

Would the team kick him out then? Without the one who introduced him, he wouldn't be of use anymore…besides, he was the one that caused Clarence to be infected…

He can't handle the case on his own, he can't handle investigations properly, he can't even take care of his own mother, he can't even excel in his academics, he can't even perform basic chores…

Useless failure idiot he can't even he can't even selfish pointless no future coward crazy useless idiot crazy ungrateful failure he can't even he can't-

“Hey, you ok?” The gentle voice of a girl broke Isaac from his delusion, and he looked up from his foetal position curled up on the floor to see a young girl, only about 4 years old, staring at him with curious big black eyes.

Wait, that girl…

she's the one that David kidnapped that day, no?

Isaac stood up, eyes widened at this realisation. Without warning, he grabbed her hand and opened Clarence's door he was right in front of, and dragged her down to the basement despite the strong resistance she put up.

“Don't worry, please just trust me, we really need you, you're really important to us,”

And he certainly surprised everyone in the team-plus the new faces-when he brought back the exact item everyone's been so anxious for right into their lap.

“Wait, isn't that…"

“Yeah, but what are you doing here, Isaac? Didn't Clarence send you home? Also, where is he?”

“And who might this fellow be?”

Great, time for the third storytelling session of the day.

“That's not true, that can't be true. You're lying,” Rai openly accused the little girl with fierce conviction.

“No, it's true, he didn't really do anything bad to me, he even gave me candy and a pretty little dress!” The little girl was almost on the verge of tears trying to defend David, her favourite murder-terrorist.

“Wait, he didn't…may I see it?” Scarlett gestured to the stuffed teddy bear assumed to be another gift of David's, asking for permission to seize it from the girl's clutches.

She nodded and handed it over-to soon be quickly dissected and one key part of it discovered…quite a literal key.

“Clarence should be here to see this. Isaac, you don't know how at all this disease appeared?” Rai asked.

“No…oh, wait! Mister Mano, didn't you say you were immunocompromised? Does this mean I might infect you?” Isaac stared down at his feet, then frantically shot his head up.

“Calm down, Isaac, this disease seems to only be able to infect from already infected people. If you aren't displaying symptoms, you probably can't infect me,” Mano said, staring up at the TV screen in Clarence's basement reporting the disease in the latest news.

“A weird disease that causes people to secret fluids that solidify into spikes has suddenly surfaced all throughout the island nation. Doctors are unable to pinpoint the reason behind this phenomenon, though some speculate that this might be the doing of former CID investigator David Lim after he was last seen allegedly wielding magical powers to do evil,”

All stared in silence for a while as the TV began to flash gruesome images of unfortunate victims of this terrible disease.

“It might have truly been David's doing…’ Louis whispered, breaking the silence and getting the conversation started.

“If that's the case, then the way to stop this disease is to stop him. We need to focus on the task at hand,” Ananya took the key from the little girl's teddy bear to examine it closer.

“The key…doesn't look like it has anything to do with the memory core, though. The memory core doesn't even have any such keyholes,” Arivalagan pointed out, but once again physically recoiled when Ananya turned to have respective eye contact with him.

“This is frustrating…” Ahmad muttered after numerous failed attempts by the group to see any correlation between the memory core and the key.

The little girl hugged her teddy bear tightly, pouting at the way Scarlett tore through it like that and frowning in her little pretty dress.

And then, just as the team were at their wit's end, a magical shadow appeared to help guide them-

“What to do, what to do, Ma'at…isn't it truly just frustrating?” David's magical shadow announced its arrival.

His shadow did a lot of things that revealed it wasn't the actual person-for one, a real person is not transparent.

But the rest of the team didn't really seem to realise that, or maybe they just kept their guards up. Louis and Mano drew their guns, Ananya and Arivalagan bore their fangs-wait, fangs? Alright, alright, that's not important.

Scarlett didn't even bother to turn to look at him, staring down at the key and the memory core.

“I know, I know, Ma'at, I know…to have all of the necessary evidence fall right from the sky into your lap, but you just aren't able to utilise it even with countless innocent lives depending on you…” He gestured to the television still broadcasting the gruesome bodies.

“I'll ask you once again. What is your motive?” Scarlett's voice this time came in sharp.

“Woah, woah, calm down, Ma'at, this isn't the High Court…just take a moment to think…why'd you think the key had anything to do with the memory core in the first place?”

Scarlett narrowed her eyes.

“Now look at you, who ruined the little girl's cute teddy bear permanently just to obtain evidence that isn't even usable…Hah! How pathetic.

You might think that it's just a little teddy bear, and it can be replaced, but what if this teddy bear meant life to her? You just destroyed it for the sake of something that could have been completely preventable…

I'm still in a good mood today, for the new faces here, it's my birthday today, so I'll drop you all a hint-

Perhaps some evidence that you once thought could only be found at the ends of the Earth were in fact right under your nose this whole time.

Hehehehhe, yes, yes, I love to see that look on your face, a pity your CPIB friend isn't here. But I'm sure even he'd wish me-

Happy birthday to me,”

And with that, the magical shadow vanished like David had a habit of doing.

The entire team stared at nothing in particular, just giving themselves silence to process the new information given.

Finally, Louis rose to break the silence, “If I may offer my suggestion…he might mean…Ikigai,”

Ikigai? That word was not stranger to the team.

“Something that's been right under our noses…if you trust me, please pass the memory core,”

Mano looked at Arivalagan, who had no reaction to that. Rai and Baizurah were as usual at their antics again. This time with Ahmad.

Scarlett took a look at Louis, then nodded her head and tossed the memory core over to him.

Louis placed it on the ground in front of him, closed his eyes and concentrated.

Then his eyes flashed a bright crimson red, the same crimson red engulfing the memory core-and which soon engulfed the entire room after a split second not long enough for anyone to react.

—-------------

Scarlett opened her eyes. The room had disappeared. She was now faced with a scene of the late Xue Long at the very raid that cost him his life.

She didn't know where the others had gone. The only people around were Xue Long and his team, and the criminal gangs about to be raided.

Ah, so the memory core must have worked. Ikigai was the answer.

She reached out to touch Xue Long, who was still reading out the arrest order to Kaedon Wong as he was pinned down on the ground, but happened to prevent her from changing anything in the memory core-her hand slipped right through like it was transparent.

So she couldn't even touch them. Then she should focus on the story the memory core had been attempting to tell them the past few years.

“Cuff him,” Xue Long just finished reading out the last of the arrest order to Kaedon, and ordered for him to be restrained.

A teammate of his brought out a pair of handcuffs and forced the restraint onto the not-so-compliant Kaedon.

Then, the four main culprits had been arrested. Dragon Lang Kaedon Wong, Master Hai, and Alex Neo were all in their respective cuffs as they should be.

Next was to seize the contraband items. Xue Long left the criminals in the care of his very competent teammates and cautiously walked over to the pedestal sitting a black seed radiating with dark energy.

He adjusted his gloves and gulped. Something about it was giving him a sense of dread.

He took a deep breath and steadied himself, stopping fiddling with his gloves, and daringly reached out to the seed.

And that was when the seed latched itself onto him-and he screamed.

The team, obviously heard his cries for help, but the moment they arrived, they were met with only one scene-Xue Long, muttering something to himself, his hands drawing on his gun, covered all over in a black and thick slimy fluid.

“Xue Long? What's-” Said one of his teammates, but she didn't get to finish her sentence before she got impaled by a sharp black spike that had come from none other than-

Xue Long.

“What are you…doing…” Were her last words as she faded off into unconsciousness.

Xue Long clutched his face, desperately trying to get the slimy fluid off while whispering in a voice that was getting raspier and raspier, “K-k-k-kill m-m-m-me I ca-can't control…kill…ot-others…”

Another one of his teammates attempted to draw his gun, and even successfully fired at Xue Long despite he too soon being impaled by another spike.

Xue Long stumbled back, clutching his whole head with both hands now, then screamed once again, of pain-and then his whole body glowed and he disappeared.

The only thing left of him was a black snake thing slithering away before anyone could catch it.

—-----------

Now it was a different scene.

The scene of the same black snake thing, albeit seemingly cut in half, creeping and slithering slower and slower to a young boy playing near a stream in the woods.

While the young boy was too busy gazing into his own reflection curiously, the black snake thing attacked at him and once again latched itself onto his body just as it did to Xue Long.

The young boy, taken aback and slightly disgusted by the slimy fluid it was causing, in his struggle against it fell into the stream.

He struggled in futility to swim back up to the surface, as the slimy fluid kept weighing him down.

Then a booming, raspy voice resounded in his mind-even Scarlett could hear it in this memory core too-

“Shh, don't be scared, child, I'm here to help you…”

It would appear the young boy's own inner voice would get translated into a meek voice that Scarlett nonetheless could still hear.

“No, you're a demon! I don't want a demon's help,”

“Oh? Why not? I can give you power, money, fame, everything you desire…”

“I desire nothing…only…to get back up to the surface!”

“AHAHAHAHAH! So be it,”

And the young boy, as if controlled by something else that was not his body, flung himself out of the water like a dolphin performing a trick at the zoo.

Once he hit the ground, he spat out all the water right where Scarlett was supposed to be-then, after sorting himself, desperately cajoled himself to the water to once again gaze at his reflection-

but was only met with the scene of his dearest loved ones, family and friends falling ill, getting into accidents, dying-

and everyone blaming him, the demon who brought misfortune.

“No, no, no, no, no, wait, wait…” He touched his own face and swirled his hand around in the water, begging for the illusion to be washed away.

In the end, the scene did clear, and he could see his clear reflection once again-

But the only thing he saw was a man, adorned with a rock-hard black carapace armour all over his whole body, sharp claws with which to defend himself, and a crow mask covering his face assumed to be part of the Culpable transformation set-and with something key and distinct that would set the real person apart from his reflection, something that the both of them had-

Two long and violet goat horns protruding from his head.

—----------

Yet again another different scene.

The scene of Sean chatting with what appeared to be-

the six motorcycle people.

His smile was as radiant and bright as the day he was sentenced, always bringing hope and positivity to those around him.

“We're recording…do you mean if I reveal who you are to them? I mean, the only ones able to access this will be Ikigai you have granted to…” He beamed from ear to ear.

“Want us to reveal our identity too?” The green motorcycle man asked.

“Well, if you would be so kind…”

“Oh, sure, it's just fantastic, it's always been our dream to reveal our most secret identities after all…” The blue motorcycle lady remarked, before taking off her motorcycle helmet to reveal quite a beautiful face.

“We are the Pillars of Total Defence.

My name is Sicarius of Civil defence, the one in red is Fentanyl, yes, I know what that sounds like, of Psychological Defence, the one in green is Pertama of Military Defence, the one in gold is Sunda of Economic Defence, , the one in white is Laju of Social Defence, and the one in grey is Mendax, of Digital Defence.

Yes, we're about…78, 79 years old or so, and we're also blessed with everlasting youth and very incredible powers.

But of course, we're all benevolent and would never use these powers for evil blah blah blah ok straight to the point.

Yes, the so-called ‘Ikigai’ that you humans have termed are in fact granted through us, but we don't just hand out the candy willy-nilly.

Not everyone can survive receiving an Ikigai in the first place, and not everyone would use one with good intentions…we screen through each and every one first before we can ascertain who'd be suitable for each.

We often patrol around in our invisible forms, getting ready to offer our special assistance whenever necessary.

Ok honestly that's all that there is to say, nothing else is important, we good?” She looked up to Sean from her knelt-down position in front of the memory core's camera.

“Yes, but I do wish to discuss something…with the camera open…you can just pretend it's not there,” Sean answered.

“...I'm an Astral Crusader.” He then blurted out of nowhere.

“Ah, so that's how you knew about us…and here we thought we were the ones who found out about you…” Mendax folded his arms.

“Yes…as you all should know, an Astral Crusader's only purpose in life is to die for the sake of saving a Culpable.

Culpables…they're strange ones. They're clearly either manifestations of negative energy, or victims of manifestations of negative energy-either way, they're the biggest victims here.

But all everyone can see is the damage they bring to others. No one stops to feel sorry for the Culpables themselves…

So of course, if no one takes on this ever-important task, I shall take it upon myself this great burden.

I have already spoken to Clarence and Scarlett, they've agreed to falsify evidence for me and ‘defend’ me in the court…

Scarlett, if you're seeing this, the piece of my soul I left in you should be resonating about now upon activation of this memory core. It should provide you with a piece of my consciousness and sufficient power to heal David for me.

So please, Scarlett, have mercy on this poor victim,”

—------------

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

Crimeblind Episode 6

"Aut viam invenium aut faciam..."

Apologies, I wasn’t aware Mother would be receiving guests today…” The young boy in a mini tuxedo set the teaset down on the table, grabbing the handle of the teapot gently and pouring out the tea with such skill it was clear he had had lots of practice.

“No worries, uh…” The young man dressed in an all-white suit adorned with white gloves sat regally on the sofa like a prince, reaching for the cup of freshly brewed tea.

“...Is there anything I can help with?” The young boy returned to a serving posture, cupping his hands together and hanging them low, maintaining proper eye contact with the young man out of politeness.

“Oh no no no, it’s nothing, I was just asking what I should address you by…” The young man set the cup down swiftly and turned to the young boy caught off-guard.

“You mean my…name? I…” The young boy struggled to pick the right words, fumbling with his hands, his eyes darting rapidly across the room.

“Ah, that’s ok if you don’t want to tell me, I already know it anyway, sit down, Isaac, enjoy the tea with me,” The young man gestured kindly at ‘Isaac’ for him to make himself comfortable too.

“Isaac…” The young boy muttered, then his eyes lit up, before he quickly went back to his usual serving position. “Yes, yes, Isaac…my name…ah, wait, uh…no thanks, sir, I’ll go prepare some snacks for you,”

“You can call me Clarence, Isaac. Please, go about your business,” Clarence introduced himself and sent Isaac fetching the snacks.

“Huh, his parents…” A raspy voice came from the man with pink fox ears also dressed in a white suit who magically appeared out of thin air, and was now sitting in the middle of the sofa, sampling the tea too.

“His mother is right here, and his father…” Clarence stopped himself halfway, his voice getting as hoarse as the raspy voice of that mysterious fox-human hybrid. “His father…we’re here…for his father today, aren’t we, Bandung?”

The fox man spat out the tea into the pot and stuffed it back onto the tray, not bothering to follow up on Clarence’s sentence. “Bleh, tea sucks, no liquid will ever be better than bandung,”

“Oh shut up, we’re here on important business today, Bandung, I’ll go buy you a drink from Uncle Chandran later if-” Clarence cut himself off mid-sentence and went back to his regal sitting posture, as Bandung quickly vanished upon seeing Isaac re-enter the room again with a tray full of cookies.

He set the tray down skillfully just like he had with the tea set, then returned to a formal, straight posture in less than 15 seconds.

Clarence smiled warmly at him, took a cookie and broke it in half, and offered him a half.

Isaac seemed like he was caught off-guard by the sudden offer, but quickly declined and looked away as he fervently shook his head and refused.

Clarence sat back on the sofa, calmly staring at Isaac who was surprisingly maintaining his serving position quite well, for how tiring it looked to constantly maintain a 180-degree straight posture, keeping his hands bent at a perfect 45-degree angle, and holding his head up high-he’s almost well-trained enough to be a waiter at a fine dining restaurant.

Isaac waited for a while, as he too watched Clarence munch on the snacks. He followed the way the cookie crumbs fell onto the floor, onto the sofa, and onto-

The CPIB warrant card he was wearing.

Isaac’s eyes widened, ever so silently, almost to the point that Clarence didn’t realise how intently he was watching the card-he was still maintaining his posture ever so efficiently.

Isaac managed to make out the few words written in bold big enough for him to see-CPIO Clarence Loh-Investigations Operations Department, Private Sector.

Clarence quickly shifted the card out of view, clearing his throat and said, “Uh…Isaac…when I can see your mother…?”

Isaac’s head shot up, responding immediately to a call for help from his dear guest and forgetting all about the card, “Ah…Mother..should be in her bedroom reading by now…I’ll…go get her…”

Isaac bowed once first, then removed himself from the guest receiving stance and made a beeline for what was presumed to be ‘Mother’s bedroom’.

Clarence sat there in silence for a while. Well, it was silent, save for the loud sounds of munching on cookies he was making.

It didn’t really take long before Isaac walked out elegantly with that same straight posture, followed by a dishevelled-looking middle-aged woman in oversized pyjamas who definitely did not bother in the slightest with looking presentable at all in front of guests. A far cry from her well-mannered and polite son.

“What do you want, idiot…why can’t you just do one thing right, deal with the guest yourself…” She whispered, her eyes darting around, uninterested to make eye contact with Clarence.

As soon as the woman was in the guest room, Isaac bowed his head low and politely and took his leave to give the two some privacy.

“Good afternoon, Miss. Are you Madam Mandy Wong?” Clarence immediately put down the cookies he was stuffing in his mouth, and stood up to greet Mdm Wong.

“Yes…that’s me…what do you want…” Mdm Wong grabbed a chair and sat herself down comfortably on it, taking a moment to register the message. “Wait, are you…”

“I’m Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau Investigation Office Clarence Loh of the Investigations Operations Department, Private Sector. I believe you should know what I’m here for today…”

Mdm Wong shot up immediately, looking refreshed and alert at the mention of Clarence’s title. “I’ve already told your colleagues everything I know 8 years ago. Please just keep his name out of your mouths and leave me to live in peace…”

She got up and was about to go back to her room, when she just heard something so interesting that it made her wanna stay:

“13.85 million. Do you think that’s a fair price?”

She froze in her steps, slowly turning back upon hearing the familiar number. “Are you trying to buy information from me? Is my information really worth 13.85 million?”

Clarence sat back down on the sofa and folded his arms, smirking. “No, no, of course not…but I bet those criminals thought the ‘Culpable’ seed was,”

“How…how…what…wha….” Mdm Wong’s voice went away and she struggled to gather the right words, fumbling around as she too sat down pretending to look calm. “How do you know what that is? Even I don’t…”

“Your husband was quite the outgoing fella, always ready to help people in need…”

“And what exactly do you want? I know nothing,”

“Look, I too know just about as much as you do, I too am seeking the answers to the truth. Please just cooperate with me, please, I too want to seek vengeance for your husband,”

“...Fine. What do you want?”

Clarence smiled and stood up once again, his arm careful to conceal his warrant card lanyard from view. “Do you happen to have his ID card?”

“Why…would you ask that?”

“Just answer me. Do you have it or not?”

“...Yes, I do,”

“Perfect, then please, if you will,” Clarence gestured and rested his white gloves on his hands to complement his outfit perfectly.

Mdm Wong got up and made her way to the storeroom, exiting via the living room and not caring that she almost knocked into Isaac on the way, like he was invisible.

Isaac swiftly moved out of the way, his face flushing red and flustered, still trying his best to maintain as elegant a demeanour as possible.

He manoeuvred over to the guest room to collect the empty snack bowl and teaset, trying to discreetly catch a glimpse of Clarence’s warrant card lanyard.

That didn’t really work since he was already on high alert since before, but Isaac still appeared entranced by the exact same words he’d already seen before, as if those very words meant the world to him.

Clarence stared at him in silence for a while, slowly observing his facial features, amusing himself and chuckling softly to himself, breaking the silence with an awkward clear of his throat.

Isaac shot up once again, regaining his senses, and rushed to pick up the tray and teaset and send them to the kitchen for cleaning, eager to get out of the situation as soon as possible.

“I've found it…woah!” said Mdm Wong after she almost once again knocked into Isaac when he was going back to the kitchen, but at least this time she acknowledged him. “Watch where you're going, are you just blind or stupid?”

Clarence warmly greeted her with a smile as she stepped back into the guest room, watching as the last view of Isaac with his head low again disappeared into the kitchen. “Thank you sincerely for cooperating, Mdm Wong,”

Mdm Wong said nothing, looking down at Clarence with a look of pure disdain written in her eyes, her fingers clutching a lanyard with a warrant card similar to Clarence's.

Clarence stopped smiling and adopted a look of seriousness on his face as he received the card with two shaking hands. He stared at it for a long time, his eyes drooping and growing heavier.

“Thank you.” He managed to spit out after a prolonged period of silence. “Truly, this means…”

“I don't know who exactly you were to Xue Long, but if you know about the ‘Culpable’, then…” Mdm Wong too, lowered her voice.

“Wait.” Clarence uttered a single word, bringing the solemn conversation to an even lower point of distress. “How do you even know about the Culpable?”

“...”

“You can tell me, you know. I promise I won't do anything to harm you,”

“...That day, after the accident, it was raining heavily, and men dressed in uniforms knocked on my door and delivered me the news…they said that there was a strange anomaly known as a ‘Culpable’ that had appeared there, and it was the reason his body was never found…They also never managed to subdue that evil murderer thing…”

Clarence breathed heavily, yet not daring to make any of his breaths any more louder than they already were. It was either he was shocked from a revelation, or that he held the situation far too dangerously close to his heart.

“I…I sometimes wonder…” Mdm Wong starts to tear up, frantically reaching for the tissue box arranged neatly on the dining table, pulling out tissues upon tissues.

Clarence stays neutral, not fully understanding the art of comforting a crying woman, looking away awkwardly.

“I…I wonder…if his sacrifice was all in vain. People…will only forever remember him as the cowardly, corrupt CPIO…but I believe he’s innocent. You believe me, right? You believe he’s innocent? Do you also…pray everyday that the demonic investigations officer that brought his name down with him will suffer and burn everyday in the afterlife, right? Sean Goh, I’ll always remember that wicked name of his…”

Clarence forced himself to swallow the great breath he held, going against whatever he truly thought. “Yes,” He muttered, wiping his mouth. “Yes. That…demon…Sean will never see peace in his eternal afterlife. He…he’ll…burn…forever…and, and Xue Long…”

“You're getting quite emotional too. I don’t know what kind of relationship you had with Xue Long, but…”

She paused before getting up and taking a deep breath.

“You will find justice for him,”

Clarence got up and bowed the same way Isaac had.

“I will,”

-------------------

Clarence placed the bouquet of pure-white hydrangea flowers onto the visitor's gift pedestal, holding the ID card of the one buried inside as well as the other bouquet of marigold flowers close to his chest, almost to the point of tearing up.

The same fox man, Bandung, was leaning against the wall nearby, being careful to neither disrespect any of the urns in the columbarium nor provoke Clarence too much, keeping in respectful silence.

“...No point hiding. Come out now, Isaac,” Clarence pretended to be vulnerable, catching the swift movements of the unsuspecting young boy out of the corner of his eye.

Bandung smirked and folded his arms. Clarence continued holding the bouquet and ID card and turned to face the young boy cautiously stepping out of the shadows.

“I…I…” Isaac cupped his hands together and scrambled to make up an explanation no one had demanded of him yet.

Bandung looked the young boy up and down. He was most definitely not expecting Clarence to catch him so easily.

“I’m sorry, I followed you…because…” Isaac continued. “You were…in the same team as my father, right? You know him, right?”

Bandung shot a concerned look at Clarence, who got his act together and was back to looking as regal as he had in the earlier morning. “Yes. Your mother should have told you everything there was to know about your father, though, no?”

Isaac’s facial muscles twitched slightly, and Clarence took note of it, despite him clearly trying to hide it. “Uh, no, sir, she never told me anything about what happened to my father…I only found out today when I overheard her…ah, wait, please, I’m sorry, I know my mistake,”

Clarence watched as Isaac desperately put his hands together and begged for mercy, and was shook to see him like this. Just like the earlier topics, this one was also close to him, though it seemed like he saw something particular in Isaac.

Clarence, taken aback, quickly tried his best to comfort the Isaac in distress. “Uh, no, calm down, I’m not punishing you or anything, I just didn’t know…”

He looked back at Bandung with a cry for help written all over his face, while Bandung was pursing his lips and covering his mouth, trying his best not to burst into very inappropriate laughter.

“Ok…yes, it’s true that I did know your father…but, so?”

Isaac immediately tried his best to steady himself upon Clarence’s attempts to divert the conversation back to the important bits. “I…want to join your investigation, can you let me in the team, please? It’s not one that you have to report anyway, right?”

Yet again another surprised look on Clarence’s face, but soon calmed himself. “And how do you know I don’t have to report this one?”

Isaac brightened up, but abruptly stilled himself once again. “Investigations officers like you only ever come in pairs if they’re on serious investigations.” He turned to Bandung and pointed politely at the fox caught off guard. “He…isn’t an investigations officer, is he?”

Clarence smiled. “No, he isn’t. You’re Xue Long’s child, though…I suppose it should be ok to tell you…”

He looked back up at Bandung again, who nodded his head after a moment of careful consideration. “...This is Bandung, he’s actually something he calls a Luminary Guardian. He’s bound to my consciousness, or soul, and draws energy from it, and in return, I gain the abilities of the Luminary Guardians…”

Isaac’s eyes sparkled as Clarence regaled him with the tales of Bandung, which only fueled the vain fox’s smirk to grow even bigger.

“So…you have all kinds of special magic?”

Clarence nodded.

“Whoaaaa, it must be cool to do something no one else can do…”

Clarence stopped himself then to stare at the awestruck child, seeing more and more of that something particular in the young boy.

He, too, was as entranced by Isaac as the young boy was entranced by him-so much so that he almost forgot about the ID card and the bouquet of marigold flowers still clutching in his grip.

“Right…why’d you ask Mother for Father’s ID card?”

Clarence shifted the bouquet of marigold flowers away such that the attention was focused on the ID card, then answered his question but changed the topic discreetly. “I want him to be buried with some form of identification…but anyway. Isn’t your mother going to be worried about you? You’ve come all the way out her alone…"

Isaac shook his head. “Nah, it makes no difference whether I’m at home or not. But then who are the marigold flowers for? You’ve already given the hydrangea flowers to Father, so…”

Clarence sighed, seeing how much of his inner criteria the boy’s life ticked. He got up and started making his way across the columbarium, heading in the direction of a remote, dark corner of it. “Follow me.”

The pair-or, technically, trio, as Bandung had once again disappeared but was definitely following them closely-walked in silence, until they reached an individual cell that was completely overgrown with moss.

Moss and algae enveloped it along with a layer of dust, a sharp contrast to the rest of the clean and well-maintained cells. This one must not have belonged to someone with family to help clean it.

Despite the mess, Clarence made no attempt to tidy up the cell, instead placing the marigold flowers in the cell vase, arranging it neatly-then, without looking back, addressed Isaac.

“Do you know who this cell belongs to, Isaac?”

Isaac shook his head, although he already had a feeling of who it could belong to.

Clarence gently wiped away the dirt and dust to reveal a name underneath, hastily scribbled and adorned messily-Sean Goh.

Judging from the lack of a response from Isaac, Clarence more or less surmised his understanding of the one buried in there.

“Are you wondering why, if I believe your father is wrongfully accused, would I pay my respects to his wrongful accuser, then?”

“Yes…why?”

Clarence sighed again. He opened his mouth to say something, but quickly stopped himself and changed his narrative in the nick of time.

“It’s because he-it’s because…he deserves some respect too, as a basic…human being…” His voice was about to crack then, and as he stood back-facing Isaac, he wondered if he would just dismiss it as a simple sore throat.

“But he’s not a human being. He’s even more than just a murderer, he’s a framer, a fraud, a corrupt officer.

He’s a demon.”

Clarence took in a deep breath and tried his best to calm himself down before he said any rash words, finally agreeing with Isaac with that same cracking voice.

“Yes. Yes. Yes, he is…

A demon.”

—---------------

“...I assume you’re not as familiar with the full case flow of the Corrupt Crimefile case as you could be yet, no?” Clarence turned on the lights in the dark and mysterious room, letting the light permeate through all four corners-and in the now-illuminated room, all his investigations work was written clear as day for Isaac to admire.

