OVERWORLD III

Missing Person

Hollow continues to watch over Kristina who is sound asleep, her snoring and breathing are the only things that he can clearly hear, apart from the city noise. The lights outside remained lit, the city remained awake. Like him, the city was not allowed to rest. While in wait of the first light, all he can do is check up on his mass collection of weapons and making sure nothing is stolen or malfunctioning. He smokes cigarettes to keep his restless mind at ease, his hand shakes and itches for the fight but it is not the time.

"You need to live, you need to kill... all of them, you're no longer the traitor"

Hollow wakes up in cold sweat as his flashback came back to him in a dream. A battle that traumatized him, but in a sadistic way he calls for it. He sees the light of dawn entering through the window and Kristina rises as the sun did.

"How was your sleep?"

"It wasn't the best, but it helped... what is that smell?"

"I smoke, sorry about that"

"Its fine, could you at least open up the window"

"I should" Hollow said. He walked up the windows near them and opened it up. The fresh smell of the morning came in and the smell of the cigarettes starts to fade away.

"Where's the bathroom?"

"Follow the hallway by your room, the one with the red door, the other one is the fire exit"

She followed his direction. He continues to look outside thinking of what to do, all he knows is that he needs to find people. Those people will be used on something dark.

"Those demons really have no idea when to stop, fuck"

He prepares weapons and outfits for the both of them to use on their first mission. He again make sure that everything is working well and it has not been tampered with. He seemed paranoid as he checked each thing 3 times over and over, not even noticing Kristina who is already out of the bath. She stood there watching over the frantic man do what he is doing over again.

"Hollow?"

"Yes, yes its done, here" The calm and composed tone that she knows from him starts to crack on certain stresses. It was after meeting the man last night that changed his tone, afraid. Kristina did not bother to tell the man to stop but she never spoke up, he wanted to do this so she should not interfere with his decision and just follow.

"Did you eat anything?"

"No, should we?"

"No, what we will be going will make you regurgitate everything, it will stink like piss and shit, but we can bear it"

"Will this mask help us?"

"No, just keep it on, now"

They got out of the hotel and the town seems busier than usual, after all it is Sunday. Hollow walks ahead into a certain direction and Kristina follows, she did not question his actions but instead felt confident. He seems to look around everywhere as if he is looking for something or someone.

"Keep your guard up" Hollow puts out an item and uses it. Kristina feels a force nudging her and the world seems to have stopped. She can see a leaf directly in front of her eyes, frozen in its place. She reached for it but Hollow 'psst' at her and she stopped in place, both of them stood still.

"What is going on?" Kristina thought, the whole world is frozen and only the 2 of them can move. Everything is weird for her, it is her first time experiencing something like this. She sees Hollow's finger directly pointing in front of them, and her eyes followed. Among the crowd they can see someone moving about freely, he is also in a state of confusion.

"Don't let them see you" Hollow whispered, and suddenly moving slowly away from her. She starts to get frantic and angry at him but she did not show it. She kept her eyes on the bewildered man who seems to examine his surrounding, and tries to talk to the person.

"Hello, hello"

"Why are... hello! HELLO! IS THIS SOME JOKE!"

The man starts to get angrier the longer they stay in the pocket world. He punches the people around him but they move as if gravity is not present. He looks around him to see if there is someone here with him. Unlucky for Kristina they made eye contact and he starts stomping towards him, "HEY!" he called out to her but she remained still.

"I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

With every stomp the people around him starts to blow out of his way. Kristina had no choice but to confront the man, she moves pass the crowd trying to meet the man in the middle.

"Who are you?"

"Kris"

"Kris?"

"Just that"

"Kris, do you have any Idea what is happening?"

"No"

"Really?" Without a hint he punched her directly. "I'll ask again" He said, but Kristina did not respond. The man continued to punch her but she is unaffected, he stops his punches.

"Okay, I have no fucking idea, like you I was brought her"

"Really, well... why did you not tell me earlier?"

