Blue Pigeon watched silently as Lin Yin and Invisible Giant were carried away on stretchers by the paramedics.
After a while, he lowered his head, standing alone amid the blood.
He and Invisible Giant had gotten along decently enough. If they had met under different circumstances, they might have been friends. Of course, to that brat, they probably already were.
Truth be told, Ke Mingqing had thought about how he would dispose of Invisible Giant and Shadow Girl six months from now.
Perhaps he would accompany Invisible Giant to the arcade for a while to play his favorite game, Street Fighter. Then, just as the sun set, he would take the brat for a stroll through the underground streets where he had spent his childhood.
As they walked, he would ask what kind of life he had lived down there, and why he had been thrown into prison at just eleven years old.
Then, he would bid him farewell in some alley, watching the brat stroll away with his hands behind his head, humming a tune. Finally, right at the peak of the boy's happiness, he would drive a bolt of lightning through the back of his skull, letting him die without ever knowing what hit him.
There would be no pain, and no sorrow.
As for Shadow Girl...
So he would build her a melting chocolate factory, spike the chocolate with sleeping pills, lock her inside a few days in advance, and let her slip away in her sleep.
Ideals were beautiful, of course. By the time that day actually arrived, he would likely be so dizzy with anxiety over having to slaughter thousands of the super-human species that he wouldn't have the peace of mind to arrange anything special for them.
But, at the very least... it absolutely shouldn't have ended like this.
Through his goggles, Ke Mingqing stared expressionlessly at the fresh blood flowing beneath his feet. The red puddle reflected his eyes.
His lips moved slightly, murmuring without a sound:
"If you were going to be betrayed anyway, it might as well have been by me. I wouldn't have let you die such a miserable death. Bullets must have hurt a lot, brat... This is why an eleven or twelve-year-old kid shouldn't be a superhero. You would've been better off spending a few more years in prison."
Ke Mingqing lowered his head and sighed softly:
"How did you die so easily, kid? You usually had such a tough mouth on you."
After a moment, Blue Pigeon looked up and walked out of the office in silence.
Ke Mingqing knew very well that if Invisible Giant had truly wanted to kill Lin Yin, he absolutely wouldn't have ended up like this.
Invisible Giant's physical constitution was weak, but his reaction speed was extraordinary. The moment Lin Yin drew his gun, the boy could have unleashed his esper ability and crushed Lin Yin under the foot of the Invisible Giant.
But Invisible Giant hadn't done that, because from beginning to end, he had trusted the commander who pulled him out of prison.
Lin Yin was the mole. He had been brainwashed by Clock Maker.
This was an obvious fact.
The exact time the commander was brainwashed remained unclear, but Ke Mingqing was certain it had to be before the Train Hero rescue incident, because Lin Yin was already leaking information to Clock Maker back then.
As a top-tier esper, Clock Maker had developed his abilities to their absolute limit. He had three ways of utilizing his power: detonating his pocket watches, using them to freeze time, and finally, swaying a pocket watch by its chain to hypnotize anyone who looked at it.
This was a piece of intel Ke Mingqing had casually stumbled across on the dark web a month ago.
He hadn't paid it much mind at the time—there was far too much fake information on the internet. Only now did he realize it was very likely true.
Regardless, following Invisible Giant's death, he was brought into the investigation as the first witness on the scene.
The ones in charge of the investigation were from the Hero Control Bureau.
This task couldn't have been more suited for the Control Bureau. After all, their job was to handle out-of-control superheroes—even if the superhero in question was already dead.
The executor dispatched by the Control Bureau was a woman in a pitch-black bodysuit. Her appearance hovered somewhere between a young girl and a teenager, but her figure didn't match, showing obvious signs of disguise.
Her codename was "Zero," but Blue Pigeon also knew her other name: Xia Lingxue.
...
...
A short while later, on the 35th floor of the Hero Company, in the visitor conference room.
Blue Pigeon watched the metal doors slowly slide open. The room inside was pitch black, and the light from the corridor stretched his shadow long across the floor.
"Come in," a cold voice called out from the darkness.
Blue Pigeon stepped inside, silently pulled out a chair, and sat down at the corner of the long table. He raised his eyes to look at the executor sitting at the far opposite end.
Zero looked up from the shadows, glanced at him, and immediately lowered her head again to study the tablet in her hands.
After a long moment, she spoke at a measured pace:
"Through the corridor's surveillance footage, we can confirm that the incident occurred before you entered the office. The cause of Invisible Giant's death was multiple gunshot wounds, and the handgun only bears Commander Lin Yin's fingerprints."
She paused. "So there is no need to be nervous. You are not a suspect."
Blue Pigeon stared silently at his second sister, not saying a word.