It was like a classic movie scene, pins on a map with pictures of suspicious individuals or individuals connected to the case, graphs drawn on the whiteboard depicting how the stock market value influenced money laundering syndicates, case files upon case files of carefully arranged documents containing detailed information of the cases depicted-enough to create an entire library of them.

And all of this prep work was just for one case??

Clarence took a seat as he amused himself watching the awestruck Isaac flounder about like a fish out of water, admiring the world above the land for the very first time, with even the normally sulking Bandung chuckling too.

“Sit down, country bumpkin, we're about to see a lot more of this soon in our investigations work,” Clarence gestured to him to occupy the seat beside him, staring back at the table laid out to the brim with case-related information.

Isaac immediately calmed his body to a much more relaxed state, then walked up and took his rightful seat.

He stared at the table, then stared up at Bandung who was leaning against the wall.

“Um…is he not gonna sit?”

Bandung smirked and folded his arms again (seems he's really fond of doing that). “The very seat that you're occupying is mine,”

Isaac, upon those words reaching his ears, stood up at lightning-speed, attempting to give the seat back to the one it belonged to. “Aah, then, you take it, I'll just stand…”

Clarence sighed and looked up at Bandung with an annoyed look on his face. Bandung just shrugged his shoulders, smiling without a care in the world.

“Just sit back down,”

“Oh, ok…” Issac recovered, and held the frame of the chair with shaking hands as he plopped himself back onto it. “Umm, can I ask…why is he named Bandung?”

“Well, it's not that deep, he just loves Bandung is all, no other reason,” Clarence grabbed a small stapler and started fiddling with it.

“Umm, ok…so, about the case…”

Clarence smiled and placed the stapler back, readying himself to get serious. “No need to be so nervous, Isaac, but you'd better buckle up cos this is about to become a whole new level of infodump,”

Isaac took a deep breath. “I'm ready, please tell me the full case flow of…what happened to my father,”

Bandung finally started getting serious, and Clarence no longer smiled. He started animating the case props on the table in order to tell the most hair-raising story known to mankind:

“The chief superintendent had sent out a case assignment to the CAD upon discovering that receipts and reports of funding spent didn't match up, suspecting that it was a case of fraud and embezzlement.

But after a continuous effort of the CAD returning little to no results, he suspscted there may be someone purposefully obstructing the investigation from inside-a case of corruption.

He silently transferred the case to the CPIB, and then-head of the Public Sector of the Investigations Operations Department Xue Long accepted the case and began his investigations.

Xue Long eventually managed to point out Alex Neo of the CID, and Kaedon Wong of the CAD'S involvement in the case, and surmised that they have been shirking their duties and abusing their power.

His further investigation also led to the reveal of the two's involvement in gangs, serving two bosses-known throughout the underworld as Dragon Lang and Master Hai.

When they had gathered enough evidence, Xue Long and his team raided their shared residence one day, and arrested them and all other gang members.

However, unbeknownst to them, Xue Long had actually been planning to run away and frame Alex Neo and Kaedon Wong for the aforementioned crimes that were actually his doing, and in his attempt to do so, shot and killed fellow officer Leong Wei Loon, and successfully escaped.

Dragon Lang, Master Hai, Kaedon Wong, and Alex Neo were still taken back to the CPIB, but due to the unreliable nature of the head investigator, a new investigations officer was appointed to investigate the entire case again.

After subsequent investigations, he concluded that Xue Long's investigations were nonsense, the four 'criminals' were indeed innocent, and the reason for the murder, corruption and embezzlement was due to another officer of the CID-Sean Goh.

He was taken to trial, and, with sufficient information, was convicted and sentenced to the death penalty. Before he died, as bribery needs two people to conduct a case, when the judge asked him to name the person he took bribes from, he named:

Former head of the CPIB Investigations Operations Department, Private Sector-

Wong Xue Long.”

The two-no, three, plus the indifferent Bandung, stared at each other in silence as Clarence finished explaining the entire case flow, until finally Isaac broke it-

“But…there’s no way…you believe that’s what really happened, right? I mean…there’s no way…that’s really what happened…”

Clarence returned to his mournful expression he had maintained throughout the entire storytime, giving a moment of silence for Isaac to digest the truckload of information that had just been dumped onto him.

“But…but…wait…why…why can’t we just investigate those four criminals that you said? Are they still alive? Why can’t we follow them or something…” Isaac sat back in his chair, clutching his head furiously and racking his brains real hard.

“That’s…not how it works…” Clarence explained.

“But…you’re a CPIB investigator. Don’t you have legal powers to go around searching people and breaking into their apartments and stuff? I’m sure we’ll find sufficient information in whatever they keep in their houses…”

“Ok, firstly, that’s a straight-up abuse of my power. I am a civil servant. These powers conferred onto me are not to be exercised for my own personal reasons. And secondly, I actually cannot exercise those powers without opening a formal investigation, which, unfortunately, the one done 7 years ago was enough to convince those in charge…”

Isaac blinked at Clarence for a while, his neck craning towards him like the curious little boy he was. “Then…what can we do anyway?”

Clarence rest his chin on one hand, gesturing to Bandung to search for related documents. A few groans and sighs of annoyance, and a few brilliant smirks of amusement later, the pink-eared man came back with his hands full with all sorts of valuable information.

“I’m actually not sure if these are useful or not, but I uncovered them while doing my own perfectly legal information…”

Isaac received the documents and proceeded to sift through them all at lightning speed. “These are all related, in some way…by one man…”

Clarence smiled.

“Arivalagan s/o Muthasamy,”

—----------------------

The pair arrived at the very public food court, hoping to catch a glimpse of their target who was, if one might read his case files, not one to appear in such a public place, and especially such a crowded place.

Arivalagan s/o Muthasamy, on paper, an ordinary accountants worker of the Internal Security Department. 26, single, might be chasing a girlfriend, but who knows, all looking very normal at first glance, yes…it took Clarence quite a while to dig up his true identity…and even then he was sure that wasn’t all there was to it.

Arivalagan s/o Muthasamy, in the half-truth, another one of the top-tier elites working among the highest ranks of the Internal Security Department, just like Mano who was in charge of the Bloodsuckers Terrorism case. Each of the elites are assigned a different job based on their respective strengths and weaknesses. Mano is the negotiator and subduer for national-security threatening criminals, and as for Arivalagan…

He’s the one who drafts plans on how to handle said national-security threatening criminal cases, and his…slightly eccentric behaviour also earns him a title among the criminals he’s all handled. They all call him-

The Mad Herring.

Clarence calmly sat himself down onto an empty two-person seat (obviously Bandung wasn’t going to be around in such a crowded place), while Isaac too followed suit, plopping himself onto the other unoccupied seat with shaking hands.

“So, uh…why are we here again…?” Isaac whispered as discreetly as he could, which he didn’t really need considering how crowded and loud the food court was. If anything, he should be speaking up.

“I’ll leave a bag here, let’s go get some food, we won’t blend in well otherwise,” Clarence took out a small bag out of the huge haversack he was holding that was very oddly gun-shaped.

Isaac agreed and slid out of the crowd forming near the seat (it was a really crowded time) and followed Clarence wherever he went, not knowing what else to do.

“What…do you want to eat?” Clarence folded his arms, letting his thick coat that was suspiciously perfect for concealing firearms drape over his waist.

“Uhh…actually, I’d like…” Isaac’s mouth started to water looking at all the delicious treats like he’d been starved for days, but then he just quickly shut his mouth and wiped it, going back to his refined posture.

“You can get anything, it’s just that…your meal might be interrupted by…him, you know,”

“Ah…um…then…I want…” Isaac continued opening his mouth to talk , and the more he talked, the more it watered…

But he was just interrupted by a woman’s loud scream coming from the middle of what seemed to be the main large crowd. A shame, he hadn’t even started ordering his meal yet.

Isaac jumped out, obviously startled like any normal boy his age would if they heard a loud scream while they were busily choosing their preferred meal of choice for the day.

Clarence unfolded his arms, his perfectly pure white suit underneath the drapes of his thick also perfectly white coat revealing. “There’s our target,”

Then without another word of explanation, he swiftly slithered his way back into the main crowd, leaving Isaac stumbling and following behind him.

The crowd formed a circle around the main attraction of the day: A young man dressed in extravagant clothes that sought to accentuate his features, holding a dagger to a woman’s neck, his slender arms wrapped tightly around her body preventing her from any hope of escape. Hmm, something about him seems oddly familiar to another certain hostage-taker criminal…

“Don’t come any closer, or this woman gets it!” He let the dagger off her neck for a brief moment, just to swing it around at the inching ever-so-closer crowd, scaring them off as they erased all their earlier progress and took a million steps back.

Nope, that’s obviously not him in disguise or something, he would never act so…normal like this.

Whispers and murmurs began spreading through the crowd. Everything was lining up exactly like what had happened that day.

“Yep, this is exactly like what happened that day. I’m getting a bit of Deja vu here…” The familiar voice of a woman could be heard distinctly from the crowd, as she chatted to yet another familiar woman…

Aha! That’s Rai, and Baizurah!

Ok, so even the characters are here…this is seriously turning into another one of that day…

“Shut up! Other than just helping to pacify that dude, which I’m sure your dear friend Ahmad could have done on his own, you didn’t even do anything at the hospital! Stop acting like you actually helped to solve the crisis or something!” Baizurah has clearly not been lazy in sharpening her tongue, it seems.

“Excuse me? Firstly, do you even know just how many patients there were that day? The number was almost reaching up into the thousands! My Ikigai has its limits too, it’s not some infinite magic supply. Secondly, it’s not like I actually work there, I am a first aider paramedic of SCDF, I am not a medical professional, I do not actually work there, why the hell should I be obligated to help anyway other than from the kindness of my heart? And thirdly, there were already more than enough kind, selfless people donating blood, I honestly did not even need to do anything at all, so yes, in short, I did help to solve the crisis. Or something.”

“…You two, quiet. You’re not helping the situation,” Yet another familiar voice-wait, is that Mano?

Ok, that’s it, there’s no way things could line up so perfectly like this naturally. Maybe the terrorist is a copycat?

“Shut up, ISD employee!” Rai and Baizurah both said simultaneously, which certainly seemed to shut Mano up. Not because he was scared, but maybe because he was just happy he was no longer being called Department lackey anymore.

The terrorist seemed to glance through the crowd with scanning eyes, and stopped when the pair laid on…

Clarence.

He pointed the dagger in his direction, and commanded with a powerful voice, “You, white suiter…”

Clarence lifted his hands up in the air, dropping his coat that, on second glance, actually wasn’t all that thick, observing the microexpressions of the terrorist. His hand gestures, the way his face twitched, the way his eyes darted, his body language in detail-but couldn’t seem to draw a conclusion.

He frowned. “…Yes…?”

The terrorist kept up the dagger in the air. “You’re in all white…did you just come back from a funeral recently? Or perhaps…”

“Wait, who is that? The case files…that wasn't the full truth, was it?” Isaac questioned.

Clarence smiled, still with his hands up in the air. “Correct, you're finally catching along. This man is…”

As if to simulate the same dramatic effect he said it both at the same time as the terrorist, but made sure to articulate his words clearly:

“Arivalagan s/o Muthasamy,” / “You’re from the CPIB, aren’t you?”

The crowd mostly did not know how to react to that. Apart from Rai, who was smirking, Baizurah, who obviously did not care, and Mano, who was gazing at Clarence with intrigued eyes, everyone else’s whispers and murmurs only grew louder, though one would feel compelled to clarify if they were truly that of intelligent answers.

“What…wait…huh???” Isaac's eyes went bewilderingly wide. “But…but…isn't Arivalagan an elite of ISD? Why would he…what exactly is in the case files you refuse to show me?”

“They said he was a bit eccentric, and prone to extremely violent criminal activity like this…I didn't show it to you because the examples were a bit…graphic, and I never thought he would go this far…” Clarence spoke cautiously. “Still, he's quite good at masking his emotions. I can't tell what he's really thinking from his lack of microexpressions…I can't see through him at all,”

Arivalagan swung the dagger around at Clarence again, startling the crowd. “Nevermind, your silence gave me the answers I needed, CPIB investigator,”

“So it did…but why, Arivalagan? Why do this? And it’s like you don’t even recognise your own colleague at all,” He eyed Mano, diverting Arivalagan’s attention over to his fellow ISD employee-or maybe not, so many things could have happened, nobody could predict anything with this guy.

“Oh…you’re right…” He manoeuvred over to Mano’s side of the crowd skillfully, letting go of the woman who had gone suspiciously quiet and also very pale, the crowd eagerly catching her back as she fell.

“Mano, Mano, Mano…” He clicked his tongue.

Mano didn’t really seem too bothered about the fact that he was just called out by someone who, by right, was not supposed to know about his true identity. Rai and Baizurah both grabbed their popcorns and began munching just before the show was about to start.

“Watch this, Mano,” He said with a calm expression and bright smile, as he flung the dagger with expert precision straight for the skin of Mano’s left forearm, slicing through it like it was scraping paint and causing a bloodbath right at Mano’s side of the crowd there.

Mano stumbled back, clutching the elbow of his bleeding hand and trying his best to maintain a composed appearance, but such a task was proving increasingly difficult.

Baizurah’s first instinct was to turn to Rai, who hesitantly clenched her fists, turned to Baizurah too and shook her head furiously.

“What’s wrong? Aren’t there any brilliant first aiders here who are selfless and kind enough to help an injured man?” Arivalagan played around with the dagger he had swiftly retrieved while everyone else was distracted enough.

“It’s…not that bad…” Mano started, out of breath.

“Oh, right, forgot to tell you all the backstory behind this…” He raised his dagger up to Mano’s eye level again. “This man was permanently severely immunocompromised and haemophilia after a…very special encounter with a very special criminal, armed with a very special weapon. Don’t worry, it’s not me, that man was subdued and executed in the end, but as for Mano now…”

If there was an invisible camera following what would be Arivalagan’s line of sight, it would have gone to the crowd, then back to Mano again-who was now hunched back, panting heavily and clutching the laceration on his left forearm for his dear life- “Even a small cut could prove fatal,”

At this point, the crowd either didn’t care anymore, never cared about the hostage anyway and just wanted to see drama, or couldn’t understand what was going on anymore-because there was absolutely no further reaction. The only reaction was from Mano, who looked up to Rai and Baizurah with a sweaty forehead and blurry vision.

Baizurah got a serious look on her face now and looked back at Rai once again, who also had that serious look on her face. She clenched her fists tightly, preventing the escape of a blue light seeping from her palms as she closed her eyes and calmed herself down.

She appeared shaken after a while, as if she’d recalled some unpleasant memories related to her Ikigai, but then she immediately bent down to the now-too-tired-to-stand Mano, reached out her hand and opened it, letting the green energy seep through.

“Mano, don’t panic, I’m a first aider with…special powers, and I’m here to help you,”

Mano’s wound was slowly healing, but at a much, much, much slower rate than she had healed that guy that Syed had injured.

Clarence and Isaac both watched this scene from their side of the crowd, Clarence happy that the attention was diverted back to where it belonged and Isaac not really catching along.

“Um…Arivalagan is distracted, should we…” He whispered up to Clarence, who shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

“No, there’s more than meets the eye here, they have something planned,” He whispered back.

“What the…” Rai gasped, taking in big gulps of fresh air like she’d been suffocated the last few minutes. ‘It’s not working,”

“What?” Baizurah asked because she wasn’t quite sure she could believe her ears. “What do you mean it’s not working?”

“It….it should heal more than this…I…feel so much more tired than before…it’s not working…”

Mano discreetly retracted his hand, looking out and above for signs of the mad terrorist as his view was blocked by the two tall ladies-and by the time he had seen it, it was probably too late.

Out of absolutely nowhere, Arivalagan was smiling maniacally but quite silently, having acquired a sword of sorts, more specifically a glass katana, which would actually make for a really great art exhibition if only he wasn’t positioned with him gripping its handle tightly and the blade positioned high above his shoulders, just a shoulder-width away from Mano, ready to strike and murder him at any moment.

He gasped, pushing Baizurah and the exhausted Rai out of the way before they could react, but with no time to push himself out of the way, he closed his eyes and braced himself for the full blow of the glass katana-

Only for it to hit a forcefield shield of sorts instead.

This mysterious barrier had surrounded and protected Mano at the very last second. Mano opened his eyes, expecting something-and sure enough, a young lady in motorcycle wear with a tint of blue, with the lens that were supposed to reveal her face staying black instead, had appeared just as mysteriously as how Arivalagan obtained the glass katana in the first place, standing straight and extending her hand where the force field was reinforced from, from the constant influx of magical energy spewing from the palm of her hand.

Clarence smirked while Isaac’s eyes went the biggest that was ever humanly possible.

Rai gasped, slowly standing up while still recovering from the blast that forcefield created earlier, and as Baizurah was helping her up, her eyes were absolutely focused on the motorcycle lady, completely mesmerised by her.

Mano too stood up, his wound now completely recovered in the split second the force field was set up. Arivalagan, too, wore a bright smile on his face, though not one of madness, but one more of…victory.

He searched around while everyone else was distracted, and found 5 other odd characters too donning motorcycle wear, trying to blend in with the crowd as much as possible, each with a different colour. Grey, green, red, white, and gold…

While the entire crowd continued to be entranced by the blue motorcycle lady, Arivalagan seized the moment, and before the other 5 could also showcase their powers, he pulled out yet another small penknife (seriously, how many weapons does this guy have?) from his pocket and lunged straight at Baizurah with a bright smile of victory written on his face.

Again, in just the split second it took for the penknife to swing down, before even reacting, one of the other 5 magical motorcycle people teleported over to Baizurah’s side at lightning speed. But, this time, instead of generating a force field (which that lady had already put down and reunited with her fellow motorcycle friends, not saying anything), the one in gold simply placed his hands on Baizurah’s shoulders from behind, let out a spark of energy-

And just like that, when the knife swung down on Baizurah, she placed her entire palm into the expected cutting area of the knife, and like she’d been doing it her entire life-reduced it to atoms.

Arivalagan stumbled back just like Mano had earlier, except that this one was of shock and not of pain.

Baizurah too stared back at him in shock, looking up at Rai with an equally confused expression on her face, then looked back down at the very hand that had decimated an entire penknife.

Clarence and Isaac both could stand this matter no longer, and unspokenly ran up to Mano’s side to better assess the situation, keeping silent as always.

Mano too was recovering from the shock-of seeing a mysterious blue motorcycle lady generate a forcefield that saved him from a glass katana, and seeing someone else get a light magical tap from a similar gold motorcycle gentleman and destroying an entire penknife. Yes, one can imagine that must have been quite the shocking incident indeed.

Taking advantage of the fact that everyone was still lagging behind, the 6 motorcycle people snaked over to a large, empty ground devoid of people-and cast their own magical spells.

By the time Baizurah and the rest finally snapped out of it, they had already opened a portal, swirling with cosmic energy, and were preparing to step in.

Clarence reached for his gun and raced to get to the portal as well, but it seemed like those 6 motorcycle people knew well in advance what he and friends might have been plotting-therefore the moment his hands reached the nozzle of his gun, he, as well as the rest, felt something tight wrapping around each and every fibre and muscle in their body-so tightly that they couldn’t move. They were stuck in that position, because they couldn’t move.

“How…their magic is limitless…” Well, it seems that talking isn’t restricted, given how Arivalagan was still able to choke out a few words.

Clarence and gang were forced to watch as the one answer to all their questions slowly stepped into the portal that they would never know lead to where, powerless to stop them from slipping away.

As all but one of them had gone into the portal, the gang continued watching as the last one stepped his left foot in, then turned around to look at the crowd one more time. He especially gave particular attention to Clarence, almost to the point where he felt that a magical presence was feeling through his soul-at Bandung-then that red motorcycle man stepped into the portal entirely, closing it behind him and removing the restraints on the gang.

They gasped for their breath back, as if it had ever been impaired while they were under the influence of the magical restraints.

“What…what just happened? Also, wait, wait, wait…why is he still here? Can someone arrest him or something?” Isaac pointed to the Arivalagan on the floor like it was a piece of criminal filth, gesturing for the nearest janitor to come clean him up.

“Heh, relax, boy…you’re with the CPIB investigator, right? It is as he says…I am Arivalagan s/o Muthusamy, and all that you saw earlier was an act…” He continued laying on the floor, not bothering to even make polite eye contact with Isaac.

“He’s right. He’s actually a really good actor, all that you saw earlier was just an act…oh, but the immunocompromisation thing was real and all,” Mano offered the explanation. “It was merely…an act to draw them out,”

“Lady? Care to explain how you disintegrated that penknife to pieces?” Clarence barked.

“The name’s Baizurah…and I don’t know how I did that either, it just felt like so natural, it was a spur of the moment thing, it came to me so suddenly,”

“Heh,” Arivalagan smirked at Mano. “Guess we can call Operation Ikigai a success.”

“Operation Iki-was that seriously your goal this whole time?” Rai too barked at Mano, but probably a lot less seriously.

“Yes, and I think we’ve achieved it. Because that means…” Mano’s gaze shifted back to Baizurah.

Rai smiled genuinely once she realised the severity of the case. “Baizurah, I think…

You just received an Ikigai.”

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

Crimeblind Episode 5

"Esse est percipi..."

“You’re…the new hire? Lucas Long…Wait, I probably shouldn’t say ‘new hire’, the term is…um…” The senior member spied at the freshly caught ‘new hire’ through his thick glasses.

“...lawyer?” Lucas made an attempt to answer his senior’s question, albeit it just reflected how inexperienced he was.

“Bah, whatever, anyway, there’s your table,” The senior said as he gestured to a small, cramped and empty table save for a laptop that probably wasn’t even connected to the Internet. “Any other questions?”

“When do I get to take on the big cases?” Lucas confidently spat out a line that even the amateurs of the industry know just made him look really bad.

“And have you not already been assigned some very big cases? The recent mosquito breeding case, or the case of that boy who vandalised the MRT walls-” He looked up from his papers to see Lucas beaming with expectant eyes.

“Or do you think these aren’t enough, and you want the cases that involve rapists and murderers and terrorists?”

Lucas said nothing, continuing to stare at him with expectant eyes.

The senior laughed and pointed in the direction of another office-although it was definitely more spacious and thus definitely belonged to a much more senior rank than him-

“You’ll have to ask Scarlett for that one. In all my years here, I’m still handling all the lowly, unimportant cases-but Scarlett, my, I’ve never seen someone handle as many high-profile cases as her. Practically all the high-profile cases we have are directed to her-honestly, I wouldn’t believe it myself if you told me she’s only been working here for 3 years…a rising star indeed,”

Lucas drew closer to the pointed direction, until he could make out the image of a tired lady swiftly signing and processing documents in the office. He gazed at her for a brief while, his eyes entranced by the scene before him-

“A rising star indeed,”

—--------------

A splash of water was all it took to wake her up from her peaceful slumber. A very rude splash of water, cast by a very rude henchmen, serving a very rude boss.

‘Wakey wakey, Ma’at, it’s time for school!” David clapped while he got off the table he was very rudely sitting on.

Scarlett stared at him for a brief while in confusion. What just happened? Why was she in what appeared to be a cramped masseuse parlour? Why was David standing before her? Why were her hands tied up? Why did it seem like he was taking her hostage?

Then she remembered. The predicament she was in.

—-------------

“This is tantamount to an act of terrorism. There is no way they could have let this slide.” Louis spoke again with his enchanting voice, analysing the situation calmly.

“This is an act of terrorism, Master. And yet they’re not-” Ananya not-so-calmly remarked but was then interrupted by the door to the emergency relocation camp banging open in a swift movement.

Stepping out from the door came a very burly men surprisingly well-dressed in a handsome suit, eyes fixed on and sifting through a deck of documents, followed by a flustered-looking middle-aged man clumsily stumbling over himself as he rushed to catch up with the burly man.

“Ugh, must be someone from the Department…his attitude alone gives it away…” Ananya snarked. Clearly, she must not have had pleasant experiences with this ‘Department’ she speaks of.

“A most astute observation, young miss! This here is Mano Rajendran, one of the most elite officers of the Internal Security Department, and he’s been put fully in charge of this case…uh…” The flustered man grew quieter when he saw the invisible tension between Ananya and Mano, and just as quietly took his leave.

Mano couldn’t tell that Ananya was staring him up viciously, though-or he could, and he just didn’t care.

“Since when did the Department handle solo terrorism cases?” Ananya extended her neck beyond the view blocked by Mano’s muscly body. “I don’t see any negotiators, nor STAR teams, did you-"

“Ananya Segaran, yes, miss? Could you please tell me anything and everything you know about the case, the victim and the perpetrator?”

Ananya sighed in exasperation. Looks like he was another one of those anti-social officers who never knew how to hold a conversation properly. Just like Master.

“I assume that means you’re gonna be handling the negotiations, then…although you’re not stupid enough not to activate a STAR team…

The culprit is a man named David Lim, 29. He worked in the CID for 8 years, which makes him my colleague. However, he didn’t like to socialise a lot-no matter what kind of event we held, typically celebratory feasts after cracking a big case, he would always refuse, and I have no idea where he would go then. Also, he always wore these bandages on his face, limbs and everywhere on his body, not sure if they were ever because he was actually injured or he was masking his identity. As for the victim…”

Ananya paused and turned towards the big screen indicating what was known so far on the entire case.

“As far as I know, the victim didn’t have any altercations with the culprit, nor did any side show any animosity towards the other. The victim is a woman named Scarlett Lin, 27. A lawyer and high-profile criminal case handler working for the Attorney-general’s Chambers, Crime Division, she has charged multiple high-profile criminals over her 3 years of work at the AGC. Today, I met with the culprit on accounts that we were colleagues attempting to investigate a homicide. However, towards the end of the investigation, I found that the murderer was in fact David Lim himself. Just then, he told me that his men already had wraps on major hospitals in Singapore and were prepared to do their worst if we did anything to him. I let him go freely as part of an agreement not to harm anyone in the hostage-taken places. He also requested that he take along Scarlett, and that’s how things came to-”

“Alright, I believe that just about summarises everything. By the way, if I might ask, what is he doing here?” Just as he did before, Mano rudely interrupted Ananya to point (at least politely this time) at Louis, asking him the golden question.

“All you people from the Department are so uptight and rigid and rude…” Ananya muttered under her breath.

“Sir, I am Senior Investigation Officer Louis Yong of the Criminal Investigation Department . The victim is my friend, and I feel sentiments towards her kidnapping. Plus, I believe my observation and investigation skills will come in handy here-”

“Alright, alright, stop, so you’re also an officer, well you can stay then, just to help me fill in the paperwork I guess,” Mano once again interrupted not only Ananya but also her master now.

“You’re not hiding firearms under those thick coats of yours, are you?” Mano pointed out Louis’ weird obsession with wearing thick coats.

“Sir, I am an armed officer, it would be more suspicious if I didn’t have a gun, no?”

“That’s true…”

“Many thanks for understanding, sir,”

Mano too stopped his note-jotting and turned to the big screen.

“David Lim…”

—-----------

Scarlett sat on the chair in front of David. Or, rather, was forcefully tied to the chair by many layers or rope.

She peered out beyond his towering and intimidating self, out of the door held ajar-and she could see that this room wasn't really as cramped as she thought it was.

The room she was in herself was cramped, yes-but the masseuse parlour certainly wasn’t as small as that. There appeared to be multiple other rooms outside-with multiple other hostages outside.

Elderly men and women clutching their shaking walking sticks, masseuse women and their clients, and those client’s kids-there were a lot of them hostages David took, it seemed.

All being pushed and shoved around by his men armed with sharp knives.

Not even guns? Did David not have the authority to acquire enough guns for his men?

“Don’t look there, Ma’at, look at me,” David smiled heinously, grabbing Scarlett’s chin and forcing her head to look back at where it belonged, much to her displeasure.

“You should be excited, Ma’at, don’t keep getting distracted,” He scolded her like a parent disciplining a little child who just went out of line.