"You were screaming like a psycho, who would want to talk to you!?"

"A sane person"

"Yeah, no, no one will"

"So, where's your partner?" He asked her. Kristina is unsure if he is being serious or just bluffing. She replies with a bluff.

"I have no partner, but I have power that can defeat you easily, as if I had one"

"hmp, your just a girl" Hollow came kicking and kicks his chest. The building behind him explodes into pieces. The dust clears and the man stands perfectly with an unbothered expression. Around him everything is destroyed except for the area around. A huge circle seems to protect him.

"That explains why the people were floating around"

"Yeah, right"

"Rude, the names Martin"

"Fuck you Martin" Hollow replied. Martin engages them and they can feel a spherical wall in front of them. The 2 cannot move as they are pinned onto him. Hollow's left arm starts to bright up and Kristina struggles to pierce through with he dagger. The 2 tries to penetrate his shield and they can feel their arms move inwards. Martin stops in midair trying to get rid of the 2.

"We're her to stay"

"You're her to die!" Martin plunges down and the 2 gets out of his way. Small boulders are thrown towards them.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, the dagger is much more stronger than I thought, what do we do?"

"We keep attacking the sphere, we need to focus on one side"

Martin creates a barrier of imperium around him in a spherical shape. The barrier keeps it shape as his passive defense. Hollow uses his clairvoyance to see the flow of imperium and he sees the path. Martin reminded Hollow of a plasma ball. He can see filaments extending from his body to the sphere around him. He sees the damage that they made and more filaments focus on the damage, repairing it.

"Kristina"

"Yeah?"

"Can you hold the dagger with 2 hands?" Kristina follows and holds the handle with 2 hands. Imperium automatically starts to be imbued into the dagger.

"You're a natural, throw it"

"What! I'll have no weapon!"

"The dagger with return, it knows your imperium now, NOW!"

As Martin charges towards them Kristina throws the dagger. "You underestimate me!' Martin said as he reached for the dagger. Hollow keeps a close eye on the dagger. As the dagger broke through the sphere he can see all the filaments focusing on the dagger and his defense weakening. Kristina's imperium on the dagger starts to be teared apart but the dagger continues to travel its trajectory.

"KRISTINA ATTACK!"

As the dagger gets behind Martin, Kristina rushes in from the bottom. The filaments are focusing onto 4 spots. The dagger's entry point, the imperium on the dagger, the filaments focusing on the dagger's trajectory as to stop it and Kristina from the bottom. The part of the sphere above Martin's head starts to weaken. Hollow jumps to the top and fires 3 shots downwards and follows along.

"Got you!"

"Got you" Martine pointed and the filaments focused all on Hollow.

"I see you are more skilled, the girl does not pose as a threat to me than you, Mr-"

"Misogynistic piece of shit" Kristina stabs him directly down on his lower spin, paralyzing his bottom half. The dagger starts to absorb his imperium and the 3 floats down. Hollow puts Martin down and Kristina rushes in to kill him but she was stopped.

"Don't, we need him alive, Kristina. Calm down, I know he's an jerk, but we need okay? You can get your anger out once we found those people"

"People?"

"Yeah, children, they disappeared over 3 years ago, all I know is that a normal person cannot do it"

"fuck him"

"Listen to me, he's th-"

"Why don't we go after Abandon, or what ever"

"Abaddon, you speak my Master's name?"

"See, we need him" Kristina calms down and walks off her anger, she throws rocks at Hollow but he is unbothered by it. Hollow confronts Martin who seems calmer.

"Ha, ha, haaaa.... Are you a Reaper?"

"....."

"Only Reapers can do this, world pause thing, this all happens in a second. Somebody we're gonna break through this Aether, and we'll take over both world..."

"Sure you do" Chains comes out from Hollow's palm and slithers Martin's legs.

"Those fucking chains, which side are you on?"

"....."

"Only demons have that, LITTLE GIRL DO YOU KNOW THIS MAN!"

