It's been a few hours since we had arrived at the video store, and we had no news from Nekomata.
Belle and Wise were both worried about her, and have tried contacting her, but they only had silence.
I on the other hand, continued to think what Nekomata was hiding. But with the lack of clues, I could only grasp straws.
"Eros, what's got you so bothered?" Wise asked me with a small plastic bag in his hand.
"It's nothing, just worried about Nekomata." I said, even though it was partially true, I was worried about her, but I was more worried on why she was lying,
All her words, her body language, everything about her was screaming liar, as if she was using us.
"You guys, open the door!" Belle shouted from the staff room, Wise who was near the door, did so.
And lo and behold, it was Nekomata who dashed through, sliding to a stop in front of the counter.
"I'm back, sorry I took so long, the carrot sent me to an exit that was on the other side of the hollow." She said with a tired smile.
Belle, Wise, and I sighed, staring at her with relief, however, the atmosphere soon turned tense, with both Belle and Wise staring at her.
"Anyways, I was forced to get off and let the train go, but the god news, they said that the demolition was delayed, we have to go back in and save Nicole and the others!" She said quickly with batted breath.
However, Wise and Belle looked at one another, then they looked back at Nekomata.
"I understand how you feel, and I want to save them as much as you do, but…" Sensing the shift in the air, Nekomata began to worry.
"H-hey, what's wrong, we need to go save them." Nekomata was acting nervous, seeing how silent we were.
Nekomata, we need to know what is happening." I said and stood up, walking out of the counter and standing in front of her, her ears laid flat on her head, and she began to shake in fear.
"W-what do you mean?" The three of us soon stood in front of her, staring at her with caution.
"The train for example, not only was it carrying explosives, but there were fake PubSec, officers inside." Belle stated, with her arms crossed.
"And you reacted quickly the moment Belle was inside, as if you knew there were people guarding it." Wise continued.
"So our question is simple, what did you and the cunning hares do in order to get in this situation?" I asked, seeing the three of us corner her, she knew that she had to speak.
"I didn't know they were inside the train, b-but we saw them somewhere else, and, we wanted to rescue some people." The moment she said rescuing people, both Belle and Wise looked confused.
I on the other hand widened my eyes at her words and son understood everything, I then rushed back into the staff room and quickly grabbing my supplies.
"Wise, grab Eous and lets go, we have little time!" I shouted and began to run outside, followed by Hecate, Hella and Nekomata.
"W-what do you mean? Why do we have little time?" Wise asked while running after grabbing Eous.
"Vision lied about relocating the people, they're going to kill everyone inside the blast zone!" Hearing this, Wise soon arrived outside and unlocked the car.
"Wait, what do you mean by that?!" Belle tried to ask, but Wise soon already left the parking lot and was driving towards the dead end hollow.
I however called Belle and placed her on speaker, continuing our conversation from before.
"Vision won the bidding when they promised to finish renovating the metro with a quick time frame and spend little money as possible, but how would they do that when they need to relocate the people?" I asked.
"You don't, you leave them there and use the explosions to hide the bodies." Wise whispered, understanding the situation.
"No, they can't just do that, what about the kids, the elderly?" Belle asked in a panic.
"To the rich, they are just minor inconveniences." I answered back, Belle had stayed silent, but the sound of scrambling and the door opening and closing was heard.
"Okay, we need a plan to not only save the people, but to get them out." She said and began to type, soon, my phone received a message.
It was the map of the hollow, two locations were shown, one is where the cunning hares are located, while the other was where Perlman would be at to oversee the entire operation.
"This is where Fairy located the cunning hares, and this is where Perlman will be at to oversee the project." Belle stated.
"We have to bring the people out of the blast zone as quickly as possible, but, there's just one problem." A barrier then appeared between both locations, with guards on top.
"They have a barrier, preventing the people to escape, so we need to find another way out." Belle explained, the five of us then began to think, what could we do to bring them out?
"What about hijacking the train, we don't have to deal with the guards at the barrier, all we have to do is ride around it." Hella said, causing all of us to look at her.
"What? I had to hijack a car when I was in the WhiteSands at the time." She explained.
"Wasn't that the time you were tricked by Korryn?" I asked her.
"Wha?! Ptfff, as if, I tricked her." She said with a pout, but it was not that hard to tell that she was lying.
"Still, that's a good idea, albeit a risky one, but if we pull it off, we can get everyone out of the blast zone, plus, it's resistant to the hollow." I could hear her brows creasing, as if she was focusing on a plan.
"Fairy, can you plan a rout to where the cunning hares are located?" Belle asked, typing on her keyboard.
[Affirmative, planing rout now.] Fairy then sent a location for Wes to drive to, so that we could enter the hollow and exit as fast as we can to meet with the people.
As soon as Wise reached the location, Nekomata, Hella, Hecate, Eous, and I got off.
Wise left as soon as I closed the door, and the five of us began to sneak towards the Hollow, making sure we avoided the local police.
The five of us soon arrived in front of it, staring at the large black sphere.
"Everyone ready?" I asked, both Hecate and Nekomata nodded their heads, Hella herself was practicing her swings, and soon released it, letting it spin in the air, then catching the handle.
"Yup, all set to bash some kneecaps." She smiled at me with a thumbs up.
"Let's go." The five of us then snuck past the guards that were patrolling the area, thanks to nightmare for creating distractions.
"Now that I think about it, how come we can't see nightmare out here, but in the hollow we can?" Hella asked me, I then stopped before entering the hollow and turned to Hecate.