“And what exactly am I excited for?” For the first time, Scarlett spoke-with just as eloquent a voice as Louis’.

David snatched the presented phone away from the hands of one of his henchmen and dialled a number. “My favourite part. Negotiations time.”

——————————-

“999? Oh, I’m in so much distress, a lot of guys came in with guns, and then they took us all hostage and-“ The call rang in, and answering it was obviously the voice of someone pretending to be some young woman.

“Enough, David. This is Mano Rajendran of the Internal Security Department. Don’t test my patience,” Mano once again interrupted him. (at least this time it can be justified, David’s earlier voice was annoying as hell)

“Alright, I guess I’ll get to the point then, seems like our Department lackey here is getting bored,” David cackled softly through the call, mocking Mano in such a derogatory manner.

“What do you want to know then, go on and play your little Department games,” Seems like David, just like Ananya, has something against the Internal Security Department.

“Why did you take hold of major hospitals? Why did you single out and demand Miss Scarlett Lin? What is your relationship with her? What is your motive for doing this? What are you trying to get out of all-“

“Oh, patience, lackey, one question at a time! About Ma’at…the very name I call her by should give it away.” He laughed deviously yet again.

“What…” Mano displayed a look of confusion, but was quickly answered by Ananya.

“Ma’at…isn’t that the Egyptian goddess of harmony, justice and truth? Daughter of Ra, she most famously participates in the weighing of the heart against the holy feather,"

Mano sighed and rubbed his temples. “That’s all I need to hear, goddess of justice, high-profile criminal case handler…

Is he mocking her?”

“That would appear so…it seems that David has had certain clashes or bore certain grudges against Scarlett due to a certain case she might have handled, causing this warped perception of his to view her as an incompetent goddess…” Louis-at this point he should go start an audiobook reading session, billions would pay to hear his voice.

“This man is quite unlike any others I’ve handled. While others claim themselves to be almighty gods, fit to render judgement and mete out punishment on humanity, this one calls the one in his opinion that is not fit to do such the almighty god here….” One would wonder what the ‘others’ in the many cases Mano handled be like.

“You too are an officer of the armed forces, Mr David Lim. I believe you too should be well-acquainted with the necessary procedures. What exactly is your motive for doing all of this?” Mano spoke back into the headquartered phone, elongating each word to allow himself more time to choose the next carefully.

“My motive…I believe this question can be answered with the previous one on…” David paused and mimicked the sound of flipping through documents-or maybe he really was flipping through some at that moment.

“Wrap on major hospitals and clinics,”

The words came crashing down on Mano and the rest like a meteor about to come crashing down to Earth.

“What-” He asked distressed, as if realising something important, but was for once given a taste of his own medicine and interrupted by a screeching voice coming through the call.

A screeching voice of someone in pain.

—-------------------

“QUIET! ONE MORE SOUND FROM YOU AND I’L-” The big man swung his knife against his latest butchered target, a young crying in great pain, her clothes absolutely soaked in blood-her blood, no doubt.

“Enough!” Fortunately, David came to the rescue of the little girl. Wait, David? What does he have to rescue the little girl for?

“How. Many. Times, have I specified NOT TO KILL ANY HOSTAGES??” He stared straight into the soul of the big man, who immediately cowered away like a small rat.

“We need every bloodsucker we can save,” David took out his gun and put it to the forehead of the big man, who whimpered even more.

No one on scene dared breathe even a gasp of shock. David’s facial bandages flew with the wind as he stared in silence for a while, his gun still to the head of the big man.

But after a while, he soon retracted it and walked his way without saying anything.

And that was when the people breathed a sigh of relief-but not for long, considering that most of them were already brutally wounded by the other big men that weren’t being held at gunpoint.

All bleeding out fatally, the blood spilling from their wounds, of course, if the situation were to continue as it was, would most definitely kill them.

They all tried to support each other, the doctors providing basic first aid to stop the bleeding with what little supplies they had…

And it seemed worth noting that all the brute henchmen of David’s took careful note not to kill them (probably due to the above incident), yet injure them in the way that would make them bleed out as much as possible…

All this of course, Scarlett was observing quietly from her room through the ajar door too, wondering the exact same questions as Mano had earlier.

“What exactly is his motive?”

—------------

“Apologies for the rude interruption,my dear lackey, one of my hostages were just being very uncooperative-”

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM??” This time Mano’s interruption came sharply and crystal clear-and this felt like one that was absolutely necessary too.

“Now, now, don’t make me send you to the naughty corner, lackey, watch your words-” The last three words coming in much sharper than the first phrase- “All I did was merely…bleed them out.”

“Bleed…them out?”

“Oho, don’t worry, thanks to a certain friend of mine who studied medicine, I’ve been able to carefully plot where to make incisions best that both wouldn’t kill the casualty yet cause them to bleed out majorly…” David even let a slight maniac laugh escape his lips there for a brief moment.

“What…you…why?” Mano was truly at a loss for words here, for once.

Louis whispered something to Ananya, after carefully considering something in his mind, who then nodded her head and immediately ran out of the emergency headquarters camp with a rapid sense of urgency.

“Don’t look so surprised, Department lackey, I’ve already told you about how I have far more men than you can possibly imagine. They’ve got wraps on all major hospitals in Singapore…

and what do you know, most hospitals keep their blood stocks in one location only, and don’t even bother to spread them out. Makes it all the more easier for my little bloodsuckers to find the blood stocks.”

Mano didn’t even bother to say anything anymore, just bearing a face of utter devastation.

“So of course you can guess what they did to them. You’re stupid, of course, Department blind servant, but deep down in my heart I don’t believe you’re THAT stupid,”

“Why…are you telling me all this?”

“Why…why indeed. I want you to make a choice.

In a few moments’ time, I will be releasing all of the hostages, save for a select few, but they’re not exactly in the best state-they should have lost quite a lot of blood by now, you see.”

“And with the blood banks destroyed…” Mano muttered to himself through the call, finally piecing all the puzzle pieces together.

‘But…how exactly am I supposed to salvage this?” Mano asked, as if a terrorist would tell a police officer how to arrest him.

“Simple. Where did all the blood originally come from?”

“Are you seriously forcing my hand here?”

“Look, it’s up to you whether you want to release the information to the public or not,

but I must warn you, there really is only one option if you want to save the most number of lives as possible.”

Said David as he gleefully hung up, without even waiting for Mano’s reply, and turned to the chair Scarlett was tied to.

“What a thrilling conversation,”

—————————-

“I’m sure you’ve heard of all that, Ma’at. So, how about you? Any questions?” David sneered. Not the most polite knife in the shed, it seems.

“You haven’t even answered the main question yet,” Scarlett said without even raising her head to look at David. “What exactly is your motive?”

David stared silently, then burst into raucous laughter. And for once, this was the kind that actually sounded like he was laughing at something funny, and not a maniac laughing after he forgot to take his meds in the morning.

“Now that’s a fun question, Ma’at, of course you’re a lot more intuitive than that blind servant of the Department!”

He set down the phone he still held in his hand, opened a packet of sweets he definitely stole from a certain little girl, and popped a green candy right in his mouth, before pacing around while monologuing his grand motives.

“Just imagine what would happen once I release all 168 of my darling hostages, Ma’at. Of course, as logic would deduce, they would all be rushed straight to the hospital, as they’re bleeding out quite badly.

But can you imagine just what would happen if 168 ambulances, all rushing to perhaps the same nearest hospital around, desperate for a blood donation lest they go into shock-and I’ll assume that Department lackey hasn’t yet communicated the information to the public.

How many drivers on the road would actually give way to a rushing ambulance? Even if a life depended on it?

And even if they do get to the hospital in time-last I recall, my men have already destroyed almost all the stored blood stocks they have save for a select few. Where exactly are they going to get their blood then?

Plus, all the doctors and nurses must definitely be so overwhelmed and swarmed with work. They might have not enough time for other patients…and despite it obviously not being their fault, there will be patients who pass or fall terminally due to neglect. I wonder if the patient’s families might take legal action against these poor, helpless doctors?

And with the lack of blood stocks, several unimportant surgeries will need to be postponed to conserve blood stocks for emergency cases such as this. I wonder, are any big hotshot celebrities or famous rich CEOs going to flare up and get mad over their latest face implant surgery or cheek lift surgery getting postponed? Then twisting their fame and getting their blind followers to shame the said sanctions of life and paint them in a terrible light…

Only, if only there were kind, willing souls strong enough to step forward, knowingly risking their lives to save another, donating their own blood for those who need it…oh, and not to mention all the panic this would cause. People would spread around fake news about my terrorist situation, people would rush to supermarkets and clinics and hoard essential items and medications, leaving none for those who actually need it…people would start pointing fingers against, say, the police, for my affiliations with the CID, distrust and prejudice would spread like a plague through the community…”

Scarlett hung her head even lower, realising just how bad the situation was now.

David smiled deviously through his facial bandages. “You finally get it, Ma’at. I am not the one who killed all these people. It is the public’s greed. It is the public’s selfishness.”

———————

“Your honour, I have every reason to believe my client’s words should be taken as the one and absolute truth.” Scarlett’s imposing figure and way with words sure helped make up for her lack of…height, for one.

“One, my client was severely intoxicated that day. It was his second brother’s birthday that day, and he was celebrating at his residence. He had exactly 12 bottles of mixed whiskey to drink that day, and toxicology reports state that there were 177/100 ml of ethanol in the sample of the blood 236 mg/100 ml of ethanol in the sample of vitreous humour.

When he exited the taxi that his friend, PD Razak s/o Govindasamy, had to help him out of the vehicle as he was so intoxicated he could not stand on his own, and the witness had testified that he vomited on his shirt too.

Upon exiting the taxi, he was at a remote bus stop where not many cars came along. It was a cold night at 10pm that night, and the only other person my client saw was the victim.

“ ‘Acting upon his instincts’, as my client describes it, he felt seduced by how the victim flicked her hair and dressed sexily in front of him, claiming that ‘she purposefully wore revealing clothing to attract men that would come by’ that night.”

This was probably when the victim’s mother could take it no longer, standing up and flailing her arms at Scarlett, screaming, “YOU DEMON! YOU CLEARLY KNOW THAT HE DID IT, HOW CAN YOU DEFEND A RAPIST LIKE HIM??”

“Ma’am, please calm down, or I will have to get security to escort you out,” calmly said the judge, as if such situations were just another day in the life of a judge.

“As I was saying, Your Honour,” Scarlett continued, “The victim had seduced my client and, in his words, ‘asked him to go harder while he was groping her private areas,’”

Even the victim held her head low during that statement, as if out of shame.

“Does the prosecution have anything to say to that?” The judge turned to the victim, who was covering her face with her two hands like she was about to cry.

“No,,” She finally managed to spit out after a long while of waiting in eager silence.

Lucas had been watching all this from the audience. Lucas, the same Lucas who had longed to take on such a high-profile criminal case, was watching one right now.

But in his mind, he wasn’t praising Scarlett’s incredible argumentative skills that could manipulate anyone into siding with the very side she truly represents even if the two conflict on paper, just like the other members of the audience surrounding him.

In his mind, he was thinking:

Is justice truly justice if

Such unjust methods enact justice?

————————-

“David.” Mano whispered, as if exasperated, into the call. “I’ve told the public about this news,”

“You’re the one who made that call, no, I didn’t ask you to do anything,” David tutted. “I sure hope you didn’t just say that “there was a terrorist attack” but actually report that “blood stock levels were low”, and that’s because the reports of terrorism have already been written all about in the media,”

“Enough. I don’t have time for all your little games. Keep up your end of the bargain. Release the hostages,” At least Mano did not interrupt him even if he sounded tired of all David’s stunts.

“No, no, no…I just plain forgot, such an important matter, ugh, how could I?” David sighed ‘frustratedly’ at himself, then put Mano on hold and connected the call to a publicly broadcast livestream.

Thousands of followers had already turned up, all commenting on about when it was going to start and their own theories for this act of terrorism, eagerly awaiting the start of the livestream.

“My dear followers,” David started, soliciting a response of cheer from the digital crowd, “I’m sorry, but I’ll have to cut this one short. This one’s only to relate one important piece of ‘wildfire’ news,

Back when I claimed my men destroyed all the blood stocks in hospitals, that was a…little, harmless lie of mine.

I have actually instructed my men to save 5 packets of blood of each type,” David dropped the heavy message while casually holding up a 5 on his hand, and then immediately logged off soon after.

“This guy..is truly a crazy psychopath…” Mano uttered, possibly not knowing that David could still hear him.

But he cared not anyway. “There, now that we all know there isn’t a complete shortage and there ARE in fact blood stocks, albeit in a rather low amount…

Oh? Come now, lackey, do offer your most precious insights, why so silent? Although I’m sure you’re more than aware of what happens when demand exceeds supply…”

Mano could converse with the psychopath no longer. He slumped down into his armchair exhaustedly, not staring back at the newcomers who had just arrived along with Ananya.

“Of course, now I will keep my end of the bargain.” Said David in a gleefully delightful voice.

“Master, I’ve brought…” Ananya called for Louis, who was currently fixated on the case, to turn and face her as she stepped aside to reveal the 2 newcomers (or familiar faces).

“Ahmad and Rai,”

—-------------------------

And all at once, out of the single only entrance of the masseuse parlour, came pouring out 164 bleeding hostages-ok, to be more accurate, it was ‘stumbling out’, since they had already lost quite a fair amount of blood and were at certain risk of developing hypovolemic shock.

The authorised personnel and STAR team lying in ambush (so Mano really did activate them) quickly went to treat their casualty’s wounds, while David calmly watched from the window of the third storey and sipped on some fine tea.

He gulped down one last refreshing taste.. “So, Ma’at?” He turned to Scarlett’s chair. “Your thoughts?”

Scarlett said nothing. Grr, why are the people with the nicest voice always remaining quiet…speak more, everyone loves your voice…

But she finally spoke up. “I’m not the judge of that,”

“Oh, but you are, JUDGE Ma’at,” David exclaimed, “You’re the divine one sent from above to render judgement on all the criminals of this world!”

Scarlett turned away, avoiding eye contact.

“Don’t look so sad, Ma’at, it is your divine duty to judge all of humanity. All,” David said, emphasising the word “all” as he bent his knees to meet eye contact with the shivering Scarlett, snickered at her straight in her face.

Then he turned away and went to resume the call he had with Mano.

“I have to say, your STAR team is pretty impressive. It’s barely been 5 minutes since I released the hostages, and they’re all already on their way to the hospitals…”

“Enough. It’s time to stop, David. We already have all your men who you rallied to attack the hospital in custody. There’s no one else you can depend on,” Mano’s voice came in even sharper than earlier.

“Hehe,” David covered what was left of his facial bandages with an even further bandaged arm. “Hehehehehe, hehehehehehe, aAHHAHAHAHHA!

Alright, lackey, I’ll admit you’ve been very cooperative. So cooperative, in fact, that you have been unable to do anything, anything at all, in retaliation to my actions.

Now, of course, I reward hard work, so go ahead, ask me any question you would like to find the answer to,”

Mano paused-as if he wasn’t affected at all by the maniac laughter he heard just now, or the blatant sarcastic mocking of him.

After all, he was the only one around-Ananya, Louis, Rai and Ahmad had went somewhere quieter to consolidate all that they knew so far.

After carefully considering his words, Mano took a deep breath and steadied himself. “Why Miss Scarlett of all?”

“Ahhh, so you want to know about Ma’at…well that’s easy. Go check out her case file on the white ghost rape case, or about the tiger-eyed venom homicide case, or, how about-

The Corrupt Crimefile case?”

That was probably the only phrase that could ever hope to solicit a response from Scarlett-so much so as she was immediately sitting upright, with her eyes blinking wide and her mouth slightly hanging agape in shock.

But David probably just thought that was any other case to her.

“Well, just about any case you check on her will have evidence of her devious crimes…

In the written documents of those cases, it’s perfectly articulated how flawlessly she presented her case in front of the judge, and how in doing so-rightfully, justly, throws behind bars evil criminals and sets free the innocent man.

But what about that innocent man, who just had his poor gambling addict mother exposed to the public eye, or the young girl who just had to reenact the entire gruesome case flow of her rape in front of indifferent audiences, or about that murderer’s kids that are getting bullied everyday at school because the sins of their father were openly publicised by the lawyer that he picked to defend him?

The evil criminals are thrown behind bars, but what about all the innocent people that are implicated in the course of these devious crimes being committed?

They are walking freely around, but are their minds so?

Some might say that she's a brilliant lawyer, purposefully putting up a fake and weak defence to prove the guilt of her client to the iudge.

But others would say she's ruining the innocent victim's life through such...unconventional means...

She only cares about the final verdict. She doesn't even care about the aftermath of the case, about the future lives of the innocent victims...

'The ends justify all the means.'

So you see, lackey? If a lawyer, the very emblem of justice, can commit such crimes on their own, then what must she be if not a god from above? Isn’t that right, Ma’at?”

He glared at Ma’at, smiling villainously.

“Your divine judgement of the gods, no?”

—---------------------

Carrying a bouquet of flowers, she limped over to the common graveyard of her victims.

Tens of hundreds of gravestones protruded from the ground, lying there in wait for a family member, friend or any passing-by kind soul to clean off the moss that was spreading all over the headstone like a plague.

She passed by most of the gravestones, not stopping to look or pay her respects to any of them-in fact, she quickened her footsteps more than ever.

She didn’t stop until she finally reached a singular gravestone that sat far apart from the others, as if it was infected with the flu.

She put down the bouquet and took out cleaning materials. Maybe she was the kind soul passing by that would help these poor dead people regain their dignity. Although, considering that she singled out this one particular ostracised gravestone out of the other hundreds of her victims, probably not.

Just as she was almost finished giving the headstone a fresh and clean look (she’s efficient), a middle-aged woman also carrying a bouquet of fresh flowers, stomped her feet and screamed when she saw her like she just laid eyes on the biggest monstrosity she had seen in her life.

“DEMON! GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!”

Scarlett immediately backed away from the headstone and dropped her cleaning materials, instinctively taking a step back to defend herself against the screaming woman.

“HOW DARE YOU COME BACK TO VANDALISE HER! SHE’S ALREADY GONE, WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT TO DO TO HER!”

Scarlett hung her head low, exactly as that one particular victim of hers had done.

“Of course, I wouldn’t expect a demon to feel any compassion for her-no, you’d probably be celebrating off drinking champagne with that rapist demon, while she suffered WITH EVERY LAST BREATH SHE TOOK UNTIL THE DOCTORS PRONOUNCED HER DEAD.

And even then, you’d probably still think that she’s just another number, a figure, a percentage, an input of statistical data-of the annual number of people in the country who committed suicide, who overdosed, or, if you even see her with the SLIGHTEST BIT OF EMPATHY-

Another one of your pathetic victims.

Don’t think that just because you put that other demon behind bars that I’ll forgive you. I am indeed grateful to you for doing so, but you will never be able to imagine the pain she felt after that day for the rest of her life.

Everywhere she went, people were pointing out to her, whispering behind her backs, gossiping about her. Everywhere she went, people kept their distance, looked down on her from their high thrones of moral righteousness, led their children away from her like she was a monster.

Everywhere she went, the words ‘white ghost’ went sprawling around. Some people even threw eggs at her, refused to serve her, spat in her food…

Everywhere she went, she was a demon.

But what happened to the real demon?”

The woman’s words cut through Scarlett’s flesh and blood like they were sharp thorns piercing through skin. She kept respectful silence, not interrupting the woman’s monologue.

“And you know what? Fine. You can go ahead and go around killing as many more innocent souls as you like. Who cares anyway? All you lawyers like you are just like this-

As if you think you’re gods,”

—-----------------

“You’re lying! Even the terrorist himself said that there were excess blood stocks!” One man shouted above the crowd’s violent protesting, criticising both the doctors and nurses busily attending to the influx of patients and the STAR team dressed in full uniform and armed with guns looking after the last of David’s men they captured.

“And? Would you rather believe a terrorist, a murderer than your own doctors here?” Another doctor yelled back at the same volume, presumably to have his voice heard.

Another one was a lot less violent in her pleas. Getting down on her knees and begging the doctors, hugging onto their legs and refusing to let them go about their business. “Please, please, I beg you, my husband’s only so young, he can’t just go because of some crazy terrorist!”

While the doctor was not having it, yelping around like his pants were on fire, desperately trying to shake the clinging woman off who was surprisingly very good at sticking to people. “Let me go, you crazy woman! I have patients to attend to! It’s important!”

“Are you trying to say our own family and friends aren’t important?” The voice of another grumpy old man could be heard from the back of the crowd, frowning about the priority of patients.

“I KNEW IT! THAT DOCTOR’S LYING! THERE ARE STILL 5 BLOOD PACKETS LEFT!” That was when all heads turned to the shrieks of epiphany of a woman, as she held up packets of the fresh crimson liquid in her arms for all to see.

And that was also when the entire crowd unanimously agreed to overwhelm the doctors and nurses all at once and catch the STAR team by surprise before they could use their guns-and all also unanimously agreed to charge into the blood bank holding centre where that woman who had somehow broken her way in was.

And as David’s men watched the crowd fight over the precious life-saving liquid, overwhelming the doctors and nurses while the other patients were having medical emergencies and needed care immediately and the doctors and nurses couldn’t attend to them, they began all thinking in their heads:

Truly, the greed and selfishness of man. So, after all-

Master was right.

—---------------------

“ ‘Blood bank at a critical low after recent terrorist attack on neighbourhood masseuse parlour, you won’t believe what authorities say,’

‘Riots at major hospitals over lack of blood at recent terrorist attack, but family’s claims actually make sense?’

‘An estimated 5000 lives to be lost with combined collateral damage of recent terrorist attack, but fun fact, that doesn’t even come close to history’s top 10 worst,’

‘Mysterious lawyer who defended criminals involved in recent terrorist attack? Are authorities doing nothing about the case?’ Ooh, this one’s about you, Ma’at,” David scrolled through the stolen cell phone, reading through all articles relating to him and Scarlett, pausing to turn the phone to let her see and wait for a reaction when it came to a piece of news about her.

She sat there, staring blankly at David’s facial bandages that must really not have been tied properly if they can flow with the wind like he’s an anime protagonist.

By then all of David’s men were gathered in that one room, carefully watching the remaining four precious hostages that were crying away (nope, not bleeding out, no reason to anyway) their boss needed for leverage over the police with.

David turned the phone back to himself and stopped scrolling through the articles, and instead prepared himself for another negotiation.

“How’s everyone’s favourite Depart-” Mano cut off David before he could even finish saying the words ‘department lackey’.

“DO YOU REALLY THINK WE WOULD LET YOU GO, DAVID LIM? WE HAVE STAR TEAMS SURROUNDING EVERY POSSIBLE EXIT YOU COULD ESCAPE FROM. YOU NOW HAVE NONE.

WE ADVISE YOU TO SURRENDER, NOW, DAVID LIM. WE WILL NOT HESITATE TO TAKE DISCIPLINARY ACTION AGAINST YOU,” Mano’s words came piercing through the call, him obviously seething with pure rage.

“Oh, so that’s what you’re so angry about, Department lackey, well, do tell your STAR team to come try their luck,” David chuckled to himself (and made sure Mano could hear him), and walked over to the window to watch the STAR team surrounding attempt to make their way in.

The STAR team, carrying their bulletproof and tear gas proof shields, led brazenly by a tall and strong-looking leader, charged forward into the open entrance of the masseuse parlour-

Only to be completely deflected back by an invisible barrier, leaving the men stumbling over themselves on their feet after being hit by the domino effect of their teammates in front getting hit too.

In hindsight, when they came to their senses, they were not deflected by some invisible barrier-no, it was a black, giant, swirling mass of something resembling a storm cloud, that had wrapped itself firmly around the entire masseuse parlour, stubbornly not letting anyone in or out.

Mano must have seen it all too, because he went screaming into the phone, “WHAT EXACTLY IS THE MEANING OF THAT, DAVID LIM?’

To which David only maniacally cackled, his eyes consistently flashing on and off a bright black, and replied, “Lackey, don’t worry, I’ll release the barrier when I’m ready, alright? Don’t get so worked up,”

And as if Mano didn’t care about the fact that he just openly admitted to having magic and using it to create a barrier to protect himself, (despite the fact that many of his subordinates were seriously confused) and only cared about provoking his opponent, he said this, “Fine. Let’s see how long you can keep up the barrier. I don’t believe you’re strong enough to keep it up while asleep,”

“Aw, is the Department lackey challenging me to a little fight? Well, I’m all for it,” David said, accentuating the ‘all for it’ part, probably through breathing heavily into the cell phone which much have certainly been awkward for all Scarlett, his men, and the other hostages there.

David opened his mouth to continue speaking, then paused for a moment and held his breath once he saw two figures strolling towards the sealed-off entrance bravely, armed with nothing but themselves.

He watched them through the window, as they silently made their way as close as they could be to the entrance.

Then another deep breath came in from the call. It was probably the sound of Mano calming himself down. But it was instead another voice that answered the call-one of a soothing, calming, audiobook reader voice.

“David, I assume you must have seen my two colleagues by now. Including Scarlett, there are exactly 5 hostages still left inside.”

“Hoho, that one’s correct…although do elaborate more. Even though I can see where you’re going, I wouldn’t want to jump to any conclusions, lest I get disappointed,”

Louis put down the call temporarily and looked up at Mano and Ananya. Mano closed his eyes and nodded his head. Ananya nodded along too, approving the plan.

Louis too took a deep breath and gulped down all his nervousness.

“We would like to offer a hostage swap, I, Mano, Ananya, and the two others at the entrance, for the five hostages in there,”

Scarlett sat upright, sharply cocking her head towards David who was still sitting on the windowside, and was even about to say something but quickly stopped herself in the nick of time.

“Interesting…but why should I trade Ma’at and 4 untrained, weak pushover hostages for five professional counter-terrorism personnel?”

Louis paused for a moment, carefully choosing the right words to say. Then he picked up a separate, private call with Rai and Ahmad, and gave them critical instructions through the call, then finally answered David’s question.

“Because…” He started, gazing into the camera which gave him full view of Rai and Ahmad’s situation. That also means he could see how Ahmad did the same thing he did back when hunting down East Coast-his eyes glowing bright red, slowly breaking free from the chains of gravity and hovering above the ground-then with a swift movement of his hand, slashed through air and allowed the slash to travel through the vacuum of space, eventually splitting a large stone that was about 10 metres away in half.

Certainly, that startled David, because he almost fell off the windowsill but stabilised himself just in time-and continued watching the two of them like an amazed kid watching how a science experiment works.

“Is that interesting enough for you?"

Scarlett went back to her usual pensive state, trying hard to keep out whatever she was about to hear.

“Ma’at stays with me. The rest can go.”

Ananya and Mano made a silent cheer in their hearts, and possibly for the first time, Mano made the closest thing resembling a smile-even if it was just one of victory for a successful plan.

“Actually, wait..” David slid off the windowsill and took one glance around his hostage room. He saw the rows and rows of his men-which in fact were not many rows-squeezing the four remaining unlucky hostages.

An elderly woman and a young man, a masseuse, and a young, sobbing girl.

“The girl has to stay with me too,” David pointed at her, and his men tightly wrapped their arms around her as she started to scream and cry even louder.

This time it was now Mano answering the phone, as Louis had more than already done his part. “...Agreed.” Even Scarlett could sense the hesitation in his voice then.

David held down the phone and signalled to his men, who then grabbed the other three hostages by their armpits and dragged them out of the room (much to their very violent protests, which, unfortunately, could do nothing against men of their strength and calibre).

The little girl, surprise, surprise, couldn’t see that, because she was too busy screaming her eyes out to care.

The last of the men escorted (not so nicely) the three hostages out, while two men stayed behind in the room, locking the door behind them and guarding it closely with a stomp of their feet and raising their right arms across their chest at a right angle.