A moment later, he finally asked:
"Why only the corridor surveillance? Don't you have the authority to pull the footage from inside the office?"
"No," Zero shook her head. "To ensure the confidentiality of every operation, none of the commanders' offices within the Hero Company are equipped with cameras. So no one knows exactly what happened inside."
She cast the video from her tablet onto the conference room's main screen, then said:
"But we know from the camera outside the office that shortly after Invisible Giant went in, several gunshots rang out."
Blue Pigeon looked up at the screen. He watched the young boy, Invisible Giant, step out of the glass-walled elevator. The boy was typing on his phone and humming a song as he walked into the office.
Moments later, a sudden burst of violent gunfire tore through the brief silence. Blood sprayed out from the office, staining the corridor floor red.
Zero said, "It is worth noting that no traces of Invisible Giant using his esper abilities were found at the scene. This is highly unusual."
At this, she raised her eyes to Blue Pigeon and asked, word by word:
"Do you have any idea why that might be?"
Blue Pigeon said slowly, "I don't think Invisible Giant wanted to hurt Commander Lin Yin."
"Then where did the injury on Commander Lin Yin's shoulder come from?"
"Self-inflicted."
"Regrettably, we found a dagger at the scene. It only had Invisible Giant's fingerprints on it." Zero shook her head. "Is there a possibility that Invisible Giant considered the commander an ordinary human, so he tried to kill him with the dagger first, severely injuring the commander's shoulder?"
She paused. "And when Invisible Giant realized the situation was turning against him, he was shot and killed by Commander Lin Yin before he could activate his esper abilities."
Blue Pigeon took a deep breath, tilted his head back against the chair, and said:
"I heard you're a fan of Rain Crow, and Lin Yin used to be Rain Crow's commander. You're looking at him through a filter. People only see what they want to see. Think whatever you want."
Zero could hear the sarcasm in his words. She frowned slightly and replied:
"I will ignore those baseless remarks for now. What I am more concerned about is whether there was any conflict between Commander Lin Yin and Invisible Giant over the past two months."
Blue Pigeon closed his eyes and remained silent, looking as if he were taking a short nap.
"There's no need for you to stay silent. Say whatever comes to mind," Zero said expressionlessly. "There has been plenty of news in the past about superheroes torturing and killing their commanders. This is because they resent an ordinary human dictating their actions and judging their every move from on high, leading to arbitrary revenge."
Blue Pigeon still said nothing.
"We found the following sentence in Commander Lin Yin's routine reports: 'Recently, Invisible Giant has been acting strangely. I often get into arguments with him over major decisions.'"
Zero paused. "Is this true?"
Blue Pigeon suddenly laughed.
"It's true that Invisible Giant often talked back to the commander, but most of the time it was just childish joking. He was a brat. It's perfectly normal for a kid his age to be unable to filter his words."
He sighed. "At the very least, I never personally witnessed any substantial conflict between the two of them. Are you satisfied?"
"You haven't been with the company for long." Zero flipped through a file. "Although you are the captain, the other team members have been carrying out the missions most of the time. It wouldn't be strange for Commander Lin Yin and Invisible Giant to have clashed during that period."
Blue Pigeon shrugged. 'Second Sister, you really act the exact same way both at home and outside,' he thought. 'Are you ever going to get married like this?'
Zero fell silent for a moment, then looked up. "You have no reason to cover for him. A child who commits a crime is still a criminal."
Blue Pigeon stayed quiet for a long while. He knew that the phone records between him and Lin Yin would be dug up sooner or later. He might as well just tell the truth:
"Actually, right when I was about to leave the company, the commander sent me a message."
"What did the message say?"
"Just a few words: 'Found the mole.'"
Zero raised an eyebrow. "The mole?"
"Yes, the mole sent by Clock Maker," Blue Pigeon nodded. "For now, only me, Rain Crow, and Commander Lin Yin know about this."
He paused. "We are currently moving against Clock Maker."
Zero didn't react much to the name "Clock Maker."
She thought for a moment. "In other words, Commander Lin Yin believed that Invisible Giant was the mole?"
"Wouldn't that be the only explanation?" Blue Pigeon said calmly. "Dead men tell no tales."
With that, he stood up from his chair, turned around, and walked out of the conference room without looking back.
"Did he just say I was a fan... of Rain Crow?"
Zero muttered soundlessly to herself as she sat in her chair with her arms crossed. She quietly watched him leave, then shut off her tablet.
The investigation into the incident wrapped up quickly—or rather, there was simply no room for outsiders to intervene.
The moment Lin Yin regained consciousness, he declared to the internal staff that the boy, Invisible Giant, was a mole sent by the supervillain Clock Maker.