"Where is your base of operations?"

"Like I will tell you"

"You have no choice" The end link starts to turn sharp and dug underneath Martin's skin. It slowly moves up and he tries his best to not scream. "You can scream" Hollow said with a monotone voice. 1 of the link breaks into 3 and it turns into more chain links.

"Hollow, I thought not to kill him?"

"Don't worry, he can only suffer" The chains climbs up to his neck and it comes out through his mouth, eye, and nose. Hollow grabs the 3 chains and pulled it. "Scream" Hollow said, but the man cannot, even teared up, his whole body froze in because of the chain.

"HOLLOW!"

"OORAY OI SPEK, OY SPEK PLES DOH KELL ME!"

The chain quickly retracts back into his palm and Martin screams in absolute agony. His body trembles in pain, but the pain is bearable enough that he can move around easily; like exercising. Martin pitifully crawls towards Hollow, he shows no sort of emotion, excluding the mask but he just stands still, he does not see him as human. Kristina feels worried as to what is happening to him, he feels off, again the feeling of anger radiates from him.

"I cannot say the name either, nor the name of the place, but I can give a name for you 2, a man, woman I mean... Racquel Ramon Ursula, a pregnant woman, she lives nearby... please, they said when I do their bidding, their make sure she is safe"

"....."

"Hollow, can you spare him?"

"He is evil, and evil should be destroyed"

"He shows remorse, look at him, he already suffered"

Hollow aims his pistol directly onto Martin's chest. He is not dying despite having his bottom half off him. His lower half starts to slowly retract back to his body, and it reconnects.

"You will bring us to this woman, in this world, and you will protect her when we depart, if a demon were to enter this realm, it will start to break apart. We're gonna die if that were to happen yes?"

"Yes" Kristina helps Martin up and they start to make their way to the woman's house. Martin limps around still experiencing phantom pain around his body, he limps as he walked with them.

"There, this is the place" They stopped by another hotel 4 streets away from the Hotel that they are staying in. They walked into the alleyway in order to revert back to the Overworld. The pocket watch starts to move automatically and everything starts to go back to normal. The debris that was levitating in the air starts to go back to its place, everything was being reversed. The world then follows and starts moving.

"In which floor is she on?"

"You do not have to worry about being seen right? You're Reapers"

"We're not, we're just people"

Martin was in distraught as Hollow denied it. He does not feel like a Reaper now that he looks at him. His neck is not as snow white as that of a dead person; a Reapers.

"you're gonna have to take of the mask" Hollow holds his mask contemplating on his decision. But he decided not to. Kristina takes off her mask and put it in her backpack, Martin eventually regains the movement in his legs and he tries to grab Hollow's mask. But something within him does not want to take it off, he can see his eye directly peering into his very soul.

"I guess not, follow me girl"

Martin gets his balance back and can now walk, but the pain is there and bearable. Kristina opens and holds the door for them, Hollow awaits outside on a street vendor selling, from fish and squid balls, a coagulated food known as Betamax, and banana cues. The smell of the cooking street food attracted him, and he just sat there enjoying the smell.

He looks at his pocket and started counting every minute, "Good luck kid" he said.

"There you go sir, the key"

"Thank you"

"Welcome yo-"

"Ah ah, she's with me, remember this is my sister" Martin said to the receptionist. "Other sister" He clarified, he then explained that she won't be staying long. The 2 continued entered the elevator.

"Sister?"

"Yeah, the girl will be going to is my sister"

"She's pregnant?"

"Somehow, last week she was not, but within a span of 5 days her bell has grown into a woman who has been pregnant for 6 months"

"Suddenly?"

"Yeah" Hearing this new tone from Martin made Kristina slowly trust him. They arrived at the 3rd floor and he lead the way to their room.

"So why a hotel? Do you guys not have a house?"

"They know where my house is, and we put up clones there so that we can run away"

"Who?"