David acknowledged them with a nod of his head, then turned away.

“My men are preparing to release the three remaining hostages. I will lower the barrier in a while. I want your team to walk in with their hands up in the air, and don’t even try any funny tricks, because if I catch you-” David stopped himself there and chuckled. “Let’s just say I can do more than just create a storm barrier,”

—----------------------

Strange that the STAR team wasn’t helping with Mano’s hostage swap plan. He must have told them to back off.

The team was all lined up along the road leading to the entrance of the masseuse parlour, as if awaiting the red carpet entry of their VIPs.

And soon the VIPs arrived, all with their arms up in the air, with the exception of Mano carrying a communication device for contact with David, all inching closer and closer to the entrance, eagerly awaiting the drop of the barrier.

“David, we’re entering now, drop the barrier,” Mano whispered loudly enough for the team to hear him.

“Oh, wait, I’m not ready yet, I’ll drop it when I’m ready…” David too replied, despite the fact that he was very much already ready.

“No one else is to come in. Rush in but still with your hands up, I don’t want to keep the barrier down forever…” David muttered the precautionary measures the team should take if they wanted to ensure their lives.

And before Mano could respond to that, the storm barrier visibly slowed down in its swirling, then stopped, then vanished completely.

An elderly woman, a young man and a masseuse were pushed out of the open door by a few burly men manhandling them, but they quickly got up to their feet and ran past the team that was sent to replace them as they too rushed in.

It took only a few seconds for the swap to take place, and before long, a lightning strike hit the ground near the entrance and the storm barrier was back and up again.

—--------------------

The team gazed up at the surprisingly spacious parlour, that even had a second floor and a balcony along the floor for people to look down on the first floor.

And that’s exactly what David was doing to them right then.

“Welcome, I trust you didn’t bring any…prohibited items, no?” David smiled down at them, resting his head on his arm and his arm on the balcony railings.

“I don’t believe the 5 of us won’t be enough to take him out-” Ahmad growled up at David, his eyes starting to flash an intense crimson.

“Calm down, Ahmad, we have no idea what he’s capable of,” Rai extended a hand in front of Ahmad’s chest, stopping him from further activity.

“Rai’s right. This man seems to be able to resist my mind control…” Louis added.

“And with the storm barrier he created…” Mano went back into deep criminal profiling contemplation.

“Just who is this man?” Ananya finished off for him.

“I only have one question, and one question only.” David started, pacing around on the balcony like he had when monologuing with Scarlett.

“You three have Ikigai. I can feel it,” He pointed at Ahmad, Rai, and Louis-he’s surprisingly effective at ‘feeling’ Ikigai.

“And that one, I feel a sense of a curse on you…” This time he singled out Louis, which even made him shiver slightly beneath those thick coats of his.

“Have you seen…” David questioned, his voice getting lower. “ ‘them’, before?”

Rai and Ahmad shot each other a look while Louis remained indifferent. Clearly, that already gave David the answer he needed.

“Enough, David Lim, it’s time to surrender, you have no more bargaining chips left,” Mano, without saying another word, stormed up the stairs and took David by complete surprise.

He quickly retreated back into the safety of Scarlett’s room, guarded heavily by his men…that was only that two men left to guard Scarlett and the little girl. Where, oh, where did the rest of his men go…

Oh wait, didn’t he lower the barrier just now? Doesn’t that mean that at that time, anything, including bullets, could fly in?

David must also have realised this, because in the brief moment it took him to overcome his shock-his gun had been snatched out of his hand, the last of the two men knocked unconscious, and Scarlett free and untied.

“You…” He must have been enraged then, because he also snatched up a knife from the bodies of one of his men and held it up to the neck of the little girl who couldn’t escape in time. “Ma’at…MA’AT!"

He backed away into a corner, untouchable by bullets with his human shield.

The little girl cried and screamed loudly, like she’d gone back to being a stupid baby.

Scarlett watched from the corner with indifferent, indignant eyes, oblivious to the suffering the little girl was going through then.

“Calm down, David Lim, don't-” Mano attempted to negotiate calmly now that he’d seen that David was actually desperate.

“You forced my hand, Ma’at, I had no choice,” He pressed the knife even further into the little girl’s skin, then before anyone could react, his eyes flashed bright black and smoke shrouded the entire room.

When the team finally coughed and cried away the smoke/tear gas, and when the smoke/tear gas finally dissipated-

all that was left was nothing but a knife lying on the ground.

—--------------

“ ‘Citizens rally together to donate blood amidst scarcity due to recent terrorist attack,’

‘Good Samaritans providing monetary services and donating everyday resources to resolve crisis of people overbuying,’

‘ ‘Stand up for what's right’, says a 25 year old shop attendant, as he fights for the injustice and prejudice against police officers due to recent terrorist attack,’’

Scarlett scrolled through the news articles and read off them one by one just as David had done-except in this case, the articles were the complete opposite.

“David must have seen all this by now, right? Do you think…” Scarlett trailed off her sentence and turned to face the young man dressed in a pure white suit with a black tie.

“He must've,” He said as he pulled out her office's drawer and began tinkering with the machinations inside, occasionally muttering a “Shut up, Bandung, I'm only doing this because of you,”.

“He mentioned the Corrupt Crimefile case, you know,” Scarlett lay back in her office chair tiredly.

And that was when the young man stopped with his childish playthings-though, to his credit, it looked more like he'd regained control of his limbs again and could freely move them.

“He…did…? Did you tell that team from the Internal Security Department?”

“They were just here a while ago, you didn't run into them?’ Scarlett tilted her head slightly, raising an eyebrow.

“You know I'd rather not have dealings with them,” The young man continued. “The Corrupt Crimefile…

You don't think he realised, do you?”

“No, he only casually mentioned it with other cases,”

The young man quickly shot a glance at the paper-thin glass, transparent walls of Scarlett's office-and quickly pressed the control that blurred it.

“The next step of the plan is in action, then?” He asked cautiously.

Scarlett said nothing, only nodding her head quietly.

“Are…you ok?” The young man finally managed to spit out after a brief period of awkward silence.

“Yeah, I just…’they’ won't die in vain, will…they?”

To this the young man walked forward up to Scarlett and held her hand up to the table like he was having an arm wrestling match.

“ ‘They’ will not have suffered for nothing. If the plan fails…”

He swiftly reached for his gun and cocked it smoothly.

“I will have them die a thousand deaths to simulate the pain that ‘they’ went through.

I will have them burn for eternity and drown in their endless money that they so longed for, so much so as to put ‘them’ through so much pain.

I'll make them pay myself.”

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

Crimeblind Episode 4

"Per se random quote,"

"Give it up for..." The speaker on the mic announced into a low grumble, letting the resounding cheers of the crowd drown out his voice, then shouted out loud the singer's name.

"Muffin Quail!"

All of the crowd erupted into a standing ovation and screamed excitedly as the singer came out of the backstage and received her glimmering star trophy award.

Except a certain lady in a dark hooded cloak concealing her eyes and revealing only her sly, deceitful smile. She crossed her legs, and waited patiently.

Sitting elegantly, she watched the singer tear up a little and take the mic, hugging her star trophy like her baby itself.

"Thank one, thank all, really, thank you all," She mumbled into the mic still audibly, giving the illusion she was about to burst into tears.

"That isn't how you're supposed to use that phrase, you idiotic cupcake frosting with sprinkles," The cloaked lady muttered under her breath derogatorily, making a terribly sarcastic reference to the fashion choice of the singer that exact day.

"I really can't thank you all enough, this award goes to all of my fans!" The singer raised her star trophy to the sky, meeting with another wave of resounding cheers.

The cloaked lady pulled out her phone and sneaked a quick glance at it while everyone was distracted by the singer. 3.25 p.m.

She got up and made her way through the jumping crowd that was moving WAY TOO MUCH. Those human embodiments of stupid were being WAY TOO LOUD.

If only she didn't have to keep a low profile all the time, she'd have blown all their empty brains out by now.

Really,she needed to get out of here as soon as possible, otherwise she'd start to get infected with their sheer stupidity soon enough.

At least the stadium wasn't being occupied at its maximum capacity. There were only a maximum of at least a 100 people here.

Only 100 people coming to see her...pathetic. But even these 100 people could make noise as much as if the stadium was fully occupied...

If it weren't for the tip-off from that overly cheerful Caelus dude, she wouldn't even stay a second longer here. She didn't even know if he could be trusted, she just needed something to keep her busy. Even better if it could help with Louis's workload.

She swiftly exited the crowd, and crossing over to the green, green grass on the outskirts of the stadium where she could get a good view of the happenings without getting suffocated by the unbearable scent of that hell-hole of a crowd.

"To my fans, my followers, and all my supporters, this toast is for you!" The voice of that singer echoed through the stadium.

The cloaked lady stopped dead in her tracks. Did she really take that long to leave that absurdly overcrowded hellpit of a stadium?

The singer on the makeshift stage took the bottle of wine off the host's hands and flipped the cork off it, holding it up high for the crowd to toast along to, then poured it into a separate glass and raised it up again for toasting.

The cloaked lady watched silently as the singer finished toasting all her important, rich fans-then lifted the cup to her lips and downed the entire glass.

She let out a loud sound of refreshment, as if she'd been dehydrated for a day straight finally quenching her thirst, then grabbed the mic again to speak.

Grabbed the mic she did, speak she did not-for no one could have the mood to speak after seeing that which came screaming, stumbling bloodily out of the makeshift backstage.

A middle-aged man, covered in splashes and splatters of blood creating a stark contrast against his white-as-a-canvas-with-unlimited-potential shirt. Possibly one of the backstage staff and crew, given the absurdly plain white t-shirt.

The crowd made that stupid, probably not on cue though, shocked noise, and soft murmurs began spreading through the stadium.

The lady in the cloak smirked softly and folded her arms, once again covering her eyes behind her dark cloak.

Now, things were finally getting interesting. Finally worth staying in this wretched abomination for.

The singer turned innocently to face the man, then gave out a screaming yelp in horror when she laid eyes on him, almost jumping up from fear like a cartoon character.

The bloodstained man wasted no time while the singer was still paralysed from the shock, rushing forward, grabbed the mic, and said hurriedly into it,

"There's-there's-there's a-a-a b-body! A-a dead body!"

More distantly soft murmurs rise in the crowd. Muffin dramatically covers her mouth with her hand, widens her eyes way too much and lets out too much of a soft gasp.

The cloaked lady smirked a little louder this time.

"The-the body's a-all...bloodied and bruised...the-there's blood, flowing everywhere..."

The murmurs got louder. The cloaked lady didn't smirk this time, but her visible sly smile just grew a whole lot bigger.

Then someone from the back finally shouted out what everyone was thinking in their minds, but didn't dare to say.

"There are police cars here! There are police officers coming here!"

Yet again more whispers and murmurs in the crowd.

"Finally, took their own sweet time coming here..." The cloaked lady muttered under her breath incoherently.

A confident-looking young man certainly with far too many tricks up his sleeve strolled in with a carefree whistle, accompanied by a few of his police officer underlings that were much more serious with much bigger guns.

"Ah, terribly sorry to be crashing on your party, Egg Cupcake-wait, no, Flour Dressing-wait, no Salad Mayo? Ah, that just can't be it-" He waved his fingers in front of his mouth, closed his eyes and made it look like he was in deep contemplation of the singer's name.

"It's Muffin Quail, sir," She sheepishly raised a hand and covered her face with her hair and blushed slightly behind.

"As if she's got anything to be shy about, but then again, being embarrassed over that stupid name is plausible," The cloaked lady let the thought run through in her mind as she felt a wave of second-hand embarrassment chill her to the bone.

"Ah, yes, Muffin Quail! That's exactly what I was going to say, yes, yes, Muffin Quail," The young officer snapped his fingers in an 'Eureka' moment and repeated the singer's awfully forgettable name.

"Right, before I forget our darling audience...mainly consisting of only about 100 or so people who actually came to see Miss Cupcake here..." He shamelessly exposed the honestly pitiful amount of guests willing to support the whatever-her-name-was singer.

He snapped his fingers again, bringing the attention of the guests back to his charming self.

"Anyway, as I was saying, I'm afraid that the..pitable number of guests here will all have to be inconvenienced too, for...no one is going to be allowed to leave this stadium until it's safe."

Again, again, and yet again, murmurs and whispers never stopped spreading through the crowd. It's like they were some sort of sound effect dropped at the worst time thinking they were 'keeping up the suspense'.

Then finally, one of the crowd stopped doing something so monotone and programmed. It was the same guy who announced of the police officers' arrival, standing tall and projecting his voice from the highest seat in the stadium:

"And how do we know we should trust you? We don't even know who you are! What if you're not really from the police?"

Then the crowd went back to being repetitive again with the spreading whispers.

The officer facepalmed himself discreetly and fished out his identification card, then held it up in full view for the audience to see. Not like anyone could have actually seen what was written on that card that was barely a small wallet's length anyway.

"I'm Senior Investigation Officer Terrence Long of the Special Investigation Section of the Criminal Investigation Department, I am a legitimate, certified, legal officer of this legitimate, certified, legal department of crime prevention, I couldn't care less whether you think I really am legitimate, certified, or legal, the point is, I am one and you can't stop me,"

The cloaked lady folded back her arms and went back again to her usual facade, smirking slightly audibly.

Terrence's lackeys had already finished putting up the police tape by the time he was done giving his little speech, and obediently returned to his side showing off their little guns like a roleplaying toddler given imaginary weapons to serve a hypothetical elite Mafia gang leader.

"Alright, that's enough chatting, time to let us professionals do our job properly, ok?" Said he as he adjusted his tie eloquently, making sure to get it done in the only way that best exudes his charm.

Distant, much louder murmurs echoed through the audience as Terrence brushed past Muffin's skin into the crime scene, who was quite obviously blushing all the way through. Even her arms and uncovered parts of her legs were blushing. Then again, maybe it was the unbearable uncomfortableness and heat of being stuck in such a weird dress that just as weirdly matched her name really well.

At this, the cloaked lady averted her gaze away from Terrence, and proceeded to take off her cloak to reveal her eyes and seem less like she was the one who committed the murder at long last.

Tucking the cloak safely away into her pocket, she stood up from the green, green grass near the stadium and made her way into the dark, bloody crime scene of a vicious murder. Exactly whether or not that was a desired transition could be left open to interpretation.

She walked up to the unfortunate lackeys stationed to guard against such ignorant people like her who wished to enter the crime scene to see the body-and destroy all the evidence unintentionally in the process.

Then she copied exactly what Terrence did and brushed straight past them, lifting the police tape.

And was met with a harsh, harsh, help up straight palm in front of her. And a really long speech.

"I'm sorry, miss, no one's allowed into the backstage for the time being, this is a serious criminal investigation, allowing you into there might be destroying potential case-solving evidence, please cooperate with us until-"

"Listen, would you rather have the option to zip it right now, or should I come to your house tonight with a sewing kit to do it myself?"

"Uh..." At a loss for words now, random lackey?

"What's going on? More ignorant fools here to disrupt our work again?" Terrence walked back out of the scene, adjusting his gloves while also making sure to exude as much charm as possible.

"Let me in," The cloaked-correction, not cloaked, lady said.

"Uh...Ananya?" Terrence eyed her sceptically. "Right, we never actually bother to synchronise our information throughout the entirety of the Special Investigation Section...you're not part of this case. So why should I let you in?"

"Because every second you keep us locked here while you're busy racking your pathetically empty brain trying to crack this case, the annoying screams of those in the crowd only grow louder and louder, so for the sake of everyone's stupid mental health here, please just let me in. Also we're both from the same department, you can just add my name into the case files,"

"Wow...real convincing...from the way you spoke, if I wasn't informed enough I'd have thought you're the murderer trying to go in to destroy all evidence! Oh...wait..."

"..."

They were getting nowhere with this. Ananya was getting nowhere with this.

Then her saviour arrived. One of Terrence's other weird-looking lackeys lifted the covering curtains and popped out his head. "Boss, we...uh...let's just say we could really use another officer's help right about now,"

"There's literally zero disadvantage to letting me in other than I may destroy the evidence or plant conflicting evidence in there, and there's no reason I, a certified member of a unit you can run a background check on me if you want, would want any of that,"

Terrence held his hand up to his chin obviously in deep ponderance. Perhaps he is finally considering it.

"On the contrary, I could help you crack this case so much easier and faster. I'm sure you wouldn't want to have to write up that awfully, dreadfully tedious report explaining why you held everyone in this stadium back, inflicting some kind of monetary or image damage, would you?"

Terrence's eyes clearly widened at the mention of reports, although he tried to hide it behind his hand by subtly shifting it up from his chin. Maybe he's done this before and knows what it feels like?

A long, hard silence passed while Terrence contemplated. Obviously both the lackey and Ananya stayed silent as well, afraid of breaking this unstable thought right now and losing all hope of getting her in.

"...Alright. I guess we could use another investigator. Get her some gloves, David," Terrence finally let on and conceded.

"Hah! Bad move, you should have kept your guard up. What if I was really here to destroy evidence?" Ananya smirked as she donned the gloves David handed over to her excitedy.

"What...wait..."

"No, no, I'm just kidding, I really do admire how steadfast you were in your position, though-you really shouldn't have just let any other guy in. But trust me just this once-I guarantee you I mean no harm,"

Ananya smiled and turned to David instead, indicating she was no longer interested in holding up a conversation with Terrence. "What's with the bandages and awful hair, mister? Mind if I recommend a proper hairstylist? I haven't seen you in a long time...enough time for you to turn out like this?"

Indeed, David was in dire need of a good haircut-his hair was all messily curled up like he'd just been in some violent, demonic battle, the eccentric, unsettling smile on his face and the bandages covering the entirety of his left eye reinforcing the possibility of that hypothesis.

At least his fashion wasn't that bad-but then again, a classic t-shirt and pants could never go wrong on practically anybody. But then again, with all the unexplained bandages on even the whole of his right palm and fingers and several parts of his arms too, it's hard to make anyone like that not seem creepy with his naturally-born sinister smile.

He didn't say anything-just silently stared at Anany and smiled.

Ananya looked at him for a while, then did the same to him too.

She brushed past the still puzzled Terrence just as he had past Muffin, into her long-awaited crime scene.

There lay the sight of a horribly bloodied body, enjoying its soak in its nice little bathtub of close-to-overflowing water, just like any other normal human would enjoy a bath in a bathtub...except for the fact that it was, well, a dead body.

The blood flowed through the water like a drop of ink staining a glass of clear water-its colour a bright, stark contrast to the pale image of the water it was contained in.

"It's kinda suffocating in here for some reason, so just make do with it, Miss Enforcer," Terrence said.

"But kind of sweet though..." She muttered after taking a big sniff like a wild dog, and commented on the could-be-sweet-murder-water the deceased was soaked in.

Ananya knelt down as close as she could to the body without breaking into the area marked out by the police tape, staring long and hard at the body without actually doing anything. Or maybe she was just really focused on her work.

She reached out her hand and attempted to touch the body, but immediately pulled her hand back instinctively before even getting to make contact with the remains, like she was a child getting too close to a burning fire or a hot stove.

"It's still...warm!??" She muttered and made a slightly surprised weird face.

"Miss Enforcer, I'd advise you to stay away from...you know, touching the body, if you're not with forensics," Terrence spoke over to her while he was answering a few questions of another officer.

Her eyes narrowed like a pouting cat's on that request, lifting not but a finger against the atrocity of that man.

"How can this be! How could you ever suspect her??" A sudden, loud yell resounded across the entire very echo-efficient stadium.

All the heads in the room that were free to move immediately turned towards then source of the sound, and the heads that couldn't look away visibly perked their ears up like foxes.

Of course, like the vigilant neighbourhood police officers they were, Terrence and the rest immediately put down everything they were doing to attend to the ginormous elephant in the room right now.

While Ananya stared back intently at the body again, then got up and leisurely strolled out of the now-empty crime scene.

She was faced with the scene of a middle-aged man making some dramatic hand gestures and arguing intensely with another lackey of Terrence's, obviously at a loss for words.

"My fine fellow, what seems to be the matter here? Please do let us know, and if there's anything we can assist with, we'd be happy to oblige!" Terrence walked over bearing a bright smile on his face like he was among the man's closest friend group.

"Are you guys even thinking properly? Officer, your subordinate is trying to accuse our goddess Muffin! Trying to say that such a kind and gentle woman could commit such a vicious crime as to murder!" The middle-aged man had one hand gesturing towards the unfortunate officer, and the other bent laying on his chest to emphasise his point.

"That's not true, sir, this is just the expected formalities, please cooperate with us until we investigate the matter clearly," David sighed with displeasure, scratching the back of the bandage pieces covering his left eye.

"Come to think of it, why should she even be here with the rest of you dumpters? She is perfect in every single way, why should she have to stay here having to become contaminated with the incompetence of your crew?"

Terrence folded his arms and sneaked a quick glance at Muffin. She, just like everyone else, was enjoying the show-albeit appearing more worried than amused.

"Mister, nobody is above the law, please cooperate with us or I may have to take disciplinary action against you,"

"You...fine," He sighed and reluctantly agreed, sitting back down on his assigned stadium seat. "I'm sorry, Muffin, I won't be able to protect you!" He shouted over to the singer, who then blushed awkwardly at the worst possible timing.

"Right, now that the matter's been resolved, let's all head back to work everyone, wouldn't want to keep the crowd waiting too long!" Terrence clapped motivationally and signalled everyone to get back to business.

Most of the officers cajoled their tired bodies back to the backstage, save for the few that were in charge of interviewing select members of the crowd.

"Oh..hehe..." Muffin sheepishly hid her face behind strands of her hair she scrambled together. Clearly she somehow thought that that was the best way to react to all the drama that took place just now.

"What's there to blush about, Miss Cupcake?" Ananya snarkily remarked at whatever the singer's ridiculously dense thought process was.

To that Muffin only blushed harder behind her hair.

Ananya narrowed her eyes at the singer again, folding her arms and staring intensely at her.

She felt something tap her shoulder from behind. Her eyes sharpened instantly and she reached for her gun-and did not hesitate to straightaway turn around and point it at the head of whoever was behind her.

"Miss Enforcer!" She heard David gargle out right as she pressed her gun against his cranum. At least, for once at that very second, he acted normally, just like what a normal person would do if they suddenly found a gun to their forehead.

Ananya immediately lowered her gun and stored it back safely, showing no remorse whatsoever the way normal people would have after almost traumatising someone with the threat of not being able to walk away alive.

"You're cautious. I like it," David whispered like a secret prophet whispering their sacred words foretolling the doom of the universe.

"Don't sneak up on me like that...what did you come to find me for?"

"Oh, no, nothing...I just came to see you and have a chat with you..." He did the secret prophet thing again.

"Don't come find me if it's not important..." Ananya sighed like a little kid whining at their parents not buying them their new favourite toy-annoyed and frustrated at the unfairness of life.

"Anyway. On second thought, have you noticed how eerily similar the deceased looks to Muffin?" She packed up her files and eyed David closely.

"You're an observant one, I'll give it to you..." David smirked villanously, eyeing Ananya closely to see her reaction as well.

"I must be off, Miss, I hope you have a nice day," David took a step back from their scene before Ananya could finish packing her files, took a deep bow and freely walked away.

Then something caught the corner of her narrowed eyes.

Behind the ignorant, blushing singer, a seemingly plain and bland glass filled three quarters with a liquid.

It was the same cup Muffin had drunk from earlier, before all this murder drama happened.

This cup most people would overlook had interested Ananya enough that her eyes widened back again and she unfolded her arms.

She brushed right past the unsuspecting Muffin just like she had before, moving straight past her to her main objective. The glass.

She picked up the glass and examined it carefully for a while, shaking it to let the liquid inside swish a bit-to the average bystander she might look like a cultured wine tester who always sniffs their wine before tasting it.

Because she did sniff her wine-brought it close to her nose to take in the flavour like a ravenous wolf.

And it was like she had a sudden revelation the moment the scent wafted over-her eyes widened and she almost dropped herself into the glass, almost contacting the wine.

She stabilised herself from the shock of that epiphany, placing the glass back onto the shelf where she found it-and quickly turned back to finding Muffin.

"Cupcake!" She yelled out menacingly for the singer, not allowing the now-shaking Muffin a chance to escape from her.

"Uh...yes, Miss Officer? How can I he-"

Ananya lowered her voice slightly. "This liquid isn't wine at all, is it?"

"Uh...it..." Muffin stammered slightly before finally exhaling a deep sigh. "Yes...I can't drink wine,"

"...Why....not?"

"Because...I have...medical problems. I have difficulty swallowing alcohol for some reason,"

Ananya folded her arms back again and remained silent for a brief moment.

"...Wait. Were you planning on any dramatic entrances before all this? As in, stage starts to fog up, then you walk in doing some catwalk pose or something?"

"Uh...yes, I was,"

"How dramatic was it meant to be? Like, just a bit of misty atmosphere, or the entire stage goes through an extremely foggy river while you have your little entrance?"

"Um...very, very, very foggy...hehe..." Muffin shied away from view a little at the embarrassment answering the question just brought her.

Ananya didn't even try to hide how hard her eyes were rolling this time. Of course, it's not like the practically blind Muffin could see anyway.

She cleared her throat and unfolded her arms, and spoke in a much more professional and serious tone. "That'll be all, thank you for your cooperation, Miss Cupcake,"

"It's Muffin..." Muffin attempted to correct her, but was only met with an awkward silence as Ananya was already walking away.

Ananya strolled over to Terrence's side, who was currently questioning another one of the crowd rather intently. And it even looked like the member of the crowd was taking this quite seriously, too.

She walked around for a brief moment like a fly buzzing around Terrence's ear.

"That's all, you may head back to your seat now," Terrence just wrapped up the last of the questioning with his usual charismatic bright smile, and politely invited the member of the crowd back onto his seat. Clearly he enjoyed that he actually took the interrogation process seriously, a stark contrast from the rest of the crowd.

Now he wasn't so polite with Ananya's questions. Craning his neck towards her rigidly and slowly like a zombie towards the smell of fresh blood or a sudden loud sound.

They both stayed silent for a brief moment as the two stared deep into each other's souls.

Terrence stared with drooped eyes, tired of all the work he had had to get done today. While Ananya stared with eyes of concealment. Eyes meant to conceal some kind of revelation she had.

"...What do you want...," He finally uttered, breaking the silence.

"That was...a very familiar action," She replied.

"What do you mean?"

"The way...you stared into my eyes...it...it felt like...something...from long ago..."

"Ok, so?"

"You didn't happen to...learn that from somewhere, did you?"

"That's the way my father used to stare into my eyes,"

"You...wait. Who's your father?"

"And why should I tell you?"

"It's your choice. Better tell me now, or do I have to get my hands dirty today?"

Terrence was suddenly perked up, full of energy after his eventful conversation with Ananya.

Ananya was not giving up though.

She swiftly made a physical move against him and wrapped her palm tightly around his neck and pinned it against the wall, with Terrence only reacting a split second too late.

He didn't attempt to resist, though-he made peace with the firm grip around his neck, instead trying to resolve this diplomatically.

"This...means something to you, doesn't it?" He asked the obvious. "You haven't really been showing a lot of emotion this whole time. This is the most emotional you've ever been...this means more than the murder case, doesn't it?"

To that Ananya only seemingly grew more 'emotional'. Her eyes widened with ferocity and became clouded with some kind of dark energy. Her entire body started radiating a kind of black energy, manifesting like coordinated swirling splashes of ink in clear water. It was clear from the way she controlled them adeptly that she had full control over these probably deadly weapons-and from the glare in her eyes, she wasn't afraid at all to use them.

The black energy swirls darted towards Terrence's neck all at once and wrapped themselves tightly around it on Ananya's command, not giving him time to react. She had started to return to the mysterious demeanour she had before the murder happened-cold, dark, eyes blinking emotionlessly on a cold, dark, face.