Hecate only tilted her head in confusion as we stared at her, but we then tossed the thought to the side and soon entered the hollow.
After entering the hollow, Nekomata then placed Eous on the ground, once doing so, Eous had shut down, only to turn back on, with Belle taking control.
"Lead the way Belle." Belle only nodded and began to run forward, leading us to the location to where the cunning hares are located.
As we traversed our way through the hollow, we were forced to sneak by multiple enemies, that included the fake PubSec officers that were patrolling the area.
The second we got caught by them, they would sound the alarm, making our mission fail, and have problems.
Luckily, we didn't need to travel for too long, we soon arrived at the exits that the cunning hares took, and soon fell from the ceiling to the floor.
As we all landed, we heard Nicole talking to someone. Eons was the first to greet NIcole, followed by Nekomata.
"Nya, I brought the reinforcements!" Nekomata said and pointed towards us.
"Oh thang god you us arrived, I thought we'd be here for the night." Nicole sighed in relief, while placing what looked like a stack of papers in her suitcase.
"Wait, isn't that the same suitcase she was using to-"
"Hella, remember what I said, if it doesn't make sense…" I said.
"Yeah yeah, didn't question it. But you gotta wonder, how is it working like that?" She asked with curiosity, n her eyes.
"Honestly, I don't want to know." I sighed and soon saw Billy and Anby.
"Eros, oh it's so good to see you!" Billy was the first to arrive and wrapped me in his metallic arms.
"B-Billy, that's nice and al- Ow owowow, human, I'm a human!" I Patted his shoulder quickly.
"Whoops, sorry about that, forgot that I was an android." Billy released me, causing me to fall.
"It's fine… I'm gonna need a minute." I said while laying on the ground.
As I laid on the ground, Belle and Nekomata began to explain the plan to Nicole.
"I see, so Vision was doing a point of no return, and letting the people die in the process." She said while was twirling her finger in her hair.
"But with the plan to seize the train, ha I could work." She said with a smile.
As they all began to talk with one another, Hella, Hecate, and I soon felt something in the air.
The shadows themselves began to shift and turn, until I saw the same blue eyes appear.
"Oh, Crache dear, come meet our new guests!" An old woman called out to her, Crache just ignores her and made her way towards me.
She wore a padded jacket that was white at her shoulders, but soon began to fade to blue as it got lower.
She wore a pair of black and blue sneakers, with a black skirts, her socks reached her calf's and were white.
Finally, her hair was a dark blue, with a pony tail tied to the side, which was a lighter shade, and her eyes were a pale yellow.
"So, you arrived, for being an adult, you do take your time." She said with indifference, I on the other hand was still cautious, she was free from the shackles, and could harm anyone she pleases.
"Crache is back. Everyone, Crache is back!" Shouted one kid, followed by another, and another, soon, she was surrounded by multiple kids.
"Crache, did you beat any of those bad guys?" One of the children asked.
"Look, I found a lollipop, do you want it?" Asked another, soon their voices began to overlap one another, Crache herself was feeling overwhelmed.
"H-hey, stop it, make some space." She said, but the kids continued to overwhelm her.
Seeing this, I lowered my guard and smiled, Hecate and Hella soon did the same, and the tension that was in the air so dissipated.
"Um, who is that?" Nicole asked in confusion, I only smiled and turned to her.
"That is Crache, an S rank sinner, and the leader of 'the homeless'." This caused everyone to look at me with confusion.
"The homeless is a small gang, filled with orphans, children to be specifically." Everyone then looked at Crache, then back at me.
"She's the leader of a gang?" Billy asked me with the same look as Nicole.
"Yes, but, it's not so bad." I replied and sat down, watching Hecate running over to Crache.
"She makes sure the kids are safe, have food, clothes, toys, anything they need to be happy." I continued to explain.
"She is willing to take any kid under her wing to protect them." I smiled at the memory when I found the children.
"They were happy to see her whenever she checked on them, always bringing back presents for them." Crached soon stood on front of me.
Her hands in her pockets, her eyes never leaving mine as she soon stood in front of me.
"So, you gonna shackle me?" I nodded my head at her words, she then rolled her eyes and soon held out her hand.
"Fine, but I want some space to at least walk around." She demanded, I gently placed my hand in hers, and the air began to change.
It was small, not noticeable. But as more time passed, the shadows themselves began to tremble, as if something was touching it.
Soon, the shadow that was beneath us soon shot up, forming what looked like hands, that tried to reach for me.
The hands soon began to grip onto me, trying to pry me away from Crache, but neither of us did anything.
We continued to stare at one another, soon, the shackles began to run across her hand.
Traveling slowly across her arm, and soon circling at her neck. Once it had fully closed around her neck, the shadow hands soon grew red thorns.
The hands began to flail across the air slamming against the stone, trying to remove the red thorns that are piercing them.
The children, and adults soon ran away, the only ones that stayed were Hella, Hecate, Belle, and the cunning hares, watching what was happening.
"Get back in the shadows, you're causing problems." As soon as Crache finished speaking, the hands soon returned to the shadow.
Leaving behind the destruction they had caused, I then stood back up and turned to the people that remained.
"Sorry you had to see this." Was all I said, the cunning hares and Nekomata only stared at me.
"I think you broke them, chief." Hecate said.
[Hey, hey! Here's today's chapter, things are now getting interesting, and we have our first sinner! I wanted to show up, but it's not the time or place sadly. Anyways if you enjoyed the story, send those power stones, and expect an update on the sinners files soon. Bye Bye!]