Walking the dilapidated streets of Nostra with Moonless on his shoulder, Cale had a clear location in mind while making his way through the city.
No matter where he looked, the signs of poverty were littered everywhere. It was even worse than the outskirts of the grand lift area.
Unknowingly, he had a constant scowl on his face.
Cale couldn't quite describe the feeling, but it made him uncomfortable enough to the point where he actively avoided the outskirts.
After almost half an hour of walking and the endless chattering of Moonless in his ears, Cale reached a specific block on the outskirts. After a bit of searching, he was met with a building that wasn't out of the ordinary when looking at the rest of the block.
The ceiling had long collapsed, and only two of its walls still stood.
Even with the city outskirts inhabited by the homeless population, not a single person stepped foot here.
O block.
It was so close to the inner city that most people once considered it part of it — until, overnight, it was assimilated into the outskirts.
All of O-block's inhabitants disappeared, vanished in a single night. No sign of struggle; there was barely any proof that people lived there in the first place.
But these sudden disappearances weren't without their own explanations, a symbol carved into the walls of every single home, which now lay empty.
A bodiless stick figure, a smiling head… with a nose around its head, proving the case to be the work of an Entity, dubbing it with the name:
Joyful Hangman.
Its class and tier were unknown, but that didn't matter when the destruction it caused was on such a large scale — an entire city block, now nothing but a ghost town.
For the longest time, the Aberrant Corps has had a division that solely focuses on finding the Joyful Hangman.
But with the incident happening almost a decade ago and little to no new information from the branch, they have been disbanded, their members joining other divisions under the Aberrant Corps.
Even after the disappearances, the Joyful Hangman never made another appearance.
"Find something sharp for me. If you fly high enough, you can spot something."
The raven tilted its head angrily, "You feel so comfortable bossing me around, why don't you try it with the magic word first?"
Altair only cast him a confused look, "I'm not a magician."
"Maybe what I signed was a slave contract after all." With a caw, the raven took flight, making circles over the ruins of O-block until he saw a small shimmer from the sky, a broken shard of glass.
That will do.
With the help of Moonless leading him there, Cale grabbed the shard of glass and walked up to the sign of the Joyful Hangman, right underneath the stick figure, and he carved a small C letter into the peeling wallpaper, right underneath the smiling stick figure.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Asked the Raven who landed on his usual spot, Cale's shoulder.
"We wait." But Cale already started walking.
"But shouldn't we stay here? If you are trying to meet with someone, why not stay here and wait for them to check your sign?"
"He will find me."
After that, Cale didn't say a word; he simply walked forward until the outskirts were over, but before he would have reached the inner parts of the city, he made Moonless return to the space conjured by Covenant.
The people of Nostra went about their day as normal while Cale made his way even deeper into the city. The people of Nostra were visibly happy.
But Cale paid no attention to them
He walked until he reached a small coffee shop with a wide front window. Inside, by the window, a young man sat with a cup of coffee in hand, staring straight at Cale.
He had a grin on his face as he waved to Cale, gesturing for him to come inside.
As Cale opened the coffee shop door, the warm scent of pastries drifted out from the counter, mixing with the rich aroma of freshly ground coffee beans.
By the window seat, the young man had a cup of coffee both in his hand and in front of him, still hot.
Sitting down in front of the young man, Cale stared at the young man for a while. He was a couple of years older than Cale, but appearance-wise, the two were the same age.
His eyes were yellow, and his hair was ashen white like an old man's, long enough to be tied into a neat man-bun.
The young man just waited for Cale to take a sip from his coffee while he was drinking his own with an elated expression, but seeing as Cale had little to no intention of drinking, his expression turned somber.
"Our sister was worried, so was the youngest."
For a while, Cale didn't say anything, but then he took a sip, causing a slight frown, and placed a single cube of sugar into the cup.
"Jhin, I contacted you as soon as I was free to do so." He said while swirling the cup gently, waiting for the cube to dissolve.
Across him, Jhin flashed a satisfied smile, "At least you are alive, so, how did you change your look? Did you make a deal with a shape shifter or something?"
"Something like that."
"So, I presume that you didn't only come here to reassure your dear older brother of your safety?"
"I didn't, I need identification documents and a solid paper trail proving that I had a life previously."
"I will make sure you get it before midnight. What name do you want to use?"
"Caelen Hall."
Upon what he heard, Jhin almost spit out his drink, "You want to use your original name? Are you crazy? That's just begging to be found by that bastard."
"That's the plan, I am going to join the Aberrant Corps."
This time, Jhin placed his cup down before he could have choked on his drink. Then, he slowly got up from his seat and called out to the barista, "Please, can you turn the volume up?"
"Of course, sir." The barista turned on the volume of the wide TV screen on the side, at which Cale immediately focused, and so did Jhin with an unreadable expression.
Breaking news: Bureau of Aberrant Disasters director, Joel Verlice, on the Red Mansion case, shares information with the public.
On the wide screen, the nobleman with neatly combed back black hair stood in front of a podium with five different microphones in front of him, faced with a crowd of reporters; he had a rare smile on his face.
"Today, we got confirmation of Altair's bloodmark fading on its own, together with the rest of the death row criminals." He paused for a moment before looking directly at the camera.
"One down, three more to go." It was a joyous declaration, followed by a cacophony of questions and comments from the reporters.
"Look at him," Jhin said, almost amused… but mainly disgusted. "Grinning and dancing around so nonchalantly… like some stupid zoo monkey."
His tone was so casual it almost didn't register as a threat — until Cale saw the way Jhin's smile didn't reach his eyes.
Then, as if nothing had happened in the first place, Jhin snickered before leaning closer to jokingly whisper, "So, what does it feel like to be dead?"
"Not much of a difference."
"Just try not to get yourself killed, we've buried enough of our siblings already."
Hesitating for a second, Cale offered a solution, "You can cremate me if you'd like."
At that, Jhin let out a giggle, "As frustrating as ever… but you could have at least been happy to see your big brother."
"But I am happy." He just looked at Jhin as blankly as he always did.
"Huuh…" burring his head into his palms, Jhin sighed before he left for the counter, paying for both of their drinks.
"Stay safe, little brother."