Terrence didn't really have much of a reaction, either-well, minus all the struggling and futile sweeping-away of the black energy swirls.

Ananya tilted her head slightly lower to give off the impression of a murderous, cold-blooded serial killer, covering her eyes and therefore expression.

Then all of a sudden the black energy swirls loosened their grip on Terrence's neck and retreated back to Ananya's side, then disappeared just as mysteriously as they had appeared.

Terrence fell to the ground, choking and gasping for breath while staring up at Ananya.

She was now back to her usual appearance-although more visibly shaken.

"Apologies. I let my personal matters get the better of me...again..." She spat out somewhat embarrasingly after all the drama she caused, looking away and refusing eye contact with Terrence.

Terrence laugh-choked like a sick guy laughing at something pathetically ridiculous while also coughing like a mad person. He dusted himself off and stood up.

"Didn't know you were this powerful, Ananya..."

"...Anyway, I came to you because I wanted to get the statements of those you already questioned,"

"Oh...sure...no problem, Miss Enforcer...there especially shouldn't be any problem after I've witnessed what you're capable of...say, are you practicing some kind of black magic or something?"

Ananya glared back intensely at Terrence, her entire body radiating again with the same black energy swirls.

"Ah...take it that I said nothing...I'll...go and get your statements,"

Ananya folded her arms and closed her eyes as the black energy swirls silently disappeared again while Terrence messily scrambled through his files looking for the documents of statements.

"Ah! Here it is..." He hurriedly pulled out an important-looking file and handed it over to the waiting Ananya.

"Actually...I have a confession to make...I've only questioned threee people so far...the one just now screaming about Cupcake being an innocent angel who would never hurt a fly...and Cupcake herself...and also the guy who found the body first..."

'"Oh, that's ok, that's more than enough for me,"

"Why don't you just go question them yourself, then?"

"We're supposed to be working together. Don't you think someone's bout to get suspicious if we question the same person twice?" Ananya looked up from the file and furrowed her eyebrows, stating the obvious and expressing it like a rhetorical question, then went straight back to studying the statements.

"What were you doing roughly around the time of the crime?

Muffin's answer: I was busy putting on my makeup to get ready for my stage appearance. My makeup artists can verify for me that while I was backstage, I was in the makeup room, and not the control room where the murder happened.

Lee Hock Lian (Muffin's crazily obsessed fan): I was sitting on the seats in the stadium, waiting for Muffin to make her appearance onstage. I was possibly one of her biggest fans, and even brought a life-sized cardboafd cutout of her, so the other (obviously less of a fan than me) spectators should remember me crystal clear.

Jacob Lim (guy who found the body): I was in the control room at first, and I was supposed to be in charge of the fog effect for when Muffin stepped on stage along with the deceased Miss Chew Ling Tong. However, I had a bad stomachache and went to the toilet first, leaving Miss Chew the controls for the fog. When I came back, I found her like that...

Do you know who the deceased is?

Muffin's answer: No, but I think they should be one of the backstage crew in charge of the lighting and fog effect for when I was to walk onto the stage and receive my prize. That's why I was kinda confused why there wasn't any fog effect when I came onstage...but now I see why...

Lee Hock Lian: No, why would I know who that is? The only person I care about is Muffin.

Jacob Lim: The deceased is Miss Chew Ling Tong, who was working with me in charge of the fog effect.

What were you making the fog effect from?

Muffin: I think one of my backstage crew members suggested using...dry ice? I don't really know though, I wasn't really paying attention when they discussed this...hehe, sorry...

Jacob Lim: We had already purchased commercial dry ice meant for special effects such as the fog we were planning on.

What was the control room in charge of doing?

Jacob Lim: We were in charge of the lighting, special effects and most importantly, the fog effect.

Jacob, how long were you away for in the toilet?

Jacob Lim: I do not remember exactly, but what I do remember was that when I left the control room, Muffin had just started her makeup session and the crowd was still waiting. Since most of her makeup sessions take typically about an hour and a half, plus the time she was onstage and drinking her wine...probably about an hour and 45 minutes."

Ananya flipped to end of the file, then stared up with 'that look' written all over all her face.

"That's it? That's all you got?"

"Forget it, this is enough clues for me anyway,"

She didn't wait for Terrence to apologise simply with his looks again, but immediately answered her own rhetorical question, put down the file and left again for the backstage, with Terrence rushing after her after taking a rather long time to react.

Ananya stomped into the crime scene where the investigators were still there chatting with each other. Possibly about serious business, possibly about what to eat later for dinner, and even possibly about something else entirely.

She walked over to the body again, adjusted her gloves once more, knelt down and touched it once again-it wasn't as hot as it was the first time she made contact with it.

She smiled a genuine smile to herself-one that most people who saw her probably wouldn't think it was scientifically possible. But then again, it was that kind of satisfied smile one would make after solving a difficult puzzle, so who even knew what was going on in that crazy mind of hers.

She stood up, still maintaining that smile while also closing her eyes dramatically, took in a deep breath and announced,

"Listen up Cluedo players, I know whodunnit,"

And just as she opened her eyes then and changed her smile from a genuine one to a cunning, conniving one, she saw countless investigators and officers widened their eyes, drop their goods or whisper among themselves. Sometimes all three.

Terrence, of course, smirked and grabbed his cup of leftover coffee and took a seat, knowing he was about to witness a spectacular show.

Then of course, there had to be that one guy to add on to the drama:

"Hah! Prove it, missy!"

To that Ananya folded her arms and started walking around the cordoned-off body, taking her own sweet time to explain the entire case:

"This is a crime scene. A murder just took place here. In terms of procedural planning, for what reason do we even cordon off the body in the first place?

You're right, it's to prevent evidence contamination. Evidence gradually deteriorates over time, so of course the main objective is to get the evidence quickly to somewhere and someone who can process it.

Yet, we have not proceeded with that...because we have a department specifically dedicated to such matters.

However, our darling forensic pathologists have not, for some odd reason, arrived yet-no, I haven't even heard a single move from them. Almost like they never prepared to come.

Or, rather..."

She set down the theatrical story-telling mask she had put on and folded her arms again, casting her gaze to Terrence's direction.

He smirked and took a big sip out of his coffee, then along with Ananya, simultaneously cast his gaze in the direction of another one of his many overlooked, lowly lackeys: David Lim.

"Someone didn't let them in on purpose?"

Whispers and gasps spread like wildfire through the watching crowd of investigators, glancing and staring, making weird points and gestures at David.

"What's that supposed to mean? Terrence was the one in charge, of course he's the one responsible for whatever you're talking about!"

He yapped on, glaring at the two. Perhaps he still believed he could clear his name against the awful-lack-of-evidence.

"Well, indeed I was the one responsible, but riddle me this..." Terrence looked back at Ananya out of respect now that they were at such a critical point on the stage.

"Before you ask, it was this man named Alex Li, I have him detained, you can ask him yourself," Ananya did the same to him as well.

"Ah. Now that solves a lot of problems. Well, back to my question...who was it that tipped us off about the murder in the first place?"

The two did more slow head-turning to intensify the high of the climax, turning back to admire the accused.

"That....that doesn't...that doesn't prove anything!"

Ananya chuckled to herself mischievously. "Oh, now, don't worry, I have a friend who also happens to be a top tier forensic investigator, she taught me quite a thing or two about this...for instance, the body has very fresh scar-like marks, which shouldn't be taking the countless idiots here who never even realised the pathologists weren't here, 2 seconds to realise this is a temperature wound caused by cold running water.

However, a temperature wound of such standard would have to be at a near-freezing temperature-something that neither the sinks here nor the non-existent water coolers could provide.

The witness Jacob Lim had said that no one else had come in the whole time he was around, so the murder must have happened within that 1 hour and 45 minutes-and therefore the deceased must have been placed in the cold water within that time frame.

Furthermore, if you take simple whiff of the water, you might find that it has hint of sweetness. Or even alcohol.

However, the water is rather shallow, but there are no splashes of water about that dirtied the scene at all-which could mean one of three things:

1. The perpetrator is so strong that he could restrain the deceased to the point where she couldn't even make a single splatter of cold water around her when she struggled.

2. She did not struggle and willingly complied to be soaked in the water.

3, and also the most probable possibility: She had been drugged in some way or had her perception reduced, causing her unable to be able to fight back enough against the perpetrator.

I believe it's option number 3 that happened, but that it's not a drug that the deceased was fed.

It's the dry ice."

At this point there was huge drama circulating through the investigatory team, and they were back to gossiping again like they were back when they were young and immature kids.

"Haha, now that I've explained all till the way here, things naturally start explain themselves.

David had led the deceased into the then-empty box, but that had been laden with the dry ice instead, and shut her in, leaving the dry ice to sublimate and suffocate her in the enclosed area.

Once the ice had fully sublimated, all evidence of it left will be literally gone with the wind. Just then, the perpetrator opened the door and poured in the water, to give the illusion that she had drowned. Why he did that I confess I have no idea.

However, he then fed the delirious deceased a glass of wine-which she seemed to have no problems swallowing. And that's when David knew he got the wrong person."

David was now no longer even trying to refute Ananya's claims anymore, instead quietly laughing away to himself with his hair messily hiding his wicked eyes like a killer psychopath.

"Because Muffin Quail has a medical condition that doesn't allow her to swallow alcohol normally. Because your target was Muffin Quail in the first place, wasn't it?" Ananya finally turned towards David and addressed him directly.

"Hehehhe, no point keeping up the pretense anymore...I must say, not bad...so this is Louis's and...Scarlett's student? Quite the bright child," He covered the entire left half of his face with his palm, letting the rest of his fingers stretch into his messily arranged hair.

Ananya showed obvious slight shock when mentioned with the two names, but just as quickly covered it up.

"After you realised your mistake, you quickly called Terrence, claiming that someone had tipped you off and phrasing it such he would interpret it that the murder hadn't happened yet. How else could they have arrived before Jacob Lim even came out of the toilet?

But Terrence already detected something fishy, and so decided not to call in the forensic pathologists, to play along with you for a while and you give you false confidence,"

"Hahahahahahahahahaha! Little girl, wow, I'm impressed..." David clapped together his hands in a slow beat, being careful to enunciate each word with extreme clarity unlike what he had before.

Just as Ananya was about to say something towards the maniac, she felt Terrence quickly grab her hand and pull her out of the scene, further adding on to the opera feel from the investigators' perspective.

"Ok, I know what you're planning to do, but we absolutely mustn't do anything to him,"

"Wh-is there some new drama this psycho is getting caught up in again?"

"...Long story short, yes, so let's just give into him for now, use him as bait and get the whole group later together, okay?"

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to let a murderer go..."

David was still laughing maniacally when he caught a glimpse of Ananya and Terrence returning to the crime scene along with the rest of the officers who were obviously curious but too scared to ask questions.

"Now, young girl, do you wanna know why I wanted to kill Muffin?" David shrieked in a hoarse voice.

"Oh, it's nothing, really, she just deserved it after all. Her stupid song on justice and freedom..."

"Ok, that's nice and all, but you're going to-" Terrence pretended to want to arrest him and hurried David along his way.

"Do it. Lay a hand on me. Heh, right now if you turn on any news telecaster on your phone, you'l find it's broadcasting all the same thing-"Self-acting terrorist group recently taken over public massage parlor," David stretched his spine all the way back and laughed as hard as he could, in sheer mockery of the two.

"The-what??" Ananya smacked her hand against her forehead for a moment, then stabilised herself and attempted to negotiate properly.

"Alright, fine, what are your terms?"

"Prepare 30 sacks of food and water, 3 fully loaded guns, and grant me safe passage into the massage parlor unobstructed,"

"You've gotta be kid-" Ananya was just about to butt in, but was suddenly stopped by Terrence with a really rude and obnoxiously loud cough.

"Sure, we shall arrange what we can with the authorities," He coughed out again and glared at Ananya, obviously not happy that David is still a happy free man.

"Ah, and one last thing, Miss Enforcer..." He smiled a creepily charming, charmingly creepy smile.

Ananya folded her arms in an uncomfortable manner and averted her gaze away from his psychopathic eyes.

"Make sure to feast your eyes on the incarceration of your precious..."

His eyes grew sinister and slit-shaped like a cat's, concoting something devious. Ananya kept up her lack of eye contact.

"Lady Ma'at,"

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

Crimeblind Episode 3

"Crimewatch, but we're blind, episode 3-you know what, how long do we even need to say this, can we just go back to random quotes?"

He stepped out of the car gracefully-well, as graceful as one could be whilst angling an umbrella in soaking wet weather to cover his face AND wearing that many layers of coats AND handling the car's driver at gunpoint AND he's screaming out and struggling hard, begging for his life.

He was clawing his fingernails into the flesh of the neck of the taxi driver, screaming out of pain and fear for his life.

Well, all that unnecessary screaming certainly stopped by the time he got close enough to the towering building in front of them-in which he immediately snapped his mouth shut when he layed eyes on how close they were to it.

His mouth was still gaped wide, but it could no longer produce noise anymore. Oh, he knew his impending doom was here.

The hotel appeared quite ordinary, like any other hotel-except, of course, for the fact that it was quite dilapidated indeed.

Half-broken roofs, cracked windows, uncut and poorly maintained lawns and nearby growing trees-how has this hotel not gotten removed already?

The man in the umbrella went up to the front door-no, forget calling it a front door, that thing was more like some broken window-and politely knocked on it.

Of course, there was no response. Well, really, what was he expecting, some random guy living in such terrible conditions to come opening the door welcoming him in?

"Please, sir, this is just some random abandoned hotel, there's nothing here, please just let me go..." The taxi driver once again pleaded for his life, begging on yet another futile attempt.

The coated man said nothing. He grabbed the sleeve and neck of the taxi driver like one of his coat hangers (certainly he has many, given just how many coats he's wearing during this one trip), busted down the door (politely of course), dug out a flashlight and made his way in.

The door was in such terrible condition that even though he had politely busted it down, it fell soon after and left it wide open, allowing the heavy rain to splash in as it fell from the skies.

To the rain that was splashing in the coated man had no reaction-in fact he even kept his umbrella and let the rain splash against him. This guy really doesn't like actually having emotions like a normal human being, it seems.

The most expressive he ever was was when the raindrops splashed on his face-any part of his body that wasn't covered by his many layers of coats-that he would flinch and shiver a little. A stark contrast to the taxi driver, who would yelp and howl like a small, defenceless chihuahua.

Although now that the man was no longer using the cumbersome umbrella to hide his face, and in the bright illumination of the flashlight (albeit at an awkward angle) the taxi driver could almost make out the expression on his face at that exact moment-and he'd thought he'd seen a ghost.

The man's face was just like any other's-pale, cold and calm-albeit, of course, as sinister and devious as you'd expect of your average serial killer.

In fact, he even looked slightly....attractive. The taxi driver might have considered hitting on him-of course, had he not had a gun to his head mere seconds ago. Threatening to blow someone's brains out wasn't really the way to make a good first impression, in his opinion.

...Right before he felt his skin almost get torn apart like it was paper and getting yanked by the coated man-who, for some reason, even though they were in the deep darkness of the hotel, still had not taken off his many layers of coats. Seriously, man, does it not get hot in there?

The coated man shone the flashlight up and down, brightening and paving a path before him. He carefully stepped forward, flashlight in one hand and taxi driver in the other.

They walked (and dragged) in silence through the darkness for a while. The taxi driver must have given up trying to beg for mercy, then.

Eventually the taxi driver stumbled on something he couldn't see in the dark-which of course the coated man avoided despite walking in front of the taxi driver.

Hey, it's not easy to maintain your balance while getting dragged around with an imaginary leash like some pitiful dog, huh?

The coated man retraced his steps, kneeling down to better observe what the taxi driver had tripped on. Extending a hand and knocking against the wood, it emitted a visibly high-pitched sound-it was a hollow floor.

He dug out an extremely sharp penknife and cut out a shape big enough to see what was inside-all with extreme precision and accuracy.

Almost as if handling such sharp devices of weaponry was second nature to him.

He carefully lifted up the cut-out wood and dusted off the carvings on the ground underneath it. Extremely worn off and old, the only numbers he could make out were

"4....6....8....4..."

The words were all jumbled up in random order, to make matters worse.

He got up again carefully, took out his gun and pointed-it-straight at the taxi driver's forehead yet again.

In the clear illumination of the flashlight, the man in full black no longer appeared that sinister nor devious-no, he looked more like he was constantly plotting something in his mind. Whether good or bad, no one could tell.

But hey, at least he looks less like a serial killer, right?

His many layers of coats draped close to his knees like a bathrobe, as he held his hand-holding-gun at a 45-degree angle to face the taxi driver's forehead. Well, the driver was rather tall, compared to the coated man, at least.

"What's the code?" Again he spoke with that cold yet calm and seemingly serene voice, enough to send chills down people's spines. Such serial killer vibes.

"Why would you assume I..." The taxi driver must have been completely taken aback by such a statement. Well, he was just some random taxi driver going about his business and now suddenly he got dragged (literally) into some serial killer's mess. Surely some leeway could be allowed for him to flare up a bit?

Again, for the third (fourth?) time already, the coated man stayed silent, instead staring straight into his soul, piercing and demanding an answer through his gaze alone.

The taxi driver this time copied his doing, saying nothing and avoiding his penetrating gaze.

Diverting the coated man's attention instead to where he was avoiding his gaze to and choosing to rest his eyes on instead-a sole wooden, half-broken bench that looked like someone a bit too fat had sat on it and accidentally broke it in half.

Keeping the gun to the taxi driver's forehead, ready to shoot at any moment, he stepped backwards towards the bench.

One eye on the taxi driver and one eye to the bench, he daringly placed his free hand on the bench-and daringly crushed it in a single move.

Now, typically that might have destroyed all evidence and basically any hope of retrieving this precious 'code' he desired so much-but not in this case.

No, the way the taxi driver was looking at it so fervently meant he had complete faith that it would 100% be able to hide the code-which either meant the code required another code not even he knew, or the code had to be retrieved through an act of either pure stupidity, accidentally broken, or a daringly irreversible one.

And true to the statement, it was indeed an act of stupidity...for there was no such code hidden in the bench.

But perhaps the code wasn't even (explicitly, at least) written on the bench. Perhaps the code was the bench.

The coated man surely thought as such, for he picked up a splinter of the bench, knelt back down to inspect the carvings carefully again.

"4 6 8 4 "

It was clear that there was literally zero room for a splinter anyway though. Well, surely he hadn't had any thoughts of some special hole to insert the splinter into in the carving, and then just expecting some secret door to open immediately, right?

" 4 6 8 4 "

" 4 6 8 4 "

" 4 6 8 4 "

The numbers ran through the coated man's mind, ringing like a constant buzz in his ear over their meaning.

" 4 6 8 4 "

He circled back again to the carvings on the ground, examining them even more precisely in case there had been any clues he had missed.

Kneeling down again once more before them, he extended his hand to brush all the dust off-and revealed two leading lines and circles he hadn't yet known was there.

The (possibly) entire carving was now clear (not)- The above written numbers in a big circle, followed by two lines extending from the left and right of the circle, that lead to two circles-just the perfect size for someone to stand into.

Then it clicked in him a second time.

He turned his head to the taxi driver who was busily making his rather unsuccessful escape, what with being caught halfway sneaking out through the window-and wearing a terribly awkward expression in a terribly awkward position.

Well, it's not as easy as it seems trying to escape through such a tiny and broken window without making the slightest noise so as to alert your kidnapper.

His eyes widened again, presumably even bigger than he ever had before as the coated man walked slowly up to the window he was stuck in, grabbed his neck like before and yanked him out of the window and back into the room-plopping him right onto the right circle.

The coated man strolled over and took his position at the left circle, then waited for the taxi driver to recover from the earlier shock, and stumbling-ly stood up.

Once he had maintained balance and could make eye contact, he opened his mouth to talk-and then heard the sound of a gun clicking, and then saw a gun clicking-and then felt a bullet narrowly miss his head and hit the wall.

He stumbled back, out of the circle, in surprise, as he squatted down a second too late, cupping his hands over his ears and screaming "Don't kill me don't kill me don't kill me!"

The coated man lowered his gun slowly, the drapes of his coat covering the expression of his face from the view of the hunching-in-shock taxi driver. Shock, remorse, fear, or sadism, who would have ever known what was written on it.

He paid no heed to the distressed man in front of him, walking straight forward out of his way, towards the wall behind the taxi driver.

He shone his flashlight on the area where the bullet was lodged in, and recounted the code in his mind and its possible meaning, but nothing was coming to his mind.

He had always hated this feeling, like the answer was written, in clear, bold, ink, right in front of him ; it was on the tip of his tongue, yet he was unable to decipher it-so close yet so far.

"Pl-pl-pl-please, I-I-I b-beg y-you, l-let me go, I-I'm innocent, I sw-swear...I have nothing to do with whatever you're doing...please...let me go..." The taxi driver foundered in front of the coated man, forcing eye contact for a brief moment and begging for a chance to be set free.

That same trick didn't even work the last time, why does he think it'll work now that he just narrowly avoided getting shot square in the face?

"Be quiet..." The coated man snapped out of his daze, losing his train of thought.

"I-I said before, I-I h-have a w-wife and k-kids, t-they're still-"

"I said shut it, you're wasting my..." The coated man midly angrily retaliated, then shut his own mouth before even finishing his sentence.

It had clicked in him a third time.

"Time..."

He held the gun to the taxi driver's forehead yet again, kneeling down and searching the carvings, trying to retrace back his train of thought.

"4 6 8 4 ...code..."

He pulled back the sleeve of his coat and checked his watch another time. 11:25 p.m.

35 minutes to midnight.

He hurriedly kept the splinter he retrieved in one of his coat pockets before once again pulling the taxi driver out of his daze...by the neck...back out of the room and into his car.

All the way back the taxi driver clawed vigorously at the grip around his neck like some wild animal caught by a hunter, waiting to be brought back to camp and turned into ragout soup. His intense clawing away (and biting) and only stopped when the coated man let go-but that was only to throw him on the passenger seat of the car, while he himself was getting comfortable in the driver's seat.

Setting aside the umbrella he had been holding all this while, he shivered slightly and turned off the air conditioning-then started to drive.

"What...why'd you turn off the air con?" The clueless taxi driver fumbled to sit up right normally, obviously frustrated it would be a hotly long ride to wherever they were going.

Without skipping a beat, the coated man coldly replied, in that serenely calm voice with beautiful enunciation,

"I show up dressed in full black coats, point a gun to your face and get you to drive me to some abandoned hotel, drag you through the dilapidated hotel, dig up some carvings of enigmatic codes written on the floor of said dilapidated hotel, point a gun to your head asking for clues on said codes, destroy a bench in your lime of sight while you were avoiding mine in one crunch, then narrowly miss your head while shooting at the wall behind you, before grabbing you again by the neck, throw you into the passenger seat of your own car while I drive you to a place yet unknown to you-

and your first reaction is to ask why I turned the air conditioner off?"

The taxi driver was stunned by both the sheer length of that sentence and the sheer audacity of it-and probably also how beautiful his voice and that he got to hear it for such a long duration-but that's a matter for another day.

"Curious," He flicked his tongue and remarked in the coldest way possible.

The taxi driver bowed his head low, and kept it as such silently for the entire duration of the trip-either out of fear or respect for the man in front of him.

So much such that even when he felt the car pull up and knew that he reached his destination, he let his neck stay in that awkward position, just waiting to be cracked, snapped and yanked yet again by a certain man in a black coat.

And saved from the uncomfortable position his neck was...through an uncomfortable act of removal from said uncomfortable position...through said cracking and snapping and yanking of said neck in said uncomfortable position.

"Ow! Please, sir, even if you find me suspicious, at least handle me with care! I'm a fragile specimen!" The taxi driver yelped, no longer pleading for his life nor clawing at the coated man's hands, but brushing away his hair made wet by the rain.

The coated man stopped for a moment, frozen in position, hoodie on in the pouring rain, visibly shivered slightly when he heard the words 'fragile specimen', as if he had recalled something that could actually make him have anything remotely like emotions like an actually normal human being.

Eyes sheltered by the shade of his hoodie, he maintained the air of mystery even while temporarily stunned-clearly trying to hide whatever his eyes were already starting to show.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" The taxi driver suddenly talked after a moment of silence, snapping the coated man out of his daze once again.

"Nothing," He whispered in a soft, hurried manner, his voice no longer carrying the serenity it had before.

He turned away and grabbed his umbrella where he last left it-at the front passenger seat and opened it once again, both to shield him from the rain and hide his face.

They were back to the scene where the taxi driver met him for the first time-the coated man in the ominous outift with the ominous umbrella, him clawing his nails into the taxi driver's neck to the point of almost strangling him, and dragging him around.

Needless to say, the taxi driver was enjoying every moment of this, relishing in this...unique opportunity.

And it was only then did the taxi driver actually bother to look up and around his surroundings-he was near the shore.

He took a deep breath (or unbecoming deep sniff) and took in the salty sea breeze of the ocean-even if the breeze wasn't really a breeze but instead a howling, piercing wind in really really really heavy rainfall that was strong enough to cut through skin and flesh.

He turned to look at the coated man, who was staring off in the direction of the waves gently crashing against the shore once again, taking a rather absurdly long time to adjust his gloves.

And even then, the coated man must have forgotten to angle his umbrella properly, because a sliver of his downcast eyes were showing-and the taxi driver felt an indescribable feeling from just catching a glimpse of them.

It was like staring into the deepest depths of the dark, blue ocean. Unwillingly seeing through dormant memories, experiencing lost sentiments-being brought down with that terrible feeling of dread and despair. Like he was drowning with the weight of all his mistakes, fears and regrets.

But this feeling wasn't his, it was the coated man's. His mere eyes gave away everything kept locked away in his heart.

There could be zero doubt involved, the coated man definitely wasn't some emotionless murderer. Especially not after the taxi driver had seen that man's eyes of sorrow-no, that pair of eyes was one of the most expressive he had ever seen in his life. It told so much about the coated man he could have never hoped that his own words would.

And those eyes were beautiful-like the starless night sky in a land with light pollution, missing all the specks of starlight scattered around. It was like the darkest coal or soot left behind from a raging fire-his heart burnt as black as his eyes were, but his lungs were left to ache from the inhalation of the smoke and his body to recover from the injuries of the fire.

"Wow, since when did I become such a poet, huh?"

The taxi driver's daydreams and fixation on the coated man were abruptly interrupted when he dragged him and walked away from the taxi again.

Not by the neck anymore this time-instead by the collar of his suit and sleeve, as if he's finally treating this 'fragile specimen' nicely now.

They walked again for a brief period of silence. Walked, because the 'dragged' this time isn't even really a drag anymore-the taxi driver was walking entirely of his own accord. All the coated man did was hold on to his suit's collar and sleeve like a leash on a dog.

And this time, they no longer needed the taxi driver to trip over something anymore-instead they knew they had arrived at their required destination when they reached a large section of shipping containers-which was also only when the taxi driver realised that they weren't at some beach at all-they were at a commercial port.

The coated man appeared slightly stunned for a split second on seeing the sheer amount of shipping containers he would probably have to search-although certainly not stunned in the same way as he was before.

Much to the amusement of the taxi driver pursing his lips together, trying desperately to stifle his laughter-although that laughter soon dissipated into a cold hard stare as the coated man quickly shortlisted one specific shipping container and briskwalked the both of them over to it.

He was no longer busting down the door politely anymore. He busted it down ruthlessly with zero remorse for his actions or consideration for its feelings as a neccessary sacrifice for demonstration of his true strength and power.

Or he could simply have been in a real hurry, and just had no time to apologise to the door as he did before. Either way goes.

His impolite actions towards the door, sure, they could be excused, but certainly not his impolite actions towards the taxi driver, because right after he knocked down the door, he hurled and kicked in the taxi driver like he was some kind of trash bag, leaving him to clumsily stumble and fall over again.