"Those Reapers, monsters, we only want to live a peaceful life"

"But you guys sided with a devil, you referred to Abaddon as Master, that explains it right?"

"Do you know how criminals are made?" Martin asked as they stood in front of the room, 316. Kristina has no reply as he waits for his explanation, "your answer first" he said.

"Influence from other people, committed a literal crime, just a bad person"

"What about those wrongfully accused? Those who were forced to do a crime? The blame falls on them, those who defend themselves"

"Well, we have a conscience, so t-"

"What if they have no choice, they were poor, their life is being threatened, their family, they have nothing, what about them?"

"I do not know"

"They go through so many struggles and trials to survive in this world, the law is just, but not just enough. Was Robin hood a bad guy?"

"No"

"What makes you think that?"

"Because he stole from the rich, for the poor"

"I guess I'm like him"

"Ho-" Martin opens the door and the room is filled with people the same age as her. There is no pregnant woman in sight, though there is a moon bump on the sofa.

"I made a deal with the devil, in exchange this people will be safe, my body will be used as a vessel for them"

"What if those people are evil, born evil?"

"No one is born evil, they are made. But it is not just in the law that decides if people are good or bad, everything is just a perspective, good is different from right, wrong is different from bad"

12 people in the room, enjoying each other's company, despite living in 1 small room they are still enjoying it.

"I broke this children out, they were going to used as sacrifice, guilt-ridden I saved them, in exchange for my own soul"

"So they know this?"

"No, none of them know it, our minds are not connected, my soul is still here, in my chest, and they are still yet to posses me"

"So this kids"

"They were taken from an Underworld, I do not know where it is, but I do not want to remind them. This are the kids that Hollow is looking for, make sure you keep them safe for a long time, because unlike me, their souls have been touched"

"Touched, marked or something?"

"Yeah, they have no names, so their names are just numbers, from One to Twelve. I got it from a show, the idea of the name"

"I have no idea what you are talking about"

After sometime Kristina identified who is who and went outside to meet with Hollow, he sat on the same exact place the whole time. Martin watches over them from the window of their room as they went into the alleyway again.

"All 12 people are there"

"How?"

"He broke them out of the, what ever place it is, can he lead us to it?"

"Yes, he can, and he will, but he should not go, he has to take care of this people here, some of them have PTSD and are 'marked' he said"

"Marked? Shit, anytime they can become a demon then"

"Well? Those Reapers will probably go after us"

"Yes, and the demons as well, we have no sides, we only have ourselves, we cannot kill a Reaper, they are tough ones to beat, even harder than a demon I tell you"

"Okay, so let's go"

A rope descends from the room that Martin is staying and the 2 climbed it up. The 2 jumped up to the roof quickly as to not incite attention. Kristina entered the room first and everyone is already packed up.

"Quickly?"

"Yes, we have a place where we can hold out and defend, it has a barrier as well"

Hollow followed in and the 12 are startled by him, he stood strong and all of them feel threatened and put out their weapons. Hollow takes another step and they raised their weapons, the tension can cause chaos.

"Stop it, he is our friend, he will help us"

"I don't like him, his aura, I don't like him, a demon, I hate it" Number 12 said.

"I am also a demon, but I mean no harm to you guys"

"You are different Martin, and he is not, he wishes to hurt us"

"NO, I wish to help all of you, 3 years you have suffered within the demon's lair, now you are free, and I will not take it away from you"

"Prove it" Number 1 demanded. "I can't" The 12 become went back onto the defense with his answer.

"All I can do is help you guys by defeating the enemy"

The 12 slowly put their weapons down and they jumped through the windows on the parallel rooms. "You better" Number 1 said as he followed his friends, that he sees as siblings.

"You heard the kid Hollow, follow Kristina, I gave her the map, and good luck"

"Yeah" Martin notices the slight shake on Hollow's hands, but he does not know what emotion it is. Is he nervous, afraid, infuriated, or excited. But whatever it was, Martin hoped that it will not cloud his judgement.

"Let's go"