He provided a series of clues. For instance, Invisible Giant's phone contained records of him secretly passing intel to an unknown contact, and the records explicitly mentioned the Train Hero rescue operation.
Neither the death of Dark Crocodile nor that of Invisible Giant was leaked to the public.
To avoid causing mass panic, the Hero Company and the Control Bureau reached a consensus. They signed a non-disclosure agreement and publicly announced that Invisible Giant and Dark Crocodile had simply retired from Team Blue Pigeon.
Commander Lin Yin was a figure of high prestige and deep respect within the Hero Company. The Control Bureau couldn't interfere too heavily in an incident like this.
And so, Zero's investigation was unceremoniously cut short.
With this, Team Blue Pigeon was down to its final two members.
On that very same day, Ke Linye bought a plane ticket and left Leijing for Tokyo, Japan, using a vacation as his excuse.
Given how deeply his eldest brother held grudges, Ke Mingqing couldn't help but suspect he had found out the members of Death Crow were in Tokyo and had flown over to hunt them down.
Speaking of Death Crow, it just so happened that on the afternoon of August 22nd, in a corner of Tokyo, Japan, one of Death Crow's members sought out Giovanni.
...
...
On the other side of the world, inside a five-star hotel in Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan.
Giovanni was leaning against the bed reading a book, while Bai Ziling sat beside him, playing on a PSP console. A moment later, someone suddenly knocked on the hotel room door.
Bai Ziling looked up and exchanged a glance with Giovanni.
"Stay right here and don't move," Giovanni said. He walked over to the door and cracked it open. A gray pigeon fluttered inside.
Watching the pigeon flap its wings, he immediately realized who it was and pulled the door all the way open.
Jiang Qingzi put away his magic top hat, and the pigeon quietly dissolved into nothing.
"Long time no see," Jiang Qingzi said. "It's been almost twenty days."
Giovanni watched him silently. After a long while, he asked, "What is it?"
"Nothing much. Just wanted to ask if you'd like to come with us to Leijing."
"Go to Leijing, and then what?"
"Slaughter Clock Maker," Jiang Qingzi said offhandedly.
"Clock Maker?" Giovanni froze.
Jiang Qingzi nodded. "Right. But this isn't an official mission, so it's fine if you don't come. Currently, the only ones involved are me, the Leader, and Heimeng, but I'm hoping to add you to the roster."
He paused, reaching out to pat Giovanni's shoulder. "Your abilities make me feel very secure."
Giovanni hesitated for a moment, slapped his hand away, and probed, "You say you're going to slaughter Clock Maker, but a criminal of his caliber... is he really all alone?"
"No. Heimeng dug up the profiles of several kids from Clockwork Alliance."
Jiang Qingzi said, handing Giovanni a file. "You can take a look when you have the time."
Giovanni took the file and skimmed the roster.
...
1. Mini Girl (esper)
2. Dream Monk (esper)
3. Dark Crocodile (mutant)
4. Three-Eyed Mind (esper)
5. Thorn Girl (esper)
6. Unknown.
7. Unknown.
...
Giovanni didn't read any further. He looked up and asked:
"You said the Leader is joining too. Why is he interested in this?"
Jiang Qingzi shrugged, explaining unhurriedly:
"On one hand, it's because Clock Maker has killed a member of Death Crow before. I hadn't joined the organization back then, though, so I don't know the details. On the other hand, the Leader wants Clock Maker's esper ability."
"I can see that," Giovanni nodded. "Clock Maker's ability is certainly tempting."
"And then... there's a third reason." Jiang Qingzi paused, deliberately keeping him in suspense. "Take a guess."
Giovanni thought for a moment before musing:
"Is it White Jack again?"
"Bingo," Jiang Qingzi sighed. "The Leader believes White Jack might get involved in this. He is extremely interested in White Jack, so... you know how it is."
"I figured," Giovanni said.
As the two of them chatted, Bai Ziling suddenly chimed in out of nowhere from inside the room:
"Leijing Iron Tower. The legend of the white bubble butt."
Jiang Qingzi fell dead silent. "How exactly do you raise her?"
"Don't blame me," Giovanni said mildly. "Blame the sheer chaos of today's internet. The kid has been corrupted."
Raising his voice, Jiang Qingzi called into the room, "Little kids shouldn't say things like that! Don't let them become a bad influence on you."
"Pedo," Bai Ziling said.
Giovanni called back into the room with a lukewarm tone, "Stop spouting random nonsense you learn on the internet."
"Oh, got it," Bai Ziling said.
Jiang Qingzi shrugged helplessly. He looked up, meeting Giovanni's eyes:
"So, are you coming or not?"
Giovanni remained silent for a moment before asking, "When do we leave?"
Jiang Qingzi blinked, and then a grin tugged at the corners of his lips:
"In three days."