All while he was calmly strolling in, sleeve rolled up revealing his pale skin and eyeing his watch intently down to each ticking of the second hand. He was back to his usual composure, and spoke once again with the serenely beautiful enunciation.

"Exactly 12 midnight. Not a second early, not a second late," then lowered his umbrella and held his hand into a fist in the air for the man in the seat to see his watch.

And, of course, it was only when someone else pointed out the mega obvious, practical elephant in the room, did the taxi driver realise:

"Oh wait, there's actually some mega-muscly guy drinking wine on some budget throne-looking thing and he's guarded by two other heavily armed men who look just as mega-muscly, man, life sure knows how to play surprises, huh?"

He stared a long hard stare at the mega-muscly man, then back at the coated man, who already had his gun out and was directing it at said mega-muscly man.

"Not bad, Louis, I genuinely thought you'd fail to crack the code, although, of course, *chuckle* who am I kidding, this is probably the easiest step for you," The man on the throne raised his glass up to mouth level while talking, then gulped the liquid in it down in one mouthful.

" ...The code wasn't even a code in the first place anyway. 4 6 8 4...468 to the power of 4. 47, 971,512,576." The coated man-Vigilance, apparently, retaliated with an absolutely stunning voice specially adapted to say long strings of numbers.

"The serial number tag of this shipping container," The man on the throne added, pouring another glass of whatever alcholic drink he was consuming, raising the glass to eye level and admiring it elegantly.

"But the bench splinter truly did stall me significantly...I suppose I must praise your brilliant communication with your underling," Louis nodded, shooting a terrifying glance at the taxi driver still laying on the ground.

"Oh...huh? What bench splinter? The mind of a genius, truly...let me guess, Caelus looked at it a bit too long and you automatically thought it to mean something? Well, I guess your genius can also be your weakness sometimes..." The man on the throne raised the glass for admiration for the third time already, this time shaking the drink in it around a bit.

"Ok, ok, whatever, actually, why am I even wasting my time talking to you about this, man..." The man on the throne slouched and poured another glass of wine from the bottle.

Louis inhaled deep and let out an equally deep sigh, then took a step forward.

He wasn't at all surprised, then, by the multitude of snipers, gunmen and armed soldiers that creeped out from every hidden nook and cranny behind every delivery parcel possible in this shipping container.

The man on the throne took his glass and raised it again-but instead of gulping the drink down, he tipped it and 'spilled' it onto the ground. While the liquid was slowly spilling, he glanced at Louis again with a curious smile etched on his face.

Louis himself didn't care. In fact, he didn't even bother reaching for his gun which he had already kept. Instead he was cracking his own neck-much to Caelus the taxi driver's amusement-turning his head around in all four directions to get a good look at all...129 of his enemies, out for his blood.

The wine in the glass continued pouring. The man on the throne retained his expression. Louis folded his arms and swiveled his eyes around again.

He inhaled and sighed yet another deep sigh again and unfolded his arms.

Then his eyes flashed a sudden, glowing crimson red, slightly levitating himself above the ground, as he too lifted his left foot to avoid contact with the ground.

Both arms bent down and curved upwards coupled with the blue colour palette, he truly looked like a levitating god ready to suck the wind out of the atmosphere and suffocate you any moment.

And as it did, every single one of the 129 (132 if the 2 guards of the man on the throne and Caelus were counted) armed men had the same glowing crimson red effect they had in their eyes.

They immediately dropped their guns, simultaneously kicked and tossed them away into a large pile of firearms, and walked forward lifelessly like a horde of zombies out of their hiding spots into sight with their hands up in the air.

Even the once energetic Caelus had lost the bounce in his step and tiredly drifted over like the rest of the armed men, becoming a husk of his former self and joining the hypnotised zombies.

Oh, and speaking of the man on the throne-he too had come under the effect of it. Lifelessly slouching there on his throne, his eyes were glowing even brighter than the rest of the mind-controlled horde-as bright as Louis's himself.

Louis then calmly strolled over-correction, calmly levitated over to his throne, and just as calmly ceases the levitation and knelt down to eye level with the man on the throne.

"Tell me everything you know about the Corrupt Crimefile case. The true case," He went again with that voice, strikingly beautiful yet evoking a strange sense of terror in the hearts of the onlookers.

The man on the throne immediately sat up and started talking in a monotone voice, losing the minor hint of arrogance he had before.

"I only know that, that day, some sort of black seed killed many people there, and that Xue Long definitely had something to do with it…”

Louis slowly stood up and stayed silent for a moment, hiding his glowing eyes once again behind his hoodie and letting the light from them seep through. Not like anyone in the room was even capable of seeing it anyway, what with all the hypnosis going around.

"Go on," He said after seeing that the man on the throne had stopped for some reason.

He didn't get a chance to hear the man's reply though, for he felt something speeding and sharp pierce his right shoulder. He stumbled over and instinctively grabbed his wounded shoulder, before immediately clicking his gun in his right hand and pointing it in the direction where the bullet had come flying from.

But before he could react, another shining metallic bullet flew through and penetrated the man's skull bloodily.

Louis clearly had no time to check if the man was still alive even after a headshot, since the shock created when the earlier bullet had hit him shaked his concentration and broke the hypnosis he had on all 132 armed men.

Again with another bright flash of red, he had control over them again before any of them could even run to pick up their guns. Yes, he had control, but maintaining it was getting exceedingly difficult with the pain from his shoulder wound affecting his focus.

He ducked behind a safe stack of parcels he knew the sniper wouldn't be able to reach him.

He had taken one clear glimpse of the bullet in the (now dead) man's cranium-it was obviously a sniper bullet.

"A sniper would not shoot from a low point, as did the bullet's trajectory indicate the sniper was elevated by at least 5 metres.

He should have noticed by now the strange behaviour of the hypnotised zombies-and definitely surmised it to be my doing.

Was the sniper's goal even to kill me? Or just to injure me? Was I simply another obstacle, and I was in his way?"

A thousand thoughts flashed through Louis's head, ringing in his mind accompanied by the searing pain of his wound.

He tried so hard to focus, but all he could feel was the hellfire pain and the dripping blood down his right arm disrupting the warmth his coat brought.

An idea of seeing through or directly controlling the eyes of one of his mind-controlled men was sounded out. Which was an incredible idea, if only he couldn't control 132 people AND see through even one of them AND manage his shoulder wound at the same time.

"Wait, why did the sniper even shoot my arm in the first place?"

He could finally hear that one voice of reason whisking amidst his internal racing thoughts.

"Happening to hit me couldn't have been an option, he shot two bullets, and I was the one he hit first. Could he have been trying to divert my attention?

His main intention isn't to kill either, otherwise he would have straightaway pulled a headshot on me.

He isn't chasing after me, though. His intention is probably just to kill Robert.

Although there's only one exit, and if he escaped from there, I would surely be able to catch him.

Does he know the capabilities of my Ikigai? If he knows I'm able to mind-control those armed men, does he know how strong it is?

Wait...the arrangement of parcel stacks..."

Louis calmed his mind and all the swirling thoughts as much as he could and tried his best to recall how the parcels had been placed.

"In all the scenarios possible, since there's only one exit, shooting either my head or leg to prevent me from escaping would have resulted in the best outcome for him. Why did he shoot my arm instead?

He can't not be an experienced marksman, he took out Robert with one bullet after he got me out of the way.

...

Is he in a position where he could only shoot my arm?

Is a headshot obstructed by other stacks of parcels?

Is he not escaping because he'd expose himself if he did?"

A surprisingly bright and clear bird's eye view of the entire shipping container formed in his mind, and he began the elimination process keeping the required criteria in his mind:

"At least 5 metres high, provide a clear vantage point, expose himself if he were to escape from where he was, be the only spot providing such a vantage point such that he had to set up camp there even though it obstructed both a headshot and legshot..."

He filtered through multiple stacks before finally stopping at one that fulfilled all the criteria-the stack behind the one second from his right.

He rolled up his sleeve again and checked the time-15 minutes since midnight.

He had to risk it. If his hypothesis turned out to be false, then he'd just have to accept that he was beaten by someone better than him.

He put down his hand clutching the bleeding shoulder, then daringly stepped out of his hiding spot and raced as fast as a bullet to the enemy's lair, shooting his gun into the air of his destination to deter his opponent.

Sure enough, he was moving quite fast, and with the constant shower of bullets around that certain stack of parcels, the sniper knew not how to take him down.

Until Louis saw him. He had reached the stack close enough to make eye contact with him. And his eyes glowed an even brighter crimson red.

And once he saw him, he realised that this very sniper...was also the taxi driver...who somehow overcame the mental hypnosis. Did Louis not concentrate enough or something?

Now he could effortlessly knock down the sniper rifle from its perch with just a swat of his hand-which, of course, he didn't because his shoulder was already hurting like mad.

Now he finally had that very last enemy turned back into another one of his lifeless zombies dropping his rifle lifelessly and walking lifelessly towards the horde where the lifeless zombies gathered.

Once he was obediently seated with the rest, he released him and only him from the trance.

Twirling a handcuff, he knocked him to lie back down, placed one foot on his chest and said, with that entrancing voice again that sounded rather out of breath, "I'm Senior Investigation Officer Louis Yong of the Special Investigation Section of CID. Mr Caelus, you are under arrest for attempted murder, criminal activities related to secret societies, smuggling of firearms, and obstruction of justice."

"Guess ya caught me, man..." Caelus sat upright when Vigilance took his foot off of his chest, but grabbed his hands forcefully so he could cuff them together.

Louis looked around again, at the horde of 131 armed men still under his control. He couldn't keep up the hypnosis forever, and his shoulder probably cut the time he could in half, and even if he could keep it up forever, there was just no way he'd be able to escort all 131 of them.

He'd have to call back upon reinforcements.

....which he had already anticipated and cleverly stationed them close by to help him round up the gang.

Maybe not actually do the work because he didn't want to burden them. Or maybe this was his own personal issue. Or maybe he didn't want to put them in danger.

He reached into the surprising plethora of storage space in his coat pockets and whipped out his phone which he interestingly never used at all for the entire adventure.

He texted something so discreetly such that not even Caelus could tell what he was writing even from his placement of fingers onto the keyboard, then quickly put away his phone back into his coat pocket.

Then he did something worthy of questioning-he took out a bottle of perfume and sprayed it all over his right shoulder. His wounded shoulder.

So much such that every last lingering smell of blood was completely erased and replaced by some grape green flavour. The long and strangely thick sleeve of his coat masked the blood still flowing, and could actually contain it fairly well.

That and Louis's relatively high pain tolerance that was at least enough not to make him go yelping and screaming in pain, such that he could actually conceal the wound long enough.

Conceal from his reinforcements, probably.

And reinforcements came, actually incredibly quickly.

A quirky young woman in a classic street performer's outfit, almost invoking the sense that she was some kind of clown at the circus.

She came mimicking the action of busting down the door (since Louis had already politely busted it down), then stepped on it gloriously, raised her arms high in the sky to be beholded, gestured for Caelus (somehow she knew he would play along) to scream out absolutely iconic lines in sync:

"Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth! That's right!"

Although he visibly cheered up a little when his reinforcements appeared with their little introduction theme. Like his world of black-and-white just got a happy splash of colour.

"Forget it, just help me clean up after them, I'm assuming you brought rope or something?" Louis responded, clearly with a bit more excitement in his voice because it became even more pleasant-sounding.

"Ya bet!" The girl gave him an 'ok' sign with a cute face, then watched as Louis lift the hypnosis and walk away now that the problem was entrusted to someone reliable.

"Alright...this is about to get interesting," She snickered, flourishing her set of ropes and torture equipment.

-----------------

He locked himself in the toilet, making sure that no one was outside or needed to go urgently-and carefully took off his many layers of coats.

Visibly shivering immensely like some sort of cold rush came over him with each layer he removed, his entire arm was basically having a seizure on its own by the time the skin was exposed.

He shivered greatly from some cold, yet sweated greatly from the pain. The contrast between the two was like some cruel joke his body was playing on him.

He got the tweezers and cloth ready and adjusted the tweezers so he could get it done and over with. With a single forceful extraction of the tweezers, the bullet fell out like a rock on a hill, just as the blood came gushing out like the debris of said rock on a hill.

He instinctively pressed the towel against the open wound hardly, trying his best to stop the bleeding. He let out a soft groan, for he dared not make anything louder and risk alerting the others.

The beads of sweat trickled down his forehead. His shoulder was immensely cold. He needed to stop the bleeding quickly so he could put on his coats again.

He looked into the mirror, checking to see if he was presentable enough while he was stopping the bleeding such that the others would not question a thing.

He gazed straight into his own midnight black eyes-the colour of the starless night sky.

This curse-that thing brought it onto him.

But this curse was nothing compared to what ‘they’ were prophesied to bear.

He didn't know the full case, but-

He must do his part to save them.

Before it was too late.

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

Crimeblind Episode 2

"Crimewatch, but we're blind...Episode 2,"

She was just stopping to buy some fish soup at the local hawker centre, before returning to the hospital for work issues again.

While waiting for the food to be ready, she stared at her book, analysing every word of every paragraph on every page. The average passers-by might think she was just pretending to look smart, but that was certainly not the case.

Just as everyone was minding their own business, going about their day, in a twist of fate, a loud scream of terror and fear came from the fish soup stall, and everyone instinctively or out of curiosity turned their heads to the direction the sound was coming from.

Now, by now most people would have panicked or went forward to see what was going on, but no, not her. There she sat calmly reading her intriguing story, as intriguing as it was to continually absorb her till she couldn't even be bothered that something serious had happened.

Everybody else had circled around, muttering around themselves and causing a commition while she placidly perused through the book.

"Aren't you gonna go? You're the most qualified here..." That familiar voice rang in her head again.

"I'm not spending that much time at the hospital, am I? Why is her voice..."

"Come on, you're better than this, go now, save him!" She could clearly see her 'friend' in full view, cunning as ever.

Was she hallucinating from working a bit too much lately?

She sat in silence for a while.

Her friend's hallucination stared at her for a while.

"Fine, fine, I'll go," She tossed her book back into her bag and brushed past the hallucination.

She strolled over, not batting an eyelid as to the many flustered faces in the crowd, whether they be worried for whatever had happened or simply pretentious parents worrying that their kids be traumatised by such an event and not caring about whatever happened itself.

The crowd quickly dispersed to reveal the man lying on the ground there in pain, and his hand drenched in blood so bad it looked like he had soaked it in deliberately, and hadn't left it to dry yet, what with all the blood still dripping and all.

There were practically zero other visible wounds, so it had been most likely that he was lying down not due to pain, but fear.

The stall had was a one-way-out room, so the only way to access him and properly treat his wounds was being blocked by public threats to him currently.

Once the threat of danger had been neutralised, she turned back to take a quick glance at her patient, who kept his eyes closed on the verge of tears from the pain.

She said nothing, observing intently the severity of the wound.

After an incredibly short while, she singled out someone in the crowd (who was still around but not so close to the man now), "You there, in the green shirt, call 995!!". She even threw in the actual number to ensure that anyone who didn't know or forgot the number could still help.

A few people immediately whipped out their phones and got to dialling the numbers.

She now started to crouch down to get to the level of the man who kept his eyes squeezed shut out of the pain, and spoke the golden statement,

"Sir, my name is Rai, I'm a first aider and I'm here to help you, stay calm, mister, please please please please please don't scream in my face again, I'm tired of that, please don't make my life so difficult, also, what happened?,"

The man opened his eyes a little in order to (very blurred) make out the silhouette of a young lady kneeling near him.

"Uh...I was cutting vegetables and then I wasn't really paying attention and then I..." He immediately squeezed his eyes tight upon seeing the silhouette, and answered her question with a clear voice.

Rai nodded her head in agreement, continuing to avoid eye contact with the wounded man (not that he could see anyway, what with his eyes sealed shut).

She reached for a first-aid kit in her bag, and pulled out a pair of gloves and an absorptive cloth.

"Sir, can you tell me your name? About what time it is and where are you?" She asked as she donned the gloves, being careful not to touch the sterile parts of her hand with her already-donned-gloves.

'Uh...my name is Ka Nee Na, it's about afternoon, and I am at my fish soup stall," He thought for a moment, then replied Rai.

"Good, not disoriented..." She muttered to herself, turning for the cloth she had taken out before and positioning herself to stop the bleeding...before quickly stopping herself at the last minute.

"Sir...this is gonna hurt, you might want something to bite down on," She warned him first, directly in his face this time so he couldn't refuse to hear.

"Ugh..." Mr. Ka was clearly in the denial stage of the five stages of grief, closing his eyes and figuratively shutting his ears to refuse to hear or see anyone or anything.

Rai took out another gauze bandage and stuffed it in his mouth, much to his...well, actually he didn't really struggle since he probably wants it too.

"3,2,1..." She counted down to his moment of suffering before forcing the cloth onto his wound and applying as much pressure as she could in order to stop the bleeding.

"Cfjkdksksjsj!!!" Ka Nee Na screamed in pain but couldn't make out any audible word as the bandage in his mouth was preventing clear articulation.

Rai paid no heed to his cries, instead solely focusing on applying the pressure, giving it all she had.

Even after a few minutes, the bleeding showed no signs of stopping at all, no matter how much pressure Rai applied.

Soon realising that normal pressure would be futile in helping her stop the bleeding, she decided to go with another option, grabbing the nearby pen Ka Nee Na would have normally used to calculate accounts.

Next ingredient on her list was a piece of long cloth. For that she had shouted to the watching crowd, "Does anyone have a piece of extra cloth or shirt I could borrow?" to which one schoolboy affirmed and handed her the cloth.

Getting hold of the pen with a (possibly, just give the benefit of the doubt) sterilised cloth, she meticulously twisted the cloth around the pen while being careful not to aggravate the wound any further.

Once she was done, by the grace of the heavens above, the ambulance had finally arrived just as she plucked out the pen from the improvised tourniquet. Thankfully she would no longer have to pretend to do something while waiting for the ambulance to arrive even though she can't risk aggravating his wound anymore, just for the sake of the crowd watching.

The paramedics quickly arrived with a stretcher and stretched him onto the ambulance, on board to the nearest hospital...which just so coincidentally happened to be the hospital Rai worked at.

So she didn't manage to get her fish soup, and had to help someone out even on her break time, but she managed to gain a free ride back to the hospital! Which is a pretty sweet deal.

On the way back, however, she would soon discover she had even more work to complete now, as her patient had asked her for another favour while on his (well, figuratively) deathbed.

"Hey, um, uh...Rai, was it? Sorry to be asking some random nurse who saved my life for more help, but uh...I needed to be somewhere right about now..."

"Great, more work...whaddya want me to do?"

"Well...I was meant to be a substitute for my son who had fallen ill the day before. He had to invigilate for a class of notorious cheaters an important exam, and had to scrutinise every single one of them and catch them in the act if he could...but then..."

"Sure, send me the coordinates and I'll be on my way...should be fun..."

"Oh yeah, and one more thing...the students are rich as hell, so like...don't trust anyone,"

--------------

She stepped into the examination hall, much to the surprise of the many students upon seeing her face, probably because they were expecting an easier invigilator to cheat under.

She, on the other hand, paid no heed to their flusters, calmly making her way over to the invigilator's seat, having briefed her fellow invigilator for her temporary takeover of Mr Ka Ni Na's duties.

"Hi, I'm Denise, you're taking over Mr Ka Ni Na, right?" Her invigilating partner introduced herself.

"Mm. Rai." She did the same.

She checked her watch. Precisely 15.00.

"*yawn* You may start now, class," She choked out before heading back to her seat to sleep.

The class appeared a bit confused regarding this sudden, mystery factor's actions, and rightfully so-after all, was she simply faking sleepiness to get them to lower their guard?

The students examined the rare specimen before them cautiously as Rai's partner passed down the examination scripts.

She stood up carefully a while after the students had started penning down their answers, yawning softly after her quick but refreshing nap.

She stared off into blank space tiredly, blinking fast a few times.

The students continued to observe her while getting on with busily writing down the examination answers as well.

She then got up, out of her comfortable seat, stretching a nice, long, satisfying stretch. The students persisted their observations.

Rai stepped off the invigilator's seat podium (yes, podium, the hall WAS oddly shaped like a square-like amphitheatre, stage in front and stage seats at the back, allowing students to easily be able to cheat with no way the invigilator could keep eyes on such a widespread audience), and made her way up the seats carrying that poker-face-well, it was rather more of a I-don't-want-to-be-here face.

Much to Denise's unasked questions written all over her face, Rai continued to go up to the very top, the very back of the seats, observing each and every student's behaviour just as keenly as they had observed her. Only she was being much more detailed this time.

She noticed every little action they took, from the way they gripped their pen to their alleged cheating habits...nothing escaped her sight.

She reached the exit door, then turned back and walked back down to the invigilator's seat again.

She took a step. The student under her hawk-like gaze winced, pierced by an invisible glare.

She reached for his pencil, still lying in the tight clutch of his warm embrace.

"May I have a closer look at this pencil?" She smiled a sincere yet obsolete smile, gesturing for the pencil.

And at that instant all the students within hearing distance put down their pens, shot up their heads, eyes wide.

They knew she was getting onto something.

They just had to pray hard that she didn't realise what actually was going on.

The student was no exception, trembling with trepidation and fear, anxious at the potential discovery of the truth behind the matter.

"Sure, cher," He shakingly replied, afraid of what would happen if he refused.

Rai took the pencil.

She examinded everything about it. From the lead to the wooden part. From the design to the barcode.

The barcode.

There was something off about it that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Rai set the pencil back down on the student's table, far away from his shivering body that dare not move an inch.

She smiled again, pat him lightly on the back, and continued walking back down.

She continued to keep a keen eye on every student in the examination hall, especially those who had already started to let their guard down, calmly strolling down the steps.

And stopped when she reached a certain young man.

He was untidy, his hair all over the place. He sat arrogantly. He wrote his answers with an air of superiority.

He appeared to be the head of something, something big, or at least something he considered to be big, which would explain how he acted like he was some big shot.

Like the popular guy in school, who smokes and vapes and drinks and runs gangs.

Nah, being so hyped up, he had to be some important figure.

Even the student seated next to him dared not put her stuff too close to his 'territorial seat'.

"May I have a look at your pencil, then?" She asked again, this time with less smile and more glare.

He stopped writing, dropped his pencil on the table, and looked back up at her.

"Of course," He nodded, gazing at her with a hint of suspicion.

There was more to this than simple pencil-checking.

Again as Rai picked the pencil up, she examined the same few details-the lead, the wood-

the barcode.

She stared at it for a while, subconsciously watching her every breath while keeping an eye on the gang leader.

He was watching her. But in a way that far extends beyond what was going on in the hall.

She took a deep breath and set the pencil back down on his table.

"What's your name?"

"Syed Ibrahim,"

"Syed...good luck," She gestured to the test paper, open to page number 9, and continued walking back down to the invigilator's seat.

This time she did not stop at anybody, heading straight for the seat.

And picking up the invigilator's copy of the test paper, flipping through it like how any normal person would do it.

Question number 4: The numbers in a number sequence are 1, 0.25, 0.370370 (to 6 s.f). Of the following numbers, which is the next number in the sequence?

a.) 0.0954286

b.) 0.08124218

c.) 0.00390625

d.) 0.00016352

A relative question, though it's quite taxing for the average 10-year old in this class to be taking on something like this, she thought. No wonder they're resorting to cheating.

She put the paper down, and made her first move against the blatant cheating of the entire class.

"Class, I hope you have been studying hard for this test and are thus well-prepared, which I know none of you are," She stood up, supporting herself with the table.

"I'll be collecting all your pencils for you and give you that of my own, class, so please cooperate with me," She held up a woven basket by the handle, flourishing it for all to see.

A thread of groans, gasps and pondering hmms could be heard echoing through the hall. Syed remained with an observing face, closely examining Rai's next move, just as she was doing.

"What...why?" Denise inquired, frustration and intrigue mixed at the mysterious actions Rai took.

"And here I thought it was quite obvious, haven't you noticed the barcodes of their pencils?"

"And what about it?"

"Well, they're all matching, that's for one. Every single student's pencil's barcode in this examination hall matches each other exactly,"

"That...doesn't...tell us anything..."

"Well, if they're not guilty, what's wrong with me replacing their pencils? Unless they're using it to cheat or something?"

And that sentence shut Denise up.

Rai gave her a side eye smirk, then walked up the aisle to collect everyone's pencils.

Rapidly gathering all the pencils with swift actions and replacing them all with pencils of her own, she made her way up the steps, conquering student after student.

And alas, she reached the fated one.

Syed.

He was staring at his paper as she strolled over. Surprisingly and unsurprisingly calm, he was certainly unlike his fellow classmates-no, they were like fish out of water.

"I hope you've been doing well, Syed, and I'll take that off you," She spoke in a composed manner, reaching for the pencil to replace.

Syed did not look at her. His hands left where they were on his lap, his head tilted down, his breathing hardly out-of-the-ordinary.

Either he wasn't the mastermind of this, he didn't know about this at all, or he's certain he won't get persecuted.

She walked on her pencil replacement quest, well aware Syed went back to examining her.

Having made sure she had replaced every single pencil in use in the hall, she went back to the invigilator's seat to study the barcodes of the pencils carefully.

And sure enough, each barcode of each pencil matched each other perfectly...and also the answers.

If the thickest line matched d.) and the thinnest line matched a.), then sure, it did match.

This could only work for MCQ, though, did they seriously think only the MCQ could save them from failure?

She looked up again, to check on the students.

Some were grumbling about not having the answers anymore. Some were pulling their hair out, fumbling over how to still ensure a pass for this paper.

And Syed...he was scribbling something down hastily, yet his head was again tilted to cover his expression, just as he was at the start of the exam.

Denise was muttering something to a student seated near Syed, probably answering a question she had.

"Ugh, you satisfied now? You've confused a lot of the students, and now they say they can't focus on the paper because they never know if you'll suddenly go up to then and snatch it up!" Denise furiously whispered, striding back, much to Rai's amusement.

"Well, I foiled their cheating plans, didn't I? See for yourself, the barcodes do indeed correspond to the question answers," Rai showed off the basket to Denise, smiling her usual smile-not one of sincerity, but of plan and mask.

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Denise shrugged it off, deeming it something minor as a daily occurence.

"At least they won't act up again. *yawn* I'm just gonna...zone out now. Tired, but not tired enough to fall asleep...help me watch over them," Rai whispered, then really zoned out as if she had removed some virtual reality headset and her avatar was remaining stationary-staring off into blank space, blinking momentarily.

"Um...ok..." Denise agreed, though Rai still had a full view of the students, she was in her own world now.

The other students continued to struggle with the lack of their answers, some of them even crying and breaking down, and Denise rushing to comfort them.

Syed, on the other hand, was starting to take the major threat getting out of the way to his advantage now.

Making bold movements-such as blatantly, obviously ceasing to write any more-and showing his face to reveal a complexity of complacency.

Such a bold move, in fact-it was so bold that it attracted the attention of even the slumbering Rai, who immediately sat up to observe his actions-but still maintaining her sleepy appearance, in order to catch Syed off-guard and gain herself the upper hand.

Of course, as bold as Syed was, he wouldn’t dare to blatantly, irrefutably cheat, instead waiting for the opportune moment.

And wait for the oppurtune moment, he did-but come the oppurtune moment, never...

Yes, for Rai had once again stood up and walked down the aisle like she did before for the last time.

Walking straight up to where Denise and Syed was, placing her hand onto their shoulders ever-so placidly.

"Go on," She whispered with a controlling smirk on her face.

"Well...when did you find out?" Denise didn't even bother to keep up the pretense for an extra second, dropping the issue of the crying student.

"Trust no one..."

"What...uh...was that really all it took for you to figure it out?"

"Well, not really, but from the moment you showed that look on your face when I collected the pencils..."

"That was a pretty normal reaction, though,"

"Not to me,"

Syed listened in on the two ladies arguing, patiently waiting for his part of the play.

"The whole...pencil thing was just a front, right? Meant for distracting Mr Ka Ni Na from the real cheaters here..."

"But unfortunately, you didn't take...me into consideration,"

Syed waited some more, drawing his knife quietly.

Or, not so quietly, since Rai took every note of it.

"Alright, now what? What are you gonna do to me? Hand me.to the authorities? Tie me to a rock and sacrifice me to the sun god? Cook me into ragout-"

That was the code.

Syed striked.

But not at Rai.

Making swift work of the student beside him, Syed slit his throat-thankfully not cutting any vital veins, keeping it dead-clpse to his neck.

That student didn't even have the time to react-not even scream, before Rai lunged foward and elegantly snatching the knife off Syed's hands and knocking him away-as swiftly as he had slit the throat.

Both of them really like springing the element of surprise, huh?

Once more, taking advantage of the fact that Denise was stunned, Rai played the same trick Syed had-getting tight hold of her neck and placing the knife to it.

"It's not just...you, is it? It's not just him," *gestures to Syed kneeling in solemn reflection of his mistakes-which are probably how we messed up assassinating Rai rather than actually feeling remorseful for cheating*

"It's everyone in this room. Everyone," She flourished a dramatic act with her fingers to indicate wonder.

"..." Denise and Syed both stayed silent, one knife to her neck and the other crushed by the presence of an oppresor.

"I don't have anything I can keep them occupied with, though...AND I can't leave that guy's wound unattended for too long..." She cast another glance at the now-unconscious and bleeding student, probably from too much blood loss.

The multitude of students crowding around either Syed, her and Denise or the injured student really made her feel like she was back in the Ka Ni Na situation...

"I'll just have to prioritise saving the student AND keeping an eye on Denise and Syed...ugh, why can't Baizurah be here? She's the one who made me come here...wait, wait, wait, no, why am I even thinking about her? I can do this on my own!" She quickly pushed the idea of her previously hallucinated friend out of her mind, and got to saving the student.

Kneeling down just as she had when treating Mr Ka Ni Na, she tried the same treatment as well.

She hadn't a second to spare in stopping the blood flow, yet it was really too much through ordinary methods.

She knew she had to resort to the last and absolute worst method to her to use-her power.

Her Ikigai.

Hovering a hand above the student's neck, she closed her eyes and concentrated even harder than she had to set up the restraining spell. Her hand glowed a vibrant blue all this while, and so to the blue light of her eyes shining through her eyelids.

Then she opened her eyes. And the blue light flashed through. And after it cleared the wound was healed completely. Not a drop of blood. Not a single scar. Good as new.

She could spot Syed reaching again for the knife from the corner of her fading eye.

But she worried not.

Syed stealthily seized the weapon and attempted to strike Rai just as he had struck the student, pouncing on her while vulnerable.

In fact, he was a mere hair away from her neck-and this time, with the supportive demeanour of Denise and a few other cheating students, he wasn't planning on sparing the vital organs.

But she had her own backup plan. Or, backup person.

The knife swung down on her...and was stopped when it briefly met with a bullet that was shot vertically.

From the direction of the bullet stood a young lady in a seriously dramatic pose.

Appearing in the most timely moment possible, AND in an extremely hot black trenchcoat with a white coat underneath...wait, did she wear this in advance? Also, when did Rai call her anyway?

Once again, having not learnt to react faster when encountered with surprises, Syed stumbled back and stunned himself, giving the newcomer all the time in the world she needed to take back the knife straight out from Syed's hands.

Balancing the knife carefully in her hand like a basketball, she took out her final weapon-rope...wait, she brought....rope...

And then she tied each and every one of the students individually... and Denise up with it...with rope...she tied...

And how did she avoid resistance? Oh, she was quite eerily proficient in wielding her gun. Every single student willingly, shakingly, fearfully complied with her because of how good she was with that shotgun.

She could walk up to each individual student, and they would willingly give their hands to be tied up, because of how well she handled her weapon.

Even Syed surrendered his weapon unconditionally. With tremendous fear in etched across his face, just like Denise and all the other students in the room.

Strange.

Anyway. The job was done. Rai got back up, dusted herself off, and immediately snatched the gun out of the lady's hands.

"Please, stop, Baizurah, for the sake of my stupid mental health, messing in my affairs, also why do you even have this, anyway?" She dangled the gun like a lucky charm in front of the lady as if she was a hungry dog dangling a piece of meat.

"What? Getting bored of me already? Oh, right..." The lady paused mid-speech, as if recalling an important event.

"You know what? I don't care what you do with them anymore, I'm outta here," Said Rai WHILE STILL HOLDING THE GUN.

"Fine, fine, I'll leave them to your stupid authorities..." Said Baizurah, who also walked off following Rai.

While leaving the cheating students tied up.

Hold on, is no one thinking about them?

Did everyone just forget about them?

-------------

"Take me to this address," The man in the black coat and almost vantablack hoodie flashed a map with a labelled address kept dry from the heavy downpour by the umbrella which masked his face.

"Uh, no, I can't, that's an...uh...abandoned hotel, that's kinda...haunted, ya get what I mean?" The driver in the taxi bit his lip, kindly refusing and explaining why.

The black coated man said nothing, reaching into his suit pocket and pulling out a large bundle of monetary notes, which the taxi driver immediately snatched.

"Uh...I can take you to road leading to the hotel, but I won't go anywhere near the hotel," The taxi driver negotiated, obviously demanding he get more of the dough where that came from.

And the man in the umbrella gave in. He pulled out yet another bundle, which the taxi driver yet again snatched immediately.

"Well, kind, and certainly wealthy, sir, I would love to send you to your destination, but you see, the rumours about that place...just aren't worth how much you're offering, hmm?" Attempting to extort more from what he thought was an easy money drain, huh.

To that the man in the downpour said nothing. Hiding his face behind the angle of the umbrella, and dressed in so many layers of clothing and coats, covered in elaborate gloves, such that practically no part of his skin was revealed-who even knew what was going on in that devious mind of his.

Then he reached into his suit pocket again. Not to take out another bundle of cash, no, he wasn't about to give in to the taxi driver's pleas anymore-

instead he took out a gun.

And he put it to the driver's forehead.

And then, that was when you could see his eyes widen even more than when he had seen the bundle of cash.

"S-s-so-so-sorry, big sir, I-I-I didn't know you were-"

"Drive." This tone was much more serious and solemn than when he had asked for the first time. "If you make any moves I'll shoot you,"

"Y-yes kind sir," He shakily uttered as the man put away his umbrella, opened the car door and got in the car.

"I knew it, wearing such a serial killer's outfit in a heavily rainy day, asking to be driven to some abandoned hotel, of course he's up to no good,"

It sure didn't help that even without the umbrella covering his face now that he was safely in the driving taxi, all the taxi driver could see from the rear mirror were two curved, devious eyes among darkness staring straight into his soul through it.

"Sir, p-pl-please have mercy on me, I have a wife...and kids...they're still small, they can't do without their father..." The taxi driver attempted to plead for mercy in the same way he pleaded for more money just now.

And again the man said nothing. No, in fact, he had exactly zero reaction to it.

Not really fond of talking, huh, this guy?

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

Crimeblind Episode 1

"Crimewatch, but we're blind,"

"Wah lao, today no customer, sibeh bo liao," The shop owner sighed as he rested his head on the table stretching two hands across it.

"Aiya what you expect, we are selling drinks leh, today rain so heavy, who want to buy?" His co-owner didn't even bother to look up from the intriguing newspaper headline he was reading.

"Yeah but we no money liao, liddat cannot sell anything then how?" The first owner decided to reason some sense into his colleague's bochap self.

"Aiya, today is so peaceful, please just rela-" He was attempting to calm his colleague down before getting rudely interrupted by the sudden arrival of a new variable that totally contradicts his statement-and it's a sound-

"CNB! STOP!"

The two men sprang up immediately with full energy as they eagerly awaited to watch the good show that would come with the sound.

Surely enough, a teenage-looking youngster who is definitely high stumbled into the shop running away, eyes red on drugs and hair standing on end like he's had it blown at for 3 days straight.

Shortly after, a few POLIS officers run after him like mad dogs and quickly cornered him and then pinned his desperate, can't-find-a-way-out self onto the wall, and then saying the classic lines,

"I'm Senior Investigation Officer Ahmad Bin Muhammad. Are you Hakim Bin Yusof?" said by manly daddy Ahmad dressed in tight police officer clothes to show off his muscles as he hotly kept his criminal pinned against the definitely jealous wall.

But then, ah, with what a twist of fate, the criminal dared to ask a true question of pure defiance and mockery,

"Bro Ahmad? Seriously? Wow, that's definitely the most original Malay name I've heard, DEFINITELY not the most steoreotypical Malay name ever, yeah sure sure sure," He avoided the question and instead chose to scoff and mock his arresting officer's name.

"Just answer the damn question, yes or no, no need to say anything bad about my dad's choice of name!" Daddy Ahmad quickly retaliated his insult...by choosing to forget about it and get the offender to shut up. Not very wise.

"What? Offended? Bah, I bet your girlfriend's name is Fatima or something..." He mimed spitting slightly against the wall he was still pinned up against, clearly attempting to anger the officer in front of him.

Or, rather, since his back is turned towards the wall, behind.

"He doesn't have a girlfriend..." A female officer who appears to be his subordinate corrected his mistake by rubbing salt further into his wound.

"SHUT UP!!!! HAKIM! AND JENIFFER! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT ME TO DO ANYWAY, MY NAME REALLY IS AHMAD, WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO?" Wah now he really lost his cool liao and about to go crazy with all Hakim's (ok ngl good) roasts.

The female officer, apparently named Jeniffer, obviously kept silent due to the fact that she did not want to lose her job.

The criminal, however, decided to push his luck a tad bit further by even starting to comment on his bodily appearance,

"Bro you're short as hell man, you look like...what? 163 at most? How old are you bro, I'm 15 and definitely taller than you bro," He even sneered and smiled the criminal's sexy (not so sexy in this instance) smile meant for laughing at the 'foolish' police officers. Apparently not so foolish in this case considering they caught him after all.

"SHUT UP YOU DELINQUENT! WELL GUESS WHAT, I DON'T ACTUALLY NEED TO ASK YOU FOR YOUR NAME, IT'S JUST A FORMALITY, YOU'D BETTER COMPLY OR I'LL LEGIT SNAP YOUR NECK RIGHT NOW!" Wah, now it really doesn't sound like an empty threat with how much his eyes are flashing anime-ultimate-power-reveal.

"Ok ok fine fine fine, I'll go back with you, ok? Happy now? Mr. Short Ahmad?" Hakim complied, but still dared to make one final prod at his arresting officer's self esteem.

"SHUT UP!!!!!!"

-----------

*in the interrogation room*

"Let's make this quick, Hakim, the more I have to stare at your face think I might legit go mad at this point, so PLEASE I BEG YOU JUST COMPLY," Ahmad already had his buried deep in his 'praying-formation' hands, begging for the criminal to be lenient on him. Without context some might even mistake Ahmad for the criminal, begging for leniency for his imprisonment sentence. Well actually there isn't much of a difference here.

"And what are you going to do? Beat me up?" Hakim, despite being at a serious disadvantage right now and being already caught in the interrogation room, practically having his fate sealed, decided to test Ahmad's true limits.

And those true limits weren't were very sustaining.

With him absolutely losing his cool and surprisingly grabbing Hakim's neck by the hand with his utmost strength and pressing his fingernails so hard if he went any harder Hakim would have started to bleed.

With fierce glowing red eyes, and a strong, firm grip on the offender's neck, he uttered with hot daddy vibes,

"Yes,"

And only now was Hakim deeply regretting his past actions of mockery and insult of Ahmad-when he 's being held at the equivalent of gunpoint and the threat of, in Ahmad's words, "You better comply or I will ensure you have a humiliating fate worse than death,"

"OK OK OK OK OK, cheel dude, relac a bit, I'll talk, I'll talk," Hakim instinctively backed up and put his hands up in the air.

Ahmad backed down and put away his claws somewhere safe.

"So, where did you get the drugs from? That...835g of heroin...and I bet there's more, huh?" Ahmad, now finally able to properly being the questioning, questioned with that same bochap look on his face.

"From my dealer la! Then you think what?" Walao eh, even now he still want to tok kin kok, like to play play.

Of course Ahmad's eyes flashed that ominous green again as he glared fiercely at Hakim, daring him to try his luck once more.

"Ok, ok, I call him East Coast but I don't actually know his real name, I only call him that cos we always meet at East Coast," Hakim finally decided to cooperate and provide proper, nice, perfect, useful, good, whole information.

"Ok, good, keep that up, then, what does he look like?" Ahmad is finally not resorting to violence to get his way, nodding his head in peaceful agreement while typing away on his laptop, noting down key information.

"I dunno, he always wear a mask and sunglasses when he come to collect the money, but he should be slightly taller than you, and looks Chinese," Without even being asked, Hakim willingly, added on to the convict description.

"Good, very very good, did he say anything to you about a large batch of incoming heroin?" Ahmad, now burying his head (figuratively) in his laptop instead of his hands with confidence now that he's no longer being roasted.

"Ah, that one ah...I cannot tell you, sorry," Hakim was doing well at first, but then he suddenly realised and decided not to snitch on his fellow drug dealers.

"Ah...well that's ok, if you don't wanna snitch on your fellow criminals, we'll have other ways to tell...including...whether you've been lying or providing false information all this while," Ahmad decided to eye him a bit and give him a slight warning before deciding on how sealed his fate should be.

"Nope, you already have a way to tell anyway, it's still death penalty for me anyway, so win-win, huh?" He smirked a bit, much to Ahmad's annoyance and constant sighing of the paperwork he would have to finish.

-------

"Well, at least according to what HE said, if he's trustworthy enough, should be somewhere in...'a party' near East Coast," Ahmad, now dressed in a plain clothes attire, adressed the issue to his subordinates.

"Sir, we waited until sundown just for this so-called party, it might not even exist and is maybe even just a distractor while the real drug deal happens elsewhere, what if we just head back and not spend any more time in...*visible shudder* East Coast anymore?" Jeniffer who had insulted Ahmad before was back, and...appears to have some irrational fear of...East Coast...

"Aiya whatever lah, just get this done and over with, intercept the goods, interrogate the minors, write up some report, and then everyone can go back home and have a nice dinner with your non-existent family ok?" Ahmad tried his best to convince the crew to stay and get the job done, much to their already-bochap faces.

"Ugh..." Jeniffer sighed again, now regretting her choice of signing up to be designated to Ahmad as his partner for this case.

Ahmad turned his back away from her lamenting her fate as he took a closer look at the strange affair that caught the corner of his eye-a party inviting quite a number of teenagers into a small seaside cabin.

Pretty odd, huh? Why stuff so many (at least 50) people into a small cabin that's definitely only the size of a 5-room HDB flat?

UNLESS THEY'RE DOING SOMETHING SHADY IN THERE THAT THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO LET PEOPLE KNOW...

Ahmad turned back to his partner and making a head-bob signal in the direction of the suspicious cabin, signalling for them to investigate.

The female officer nodded her head in agreement before taking down notes in her notebook-wait what who still even uses a physical notebook in this day and age?

Anyway. They strolled over slowly and cautiously so as not to arouse suspicion, taking in anything and everything that so much as thought of going into that cabin.

"Hang on, sir and madam, I'll need to see an invitation first, eh?" He stopped the duo while lowering his sunglasses in order to better take in their appearances.

"Oh, right...uh...about that...we're just here to see East Coast here, could ya just at least let us see him if not letting us in? Hmm?" Ahmad asked with a wide, threatening smile plastered on his face.

"No can do, sir. You either hand the invitation over, or you go home," The man dressed in a full black suit and black pants replied.

"Ah, well..." Ahmad chuckled to himself before going full-on beast mode, eyes glowing ominous red like he had when dealing with Hakim.

"Listen here ah, you better let us in ah, or I will rip your throat out ah..." Ahmad made the same glaring look you'd get when your Asian mom sees your full-of-Bs report book.

"Aw, what are you going to do, sell me insurance, huh, insurance agent looking guy, lost for words?" The invitation checker began to mock him even blatantly than Hakim ever would.

"So you're not taking me seriously, ah?" Ahmad asked once more to decide on whether this man before him was dead or super dead.

"Oh no! Mommy's gonna find me with a useless FWD insurance package when we don't even have cars! Weh weh weh!" He started talking in a high-pitched child-like voice, bringing his hands to his eyes in an attempt to mimic a little kid crying.

"Wow, this guy...oh, it's ok, just don't regret it afterwards, mister," Ahmad sighed and shook his head in more frustration and annoyance than anger or even fear, taking his hand off his hips where he had it placed it earlier.

"Huh, what-" A single confused stutter could be heard before Ahmad placed his hand on forcefully, absolutely dominantly, on his face, eyes closed, big evil smile on his face, and finger over his lips like he was some cross between an ang moh mum who gives in to her kids all the time trying to get them to shut up while st the library and an evil Disney villain about to reveal his entire plan to the hero to let them escape instead of just killing them directly.

Then suddenly, BOOM-well, not literal boom, but almost everyone had to hear some variation of a boom in their minds-he snapped open his eyes like some anime opening protagonist and absolutely MELTED his face off.

Like absolutely MELTED.

As in ice-cream, very-hot, melted-in-the-sun, MELTED.

Well, maybe not grotesque and graphic enough melted, as in face-just-liquified-and-melted-away, but disturbing enough to be on the wavelengths of someone-burning-to-death-but-you-can't-see-the-flames.

Thankfully, Ahmad didn't melt away his entire face, and still left a bit of distinguishable humam features-two eyes and a mouth-but almost melting away and about to fall off to reveal the epidermis of the blood vessels underneath.

He then raised him up in the air slightly, still grabbing him by the now-melted face, and then threw him off with a slight flick of hand as he tumbled on the ground, gasping for breath and reaching for a mirror or any reflective surface only to be horrified by what has been done to his face.

"Relax, it's not permanent, you'll heal" Ahmad tried to comfort the almost-about-to-cry-like-a-baby-invitation-checker...oh, wait, if only he actually had eyes and a working, functioning tear duct he could actually cry out of.

"What the hell just happened? Did his face just melt? Like WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED DUDE ANSWER ME!" Jeniffer was now going as crazy as both Ahmad and the invitation checker.

"Nah...you don't need to know...anyway, let's continue on, shall we?"

"What-sir, you can't just melt someone's face and then tell me I don't need to know whatever the hell just happened?" Jeniffer demanded to know what happened, stepping forward to block Ahmad's way when he moved on.

"Move aside. We have important matters to attend to," Ahmad sighed with frustration (and possibly whatever caused him to need to gasp for breath just now), demanding as well that Jeniffer move aside.

"Nuh-uh, unless you t-" She put her hands on her hips and stood her ground, dictating that Ahmad explain the full truth to her, leaving not a bit out-however, Ahmad had other plans, immediately forcing his hand onto her face like he did for the invitation checker, possibly threatening the same.

"Listen, if you don't shut up right now and help us catch East Coast, I will do exactly what I did to that guy to you, with zero hesitstion," He snarled menacingly.

"Well, I don't believe you'd let me go if I had dead proof now you did something to me," She, while on the threat of expiration, still dared to push her luck just a bit more.

"Oh, I have other ways to instantly heal you...although the pain can be continuously inflicted if we can also continously heal..." Ahmad clicked his tongue while in deep thought, looking away and avoiding eye contact.

"Oh...anyway you probably wouldn't, right? Performing that melting magic trick just now, you hesitated to in the first place," Jeniffer tried to negotiate her life and made a good point of her observations.

Ahmad said nothing, turning and continuing onward.

Stumbling and losing balance just like the invitation checker had (except, obviously, that her face wasn't being melted), Jennifer quickly came back to her senses and dashed forward to meet up with Ahmad who had already calmly strolled down the corridor leading into the main room in that time.

He had waited for her before stepping into the main room, to reveal a wondrous spectacle...in a rather congested room, several young men and women, partying and dancing away to a rock and pop music blasting over the radio, even an alcoholic bar selling drinks people could have a nice drink at.

Now the problem wasn't even all that. The problem was that alongside partying, drinking, and dancing...it appeared that they were...well...doing something a CNB officer would find suspicious and worthy of investigation.

"First things first. Don't talk without my permission, just look like my escorting guard," Ahmad sauntered over to the counter of the drinks bar and ordered some random drink on the menu, with Jeniffer quickly catching up with him.

"Hey new faces. Suppose you don't want to try any of our...unique recipes, huh?" The bartender hinted as he slided Ahmad's drinks across the counter.

"I'm not interested in whatever you have to offer. I'm just here to find a man by the alias if East Coast, so if you could point me out to him, that would be delightful," Ahmad muttered loud enough for the bartender to react to what he just said.

"Well..." The bartender sighed, "How many clouds did you spot today?"

Ahnad upon hearing that question, groaned in exasperation and set down that drink he ordered that he had been examining, being careful not to drink something unknown served in an unknown bar-for he knew that that had to be a security question posed in the case of police infiltrators...like right now.

"Of course, as always, nosy police officers storming into this place, thinking they can take on all of us, well guess what, I'm East Coast!" The bartender quickly pulled out his gun stashed away in a hidden compartment, sucking on his cocaine-cigar-filling-candy-thing.

By then, after hearing the clicking sound of the leader's gun, everyone had stopped everything they were doing to stand by him-the music had stopped, no one was dancing anymore, everybody stopped drinking...well, at least those sober enough to...fiercely glaring at Ahmad, surrounding and attempting to establish dominance over him like you would in your typical gang fight.

Ahmad calmly continued to sit there, eyes downcast, as if waiting for the oppurtune moment to strike. Meanwhile Jeniffer looked like she was scared out of her wits despite knowing just how strong Ahmad was in that last incident.

"Of course, I would just like to know how you managed to get past security, tho," East Coast commented, curious to find out how anyone could pass their seemingly impenetrable security system.

"Oh, it's simple," Ahmad answered, daringly looking dead in East Coast's eyes, "I melted his face."

"You...what?" East Coast, caught off guard, asked a simple, innocent question, but was completely thrown off track by a sudden forceful grab of his face and human facial features...by a rather strong hand...radiating dark energy...

That hand, with one flick of a finger, flung him all the way to the other side of the bar counter, destroying quite a bit of the counter itself as well.

And that hand belonged to...Ahmad! Surprise surprise!

Ahmad, now emanating some form of abyssal energy off his body, his eyes shone bright omnious red, just like when he had interrogated Hakim-except much, much brighter. Even his hair was flowing even with no wind, just like a Disney princess.

Distraught upon seeing their leader down so easily, some fled while some attacked Ahmad, while some chose to surrender themselves.

With a snap of his fingers, Ahmad created abysmal giant hands thet effortlessly pinned down anyone who dared to flee, slamming against the walls those who tried to attack, and trapping those who willingly surrendered, pinned on the floor all the same as everyone else.

All the while Ahmad was slightly levitating above the ground, same dark energy radiating, flowing black hair, ominous glowing bright green, expressionless look on his face.

By then everyone had been defeated by his giant energy hands, pinned down and just waiting to be released...in jail...

Except for...East Coast, being the one to suffer probably the least damage considering he was taken out early in the fight and didn't need to face Ahmad's giant energy hands.

Despite having the best possible option to surrender and maybe stand a chance at pleading for a lesser sentence, attempted to completely escape prison altogether as he reached for his gun he left on the counter nearby, hoisted it up and aimed at the head of the floating man...no, whatever Ahmad was now...and fired.

And it was only then that Ahmad descended from levitation state and, just as the bullet was about to hit him, put two fingers together and covered, then deflected the bullet back to where it came from...thankfully, not into the head of the person who fired it.

Now seriously frightened by the true potential of Ahmad, East Coast struggled to flee, exactly what the rest of his partygoers had made an effort to.

But Ahmad thought not. As East Coast dropped his gun in fear and ran in the opposite direction as fast as he could, Ahmad suddenly surged forward with a rush of dark energy, dashing to be right beside East Coast, and continuing to follow as he ran until he realised, while Ahmad casually put his hands up behind his head and chasing the convict calmly.

After a while, it must have been that he grew tired, and with another flick of his wrists, summoned yet another giant energy hand to imprison East Coast and keep him pinned to the ground.

"Wait wait wait please please let me-GAHH!!" were his last words before getting stomped on and held down by Ahmad's giant energy hand.

"Bro relax, it's not even that painful if you stop wiggling," Ahmad descended once more and informed East Coast that his struggling was futile in an eloquent, educated manner.

As soon as his feet touched the floor, anything un-human about him disappeared and vanished without a trace-his abyssal aura, his onious glowing green eyes, his flowing hair...all gone, such that without all the giant energy hands pinning criminals down you'd think he did everything without any magical help at all.

"Uh...yeah, sure sir, I'll help you clean this mess up," Jeniffer ''uh...ed' her way out of this awkward situation, albeit by giving herself more work to complete.

"Good choice," He spat out two positive words of encouragement.

"I need to be somewhere else right about...now. Can you manage here?" Ahmad regained his composure, dusting the filth of his shirt.

"Um, ok, sir..."

"Don't bother me...I have places to be..."

"Uh, sure, sir...whatever you say..."

---------

"Rai..." Ahmad walked over to the hospital bedroom the girl he addressed was residing in, comfortably reading a book on the table near the bed, conveniently leading the bed empty.

Black, nicely braided hair, in a nurse's uniform, and eloquently sitting.

He sure didn't hesitate to make himself at home, rushing to lie on the bed.

....But of course he got the important business done first. Pulling out a paper card from his suit pocket, he handed it over to "Rai", who received and examined it ever-so-carefully.

When she was done reading it, all Rai did was throw it (respectfully, of course) back at Ahmad who had covered his face with the pillow and was lying on the bed comfortably, getting ready to sleep.

"Whatever, I don't care, just make sure to summarise it for the boss," said Rai, who then apathetically went back to reading her book.

Who even knows what was written on that card...

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

THIS IS A FOUR-ACCOUNT WIDE SHOUTOUT TO MY ONLY FOLLOWER AFTER SO LONG

@whyubullymeh

RANDOM SHOUTOUT I WANTED TO DO TO BOMBARD YOUR PHONE WITH NOTIFICATIONS LOL

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

My Hero PSLE: S4E14 "Yo mama so fat, when she walk past the TV, I miss 3 episodes!"

"Ok, today's our first therapy session. Today I wanna give you a few words or phrases, and you'll tell me the first thing that you think of when you think of that. Ok, first word: winning?" "Losing." "Running?" "Falling" "Rising?" "Failing." "The Last Of Us?" "Pedro Pascal." "See, you think of everything negatively-wait what, Pedro Pascal? Seriously?"

-a true conversation between me and my therapist

And there lay a has-been-flayed,-psychologically-tortured,-half-dead Heavenly Lord. What a great way to start the day!

*dying* "WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT? YOU ALREADY LET THE ENTIRE CITY TORTURE ME AS MUCH AS THEY WANT, I'M PRETTY SURE YOU DON'T HAVE THAT MUCH DARK SLEEP TO SPARE ANYWAY!" Walao eh, Heavenly Lord's pissed, as Xiao Ming and gang entered his torture chamber.

"Oh you're right, we really don't have that much, we're down to our last few bottles, that's why we're planning to have our final torture parade in front of the entire city, and we're going to be the one to execute it!"

"And don't forget COM, he'll be executed with you too!" Rainslasher who has been awfully quiet the entire season considering the fact that this is the very person he hates the most and holds the most vengeance against in this world said.

He has definitely not been doing any R-rated things off-screen to him and so it is too violent and graphic to show

And so Heavenly Lord was cuffed with 9 locks and brought to the city square heavily guarded. He saw COM there lol.

And everyone, and I mean everyone, the entire city and the monster people were there to cheer and see him get executed. Woohoo yay.

Then they proceeded to start the torture ritual. For the final act, they decided-would be to trap him in the body of a young (already dead) monster person and watch him die (his souls die, specifically) from being in a dead person's body.

So they started and transferred his soul into the body of the dead monster person. While the entire crowd was cheering like some madmen.

And then of course when he was in the monster person's body he was trying whatever he could to escape, not then he didn't already try to escape while he was still in his body.

But now the problem is arising. While everyone else was looking at Heavenly Lord, no one bothered to look at COM-and realise that he had stolen a bottle of Dark Sleep, infused it in his hand, and was now all-powerful and trying to steal Heavenly Lord's Anodyne.

And also he has the Anodyne now, because everyone is looking at Heavenly Lord in his monster body and not his orginal body.

But by the time they realise already too late liao.

"EY LOOK AT COM LEH! HE GOT THE ANODYNE AND DARK SLEEP SIA!"

*COM viciously seething right now, his left hand pulsating with Dark Sleep energy and the energy of the Anodyne*

"AHHAHAH, OH YOU ALL ARE SO DEAD NOW!"

*COM lunges at Xiao Ming and attempts to swallow him*

*Xiao Ming struggling against trying to fight him back*

*other members of Xiao Ming gang try to fight COM but he just yeet them away with his Dark Sleep infused magical hand*

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET

And then got drama happen. Just as Xiao Ming confirm going to kena eaten liao, right, some masked cloaked figure suddenly grab COM's Dark Sleep infused, holding Anodyne hand from behind, and squeezed it so tight you could see the blood cells sia, then just tore it off and yeeted it towards the sky away from them as far as he could.

Then the masked cloaked figure just yeetus deletus and teleported away.

And of course COM just fell over and died of the blood loss of having his entire arm get ripped off.

Leaving Xiao Ming and gang to sit there, wondering: "Alright, now that the problem of COM and Heavenly Lord is solved (COM is dead from having his hand ripped out, and Heavenly Lord will be dead soon), now we have new problem-WHO THE HELL WAS THAT?"

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

My Hero PSLE: S4E13 "YO MAMAAAAAA"

"Yo mama so fat, even Dora can't explore her!"

-Yo mama jokes series

And of course the Heavenly Lord is screaming af. Idk if it's because of the Dark Sleep hurting him or he's just going insane from "winning the war" or something. Schoolwork in a nutshell-

So of course Xiao Ming and gang aren't just going to be those stupid villains/heroes who will just wait for the heroes/villains to finish transforming and unleash their ultimate move while they sit there waiting like-

So anyway, while Heavenly Lord was busy studying (going insane, you see what I mean) Kiefer just grabbed his sword and then stabbed him until he was like also half-dead.

And then because he's an Exuvia, they want to keep him alive so that they can torture him for information, so they "wrap him up" and carry him off to their Exuvia torture chambers.

Only that while they were carrying him off, they realised that on his clothes, was hanging a glowing piece of jewellery. But it definitely isn't his Anodyne or just another random glowing piece of jewellery. It looked more ancient, and glowed with power.

"Oh fuck, is that...the Alicorn of the Shadow Amulet?" said Crow-face rather ambiguously.

Wait what. How is it with him. I tot Xiao Ming was the Amulet or something

"Then the legends are true. Then he-"

"GOD YOU HAVE THIS TERRIBLE HABIT OF TALKING WITHOUT EXPLAINING! EXPLAIN, MISTER!" JUQLA'S GREAT REACTION! RAAAAGGHH!!

"Ok ok ok, why so strong reaction bruh, anyway, the legend is that there was a strong warrior from a far away land who could manipulate shadows and light, and bend people to do his bidding with the snap of a finger. But he attained all this power from a mechanism, and one day, somehow, the mechanism just spoil liao, then he no more power liao. So of course he want to earn more power but he don want to fix the mechanism cos he lazy, so he went to go and find another powerful artifact that can give him power. So he found-the Amulet of the Shadow Alicorn. Then with his newfound power, he travelled to this world, and challenged the Exuvia then to a duel before the throne. That Exuvia lost against him and was killed, and then he took his Anodyne and began to rule over the way he does now."

"Ok firstly lengthy, secondly, wow, thirdly, great backstory actually, fourthly, let's go torture him now," Juqla replied.

"Ah, yes, let's" Crow-face also replied.

*at the Exuvia torture chamber* Written in a screenplay-type:

Heavenly Lord: *wakes up from being stabbed only to realise he's standing on a few stacks of ice cubes, in a cold room, wearing a comfortably warm jacket, and-having a noose hung around his neck extending from the high ceiling*

Heavenly Lord: Oh fuck. I got caught didn't I?

Xiao Ming: Indeed you did. Your people are currently rejoicing over having been released from your chains of dictatorship. As for us...we have...a few questions to ask you.

Heavenly Lord: Aiya the fuck do you want? Is it about Exuvian related questions? Then by now, considering the fact that you're also an Exuvia, you should know that I'm not a real Exuvia, and I won the Anodyne from a duel before the throne.

Xiao Ming: Ok thanks so that WAS real after all.

Heavenly Lord: WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?

*ice cubes start to melt a little*

Heavenly Lord: Oh god. You better finish this interrogation before the ice cubes melt, or else-

Xiao Ming: Or else you'll die, which isn't exactly to my disadvantage anyway. Ok I have a question: You know me, Izanagi, and Izanami, right? Why are we like each co-owning a part of the world?

Heavenly Lord: Well as far as I know, you all were disciples of a high Exuvia, then he died and ya'll took over his land and divided it among you! CAN I GO NOW?

*ice cubes are melting halfway already*

Xiao Ming: Mm, ok. Now second question: Why did you have such a...reaction when we sprayed you with the Dark Sleep?

Heavenly Lord: That shit is made from the blood of dead Exuvias. It's natural that I'd display such a reaction!

*ice cubes completely melt*

Heavenly Lord: *being grabbed by noose by neck and being strangled* SHDHSOPSPSPWLWKSKZKKZ!!!!

Heavenly Lord: *dies*

Xiao Ming: *takes a syringe filled with a dark liquid and injects it into him*

Xiao Ming: Well good news. We've just found out that we can also use Dark Sleep to infinitely resurrect you. Now if you'll excuse me, there a lot of citizens who want to have their own fun with you. I mean, with the Dark Sleep, you can't die no matter what tortures they give you right? Right? RIGHT?

Now-resurrected Heavenly Lord: AW HELLLL NAHHHHH

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

My Hero PSLE: S4E12 "WHAT DO YOU SEEEEEE????"

"Yo mama so stupid she sold her car to pay for her gas bills!"

-yo mama jokes series

"TODAY. WE FIGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM AND FOR THE SAKE OF ENTIRE WEEK OF FOR HOLIDAY IN THE FUTURE. AVENGERS! ASSEMBL-" Tempest commanded loudly.

"Aw hell nah we're not using that stupid code- SHIT PEOPLE! GET YO ASSES HERE IF YOU WANNA FREE WEEK HOLIDAY!" And then came Grandmaster into the equation.

*entire squad of Chrysalis assembles*

"Well I guess that's works too, ANYWAY! TODAY WE PROCEED AS PLANNED! IS THAT CLEAR?" *insert visibly annoyed and also impressed Tempest meme here*

"YES SIR!"

"SEMULA! WHO SAY YOU CAN GO! BARIS BOKKONAN-wait-" *insert quality Grandmaster self-doubt meme here*

(leave a comment if you finished the command in your head in your own in the voice of senior in which case I advise you to go get some therapy 💀)

"Ok ok just go carry out the plan lah, don't care anymore, we will provide backup soon," Tempest re-commanded.

OPERATION: FREEDOM AND HOLIDAY: FIGHT!

Lol well if you came here thinking you could read some elaborate plan then no, it's just some people fighting some gods and some cummy guy who won't stop talking about sex-

ANYWAY ANYWAY. How about we focus on Unicorn-face's side of things, eh?

Anyway. All is quiet in the prison cell she is locked up in. The guards are sound asleep. They do not know what is to come.

And then suddenly-a loud bang across the room. The guards are startled from their sleep and rush to go investigate the matter. But it's only-UNICORN-FACE! WHO HAS SOMEHOW MANAGED TO ESCAPE! OMG! I WONDER IF IF'S DEFINITELY NOT BECAUSE OF HER POWERS AS AN ANIMAL-FACE OR WHATEVER! OMG!

Anyway. The guards go there...and then are strangled to death as Unicorn-face holds their dead bodies by the throat in each hand and step out walking like cool shit.

She walks slowly.

And slowly.

And slowly.

And slo- "EY CAN HURRY UP OR NOT? WE HAVE A FUCKING EXUVIA AND CUM GUY TO KILL BRO!"

Moral of the story: Don't walk like how the characters walk in movies, they have thicc ass plot armor as thicc as yo mama-

SO. Unicorn-face has the Dark Sleep ready, apparently she was getting locked up in prison just so she'd have easy quick access to that when the time came, and the Chrysalis, after receiving the news, has assembled preparing to challenge the Heavenly Lord.

And since they're all just standing in a parade in the middle of the fucking town city where everyone can see them, of course someone dialled Heavenly Lord and he came down soon.

And then they all did a really really really cool thing. When Heavenly Lord came, he just asked a simple question: "What the fuck is going on here?"

To which they simply replied by taking off their masks and exposing their faces.

Of course this shocked Heavenly Lord since, ya know, he ask everyone wear mask and those who don want have to go get killed, but now so many people thicc skin want to don wear mask in front of him.

"We. Have decided that we are not going to wear your stupid masks. You got a problem with that?"

And then Heavenly Lord responded with a "OF COURSE I'VE GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT SHIT YOU JUST SAID! FIGHT!"

*assembles own army of citizens of dystopia and regulat citizens too*

And then they fought. (But not Heavenly Lord straightaway obviously, since they clearly don wanna kill the leader first that would just end everything)

And then halfway through Xiao Ming and the gang came into the scene and started fighting too.

And then the people who got turned into monsters by the plague also came to help fight.

An interesting conversation was between COM and Ma Xiao Tiao:

COM: You have no business being here.

Ma Xiao Tiao: Oh but I do have a lot of business being here.

COM: ANYWAY! I BESTOW UPON YOU THE POWER OF CUM-

Ma Xiao Tiao: NO YOU SHALL NOT! UNO REVERSE CARD!

COM: UNO REVERSE GUARD! *pulls out handguard made from uno reverse cards*

Ma Xiao Tiao: NOOOO!!! GIGACHAD POWER REFLECT!

COM: AAHAHAH NOOOO

Ma Xiao Tiao: *flicks magical middle finger for the final blow*

COM: *is now like half-dead after being defeated by the power of memes*

Ok now back to the main story. Now the Chrysalis is busy fighting off the other brainwashed citizens WHEN THEY CLEARLY COULD HAVE JUST TRIED TO KILL HEAVENLY LORD WHEN THAT WOULD END IT ALL.

And even Heavenly Lord isn't bothering to do anything. He's just sitting there, watching the people fight and watching COM and Ma Xiao Tiao fight and eating his popcorn comfortably.

Wa lao eh, BUAY SONG AH? YAO DA JIA AH? Ey wait, is don want to da jia then liddat what...

Anyway. Now finally after doing her slow cool walk after so long, Unicorn-face has finally escaped the prison and made it to the fighting arena of right in the middle of the fucking city square. OH FINALLY SHE'S BROUGHT THE DARK SLEEP WITH HER THIS TIME!

But luckily no one noticed her, so she quickly vaporised the Dark Sleep, put it into like tear gas sprayers, and then sprayed Heavenly Lord full of it.

And then of course Heavenly Lord will breathe it in. Then suddenly he knelt down, clutching his head, screaming:

"RSYXOD0WKWNBFUCICMRKEPE!!!! MY THRIUMPH OVER THIS LANDDDDD!!!!"

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

My Hero PSLE: S4E11 "Yo mama so stupid, she failed a survey!"

"Yo mama so stupid, she put a ruler under her pillow to measure how long she slept!"

-Yo mama jokes series

And again they were back at this shitty area doing shitty shit. Aiya why is life so sian leh.

But the actual funny thing is here now-the people who weren't an actual hands-on part of the last project (neither the distractor nor the infiltrator) basically the ones that were sitting there doing nothing and giving moral support, are the only ones that Heavenly Lord won't recognise, and therefore are the only ones that can do the actual part of the operation now.

L for them I guess.

Anyway. They might not be recognisable by Heavenly Lord YET, but actually their work is even lesser now.

Just use reverse psychology on Heavenly Lord lol.

Well the entire city was packed with robot guards cos of the whole shit Xiao Ming and gang caised last time. Well heightened security is exactly what they need right now.

Now all we needed was one of the annoying animal-faces to go up to them-riding a bike carrying bags of sand. And then of course you don't just go around carrying bags of sand like some sus drug dealer right, so a robot immediately pointed Unicorn-face out and had to check for anything in the sand.

But then there was like legit nothing in the sand. So they just decided to let her go. But of course they're not gonna be letting her go so easily, this IS a dystopian land after all.

So of course they deployed their entire patrol after her, since they're still so tense, every little sus thing will set then off.

And how, ever so how, should Unicorn-face go about her day with this elite team of robots following her and noticing her every move like some team of crazy stalkers? And how, oh, ever so how, is she going to pass on the information to the Chrysalis?

Wait, speaking of-I'll assume those animal-faces already have a list of who's in the Chrysalis, right? Right? RIGHT? *nervous sweating*

Just kidding lah. Of course they do. But then again if that list gets leaked they could be in some serious trouble now-

BUT ANYWAY IT'S NOT LEAKED YET SO DON'T QUESTION IT.

But oh how, just how, is Unicorn-face supposed to be able to pass on the information to the Chrysalis?

Well she obviously knew the team of robots were stalking her, yet for some reason she still did the sussiest possible thing-she reached into her bicycle, extended the brake part and pulled out a hidden compartment (hehe reverse psychology made the robots look at the sand bags but not at the bicycle), pulled out a piece of paper from it, did her animal call and summoned a pigeon, then attached the letter to the pigeon's leg and watched it fly away.

Then of course after seeing such a sus thing the robots immediately went forth to arrest her-but some actually quite 聪明, they went to go and chase after the pigeon to retrieve the letter first.

So after Unicorn-face was arrested, she was, of course, promptly brought back to the palace to seek judgement from the Heavenly Lord (omg stop romanticising him liddat sia). But then she did something really strange-she was smiling, or more specifically, smirking to herself while she was being led away by those robots.

On the way there passed by three birds who each continously chirped for a while, and so consistently, one might even suspect they were chirping in morse code.

"The message has been sent."

"Plan executes on Friday. Remember to prepare Dark Sleep stocks."

"Reverse psychology making them focus on you rather than us who were actually sending the message is genius, right?"

And with each bird she passed by, her smirk only grew more and more.

Mission...success.

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

My Hero PSLE: S4E10 "SHIBAL GAESEKIYAAAAAA"

"I've made my decision. I want to...start crying,"

-Chidi

"WELL. Now that you've got your...*hand gestures at Rainslasher vigorously slurping the medicine like some thirsty dog drinking water* thing, we can get back to doing the actual thing of killing that annoying Exuvia already right?" Tempest impatiently asked.

And then just as Rainslasher was just about to dump down the rest of the medicine down his throat, Dragon-face suddenly stopped him and snatched the bottle from him. "You've definitely drank enough to cure your symptoms now, now I need this medicine,"

"What? Why? You oso got monster illness? But you're already a furry what..." Juqla asked.

"No lah, you think what, it's just that this medicine looks kinda weird sia, like something I see before liddat..." *stares intently at bottle expecting results to be written miraculously*

"OMG. Death. Girl. That shit. Is

DARK SLEEP."

*all animal-faces stare back at the bottle of... "dark sleep". What the hell.

Then finally Xiao Ming break the silence of them just staring and asked, "OK CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS DARK SLEEP?"

And then at this then those animal-furries 才回过神来, and then they were like, "OH OH OH RIGHT! So anyway Dark Sleep is a very special and powerful liquid, made from the blood of dead Exuvias, so it's incredibly powerful and can do practically anything with the right treatment, and now we've just realised the enemy definitely has a shit ton of this,"

"Well isn't that great," Tempest said.

"But then why didn't they use any on us the last time we came? I mean, we escaped from their hands twice, surely they'll think that their own power isn't enough and use the Dark Sleep?" Wolf-face say like very chim liddat.

Then Unicorn-face got sudden shower thought that fixes the entire plot. "WAIT-IT'S BECAUSE HE KNOWS THAT XIAO MING IS AN EXUVIA! HE CAN SENSE EXUVIAN ENERGY IN HIM! I guess we just don't have enough lol,"

"Oh yeah great but what are we gonna do with that absolutely useless information?" Kiefer-aiya you just shaddup lah, let the 大哥大姐 do the talking ok?

"No, this is perfectly important information, but since when did Exuvias start being so friendly towards each other huh? But anyway, this guy clearly won't dare to hurt Xiao Ming, we're gonna be able to use him to our advantage!"

"OMG I DON'T LIKE WHERE THIS CONVERSATION IS GOING,"

"Also let's not forget we have the Chrysalis to help us, that weird rebel group that would name themselves after a My Little Pony villain-" Zhi Hua asked.

"FOR THE LAST TIME, THEY'RE NAMED AFTER THE SILKWING REBEL TRIBE AGAINST THE HIVEWINGS IN WINGS OF FIRE! NOT MY LITTLE PONY VILLAINS! GOD, THE NERVE OF SOME PEOPLE!"

"Bro, you have never said that, chill, ok!" Yeah, Zhi Hua, Lion-face so needs to chill, right?

"Ok, I think I've managed to formulate quite a good plan already, just one single question-you said the dark sleep can do anything right? Is it possible to use it...to create a gas that can induce fear or something idk?" 还是 Grandmaster 比较聪明. While everyone else is chatting, he already devise plan liao.

"Yeah, it can," Crow-face replied.

"Well. I think I've managed to devise a plan that oso uses the Chrysalis for the sake of not wanting to have created a completely useless plot point, we'll find a way to inform them of the plan tomorrow, then carry it out on Friday,"

"OBJECTION, SIR!"

"What? Why?"

"I think, that for the sake of being nice to their descendants, we should inform them on Monday, prepare the plan Monday-Thursday, then carry it out on Friday, so that when the descendants celebrate this day in the future, their employers and schools will give them the whole week off because we oso used the whole week!"

"Ah, very considerate of you, ok then! We will set out to inform them on Monday! For now we get to stare off into blank space!"

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

My Hero PSLE: S4E9 "WAKUASIMI"

"Of course, he's even perfectly capable of finshing off my...?" "DEREK!"

-Derek

"Ok, omg for the third time we're back in this tod-and-ranson ass place, I swear to god w-" Kiefer complaining again.

"Ok ok ok lessgo, boss!" Tempest reminded him after Grandmaster boom boom bakudaned and short-circuited the robots.

But then they forgot about one major thing. Even with masks on, these bastardly brainwashed citizens are still going to recognise them somehow.

But that's precisely what they need. Well basically their plan was to distract the Heavenly Lord with their traitor presence, then while he's busy with the "uglies", someone sneaks into his palace, finds the medicine, and then peaces out leaving the distractor there on his own to fend for himself

So the gang quickly gathered in the remote corners of the backyard of a lady like some creepy old stalker, and then the animal-faces briefed them on the plan, and handed them walkie-talkies.

"Ok so these will basically help us to communicate with ya'll and give you instructions on what to do," Unicorn-face said.

"Wait you're not coming with us? Like to do the actual operation?" Tempest asked.

"What, no, I'm supervising and giving you moral support,"

"GRANDMASTER PLEASE JUST USE REALITY WARPING POWER I DON WANNA DO THIS"

"Like I said, my powers don't work with gods, and god indeed, the entire castle is god-protected and foolproofed, ok, not my fault,"

"Ok ok fine, whatever, I guess it's time for me, Zhi Hua, Juqla, boss and Six to go distract them, like the more the merrier, right?" *Tempest's most sarcastic tone ever*

*aforementioned few check that their walkie-talkies are working, then head out to lure out Heavenly Lord*

"HEY EVERYONE ESPECIALLY HEAVENLY LORD IT IS US, THE TRAITORS AND UGLIES! YES YES YES COME AND CATCH US!"

*Heavenly Lord and COM actually come*

*again, big crowd forms as Heavenly Lord comes to punish the "uglies"*

The following scenes that play out shall now be written in play mode:

Unicorn-face: Ok yes very good! Now just stall them for as long as possible, while the other team goes to steal the medicine! *in a softer voice* ok ok now go, go steal the thing, be careful not to get caught ah!

Xiao Ming: Time to go and commit Mission Impossible!

Heavenly Lord: *menacingly stares down and breathes down necks of "uglies" I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU NOT TO COME BACK AGAIN!

Wolf-face: *muttering under breath into walkie-talkie* Respectfully sir, you didn't and never had time for that.

*Heavenly Lord immediately glares at random space on the wall*

Heavenly Lord: UGH.

Unicorn-face: Wait something's wrong. Something is terribly wrong.

*Xiao Ming and gang who just reached the castle entrance trying to find a way to get in without triggering the guards*

Xiao Ming: Uh oh. I don't like the sound of that.

*stealing medicine team ducks into an uncut bush and hides there while awaiting instructions*

Unicorn-face: Yep. You know, Heavenly Lord and COM have tapped into our media frequency and are completely capable of hearing our conversations SHIT! Well we can't just make another one, so...Traitor and ugly team stay QUIET! DO NOT RESPOND TO MY CALLS! INFILTRATION TEAM DO YOU COPY?

*by this time Heavenly Lord and COM got themselves a chair to get comfortable while they listen to the conversations like some movie liddat*

Xiao Ming: Infiltration team here! If I may, I have a suggestion to offer that will bypass Heavenly Lord hearing us!

Unicorn-face: Go ahead, Black Rainbow!

Xiao Ming: What kind of code-name is that bruh...but anyway, I have noticed that due to the dystopian upbringing, all the citizens speak perfect queen's English! And therefore I conclude that we should switch to Singlish as they will not understand us!

Unicorn-face: Ah, that is a great idea, Black Rainbow! Ok! Singlish mode everyone! Also you're called Black Rainbow cos like a rainbow, you're not straight, and you're also bla-

Xiao Ming: HAO LOH! Unicorn-face, 帮我把那些 chao ang moh robot 给我滚!

Grandmaster: Aiya I already dong them liao, your kacheng safe liao, I always cover one!

*At this point Heavenly Lord is visibly confused*

Xiao Ming: Ok! Going to parliament cabinet house liao, go in then tell you lah!

Unicorn-face: EY CHAO NI MA DE! ANG MOH ROBOT AT LOK KOM, YAO LAI LIAO!

Xiao Ming: Ey walao why you never faster say! Lucky I cong ming, know how do thing one! Ey, we there liao, that drug drug like what ah?

Wolf-face: Look like a kar zhua kena cher scolding cos wearing too obiang shirt then kena mati by kopi uncle!

Xiao Ming: Ok found it! It look like kopi kosong right?

Crow-face: Yeah yeah yeah yeah liddat one! Ok you faster faster run away, you don't gabra ah!

Xiao Ming: Ey but the Singlish mode got good one leh! Big chao ang moh like catch no ball liddat!

Crow-face: You don't ya ya papaya first, haven't win yet!

Dragon-face: OH, JIALAT! ALAMAK! ROBOT GONNA MATI KIEFER LIAO!

Crow-face: EY YOU NEVER FASTER TELL ME THEN YOU THINK WHAT? I SUPERMAN AH? Aiya, I got good idea, so later we all go and 装要 mati them, but then actually we mati Six and Tempest, and then they will blur liao, and then we can tau pok them steady pom pi pi!

Xiao Ming: Ok! Copy!

*they all rush to carry out emergency plan*

All: STEADY POM PI PI! TAU POKKKKKKK!!!!!!!

*then after retrieving the medicine and running away safely, they complete their mission successfully*

*confused Heavenly Lord and COM still catch no ball*

"STEADY POM PI PI! TAU POKKKKKKK!!!!!"

[bdbdhdjdhdh]

My Hero PSLE: S4E8 "SIMI SI MTL???"

"Sq, sir, sq!" "Simi sq, we are fighter jet, where got sq one!" "Sq me, sir, I go lak the chao ang moh jiasai!"

-mrbrown

So. Now they almost got killed by cum guy sent from the cum heavens of above, and then got saved by some crow guy whose name is literally Destruction.

"Ok so like I'll introduce ya'll to most of the other poets, *snaps fingers and immediately lights up the entire cave and transforms it into some futuristic caveman's dream house living room*, this is our headquarter headquarters," Crow-face said.

Oh wait he has a name. Destruction.

Oh hell naw even Crow-face sounds better. Nvm.

Anyway Crow-face then walked over to the living room table, where a few of the other animal-faces were sitting, then they just like waved at Xiao Ming and gang.

"She there is Despair," *points to Unicorn-face* *Unicorn-face waves and disntegrates mask*

"And then that there is Death," *points at another furry this time, a Dragon-face* *Dragon-face also disintegrates mask but waves again*

"That there is War," *points at a Wolf-face this time* *Again, Wolf-face disintegrates mask*

"And finally, that is Plague," *points rather respectfully this time at a Lion-face* *Lion-face doesn't disintegrate mask*

"Wait wait wait wait, didn't you say there were like 9 of you or something? Where are the rest?" Xiao Ming realised got plot-hole and asked question.

"No lah, they go some adventure somewhere far far away where your dad is," Lion-face reply.

"Ok wait wait wait wait everyone, can ya'll explain clearly first what the hell ya'll are, and why the hell did you save us like when Childe told Lumine to girlie-hold-still?" Grandmaster asked.

"Oh well, that ah, actually ah, us 9 were selected by the Exuvias and imbued with divine energy to protect the people of the worlds they create and defend against evil spirits and even evil Exuvias,"

"Well that settles everything," Kiefer comments. AIYA STOP KAJIANGING LAH YOU-

"Well I assume since you're like the police equivalent of Exuvias you know quite a lot of things, tell us, how the hell can we kill that bastard Exuvia?" Ah finally Rainslasher asking the good questions.

"Well, for starters *inhales as Crow-face begins to explain long paragraph*

1) The Chrysalis, the one the COM (oh finally he pronounced it normally) killed one of its members of, is indeed a secret rebel organisation set up to overthrow that rogue Exuvia gone south secretly, so I guess we could use their help too,

2) As far as our intelligence department has gathered, this Exuvia, unlike other Exuvias, doesn't know what we are, *passively glances back at Xiao Ming* so he might be a newer and more noob Exuvia, so he's probably not very skilled in combat especially if he can't harness Exuvia power yet.

3) As for that COM ah, well, the only way to beat a Commander of Memes is to beat him in a meme battle with our own meme collection, I guess. Other than that, he doesn't really seem to pose a threat.

So that's it and-"

And just as Crow-face was about to finish his chat-gpt paragraph, Rainslasher suddenly strangled himself by grabbing his own neck, and then he kept choking on his own blood and then-OMG his eyes are doing that thing where his pupils dilate like hell like a cat's eyes and-HOLY SHIT HE'S TRANSFORMING WE NEED TO GET HIM THE MEDICINE FOR THE CURE IMMEDIATELY OR HE'LL TRANSFORM AND KILL US ALL FUCK NOOOOO

"Well, this thing again," says Wolf-face like it's some kind of chore (which to be fair it was) "As far as I know, the only medicine is with the Heavenly Lord in his royal palace, so-"

*packs up and leaves*

*other animal-faces follow and do the same*

*Xiao Ming and gang still left standing there cos of their terruble reaction speed*

"OH YEAH RIGHT WE'D BETTER GO YEAH"