A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

Tangerine ambient light bled through the cafe. Jazz flowed like water into every corner, and a wind chime on the wooden door swayed in the hot summer breeze.

”If I’m lucky, I should be able to catch the moment Jiang Qingzi meets up with the rest of Death Crow.”

Ke Mingqing sipped his coconut coffee through a straw, his head turned slightly to watch the street outside from the corner of his eye.

The commercial street had a semi-enclosed dome, but the fierce summer sunlight blazing through washed out the streetlamps. The crowd bustled as the traffic lights cycled. Once Jiang Qingzi crossed the intersection, his back vanished into the throng.

The pedestrian light turned green, and a surging stream of cars blocked Ke Mingqing’s line of sight.

He withdrew his gaze and blinked.

’Theater Puppet.’

At his silent command, a stark white puppet instantly formed in the alley to the right of the cafe.

White Jack stepped off the guardrail of an air conditioner unit and vaulted upward with airy grace, landing on the commercial building’s roof. Under a clear sky, bright sunlight washed over him.

The puppet crouched in the hot afternoon wind. Gripping a billboard, it leaned out and narrowed its hollow eyes at a tiny silhouette in the distance.

Jiang Qingzi’s back quickly melted into the crowd. Even with excellent dynamic vision, maintaining a visual lock under these conditions was impossible.

White Jack slipped on his Tracking Sunglasses. A red dot blinked on the digital map.

He bounded across the rooftops of the high-rises and vaulted over illuminated billboards, occasionally brushing past workers on suspended platforms.

White Jack maintained a steady fifty-meter distance from Jiang Qingzi, ducking behind fences or massive billboards, keeping his figure out of the direct sunlight as much as possible.

Once his target pulled further away, he relied on the sunglasses’ map to close the gap.

Jiang Qingzi was an A Rank superhuman, after all. If he got too close, the puppet would be discovered instantly.

Along the way, Jiang Qingzi wandered into a used book market. He sat down and read for a while, paid the stall owner a few coins for a book, and slowly left the market.

His route grew increasingly remote, and the crowds thinned out. The buildings the Theater Puppet scaled shifted from towering skyscrapers to flat, low-slung houses.

Ke Mingqing suspected his puppet had already been discovered, and that Jiang Qingzi was simply looking for a secluded spot to destroy it.

But he could only have White Jack keep following. There was still a chance Jiang Qingzi was heading to a rendezvous with the rest of Death Crow.

Tailing his target, White Jack eventually arrived on the roof of a derelict building in an isolated area. Jiang Qingzi was currently inside the abandoned building directly opposite him.

White Jack peered through the shattered windows. Aside from Jiang Qingzi, there were two other figures inside.

One of them wore a black clerical robe and a round black hat. He had a pale complexion, and his profound, gray-blue eyes were quietly fixed on a black book.

[Superhuman Codename: ”The Pope”]

[Type: Esper]

[Danger Rating: A++ Rank]

[Superhuman Profile: The leader of the thief organization Death Crow. Born in an Italian slum, he assassinated and replaced the reigning Pope during his teenage years. Ever since, he has referred to himself as ”The Pope”—committing acts of sheer madness in the name of God is his defining trait.

His ability manifests as a Bible containing a variety of special powers.]

The Pope sat in a corner of the ruins. Beside him hung a strip of black bandage—anchored to the ceiling above and gripping a suspended human figure below.

White Jack looked at the upside-down figure.

The person was entirely wrapped in pitch-black bandages, resembling a dark mummy. It was a bizarre, eerie sight.

[Superhuman Codename: ”Bandage Man”]

[Type: Esper]

[Danger Rating: B++ Rank]

[Superhuman Profile: A member of the thief organization Death Crow. An orphan born in a hospital, he grew up surrounded by bandages and eventually awakened an ability.

His ability allows him to manipulate black bandages for combat.]

Both were reading, though their postures and reading material differed: The Pope sat quietly with his Bible, while Bandage Man hung upside down, reading a copy of Shonen Jump.

’They’re strong, just as I thought. Their leader is on the same level as my old man,’ Ke Mingqing thought.

”How is Stroh?” Jiang Qingzi asked in a low voice as he walked over.

”It’s a shame. Before she could leak our intel, she committed suicide using poison hidden in her body,” Bandage Man said, flipping a page of his manga without looking back.

”Poison?” Jiang Qingzi was puzzled.

”That’s right,” the upside-down bandage freak said slowly. ”She manipulated her blood to hide a lethal poison inside a blood sac, waiting for the right moment to let it spread through her system.”

Jiang Qingzi sighed and gently shook his head. ”Why go that far? She just had to wait for us to rescue her.”

”Hard to say. The one who caught her was Rain Crow, after all. Anyone else would have been easier to deal with.” Bandage Man licked a dark-wrapped finger and turned the page.

Jiang Qingzi fell silent for a moment. ”Then... what do you plan to do with that vampire girl who was following Stroh?”

”Our hands are tied,” Bandage Man said faintly. ”Stroh is dead. We can’t drag her around with us forever.”

”I can take her,” Jiang Qingzi said.

Bandage Man snapped his manga shut. Bandages extended from his fingertips, writhing in the air like black snakes. He said, ”It’s too dangerous for her to stick around. Either she gets us killed, or our enemies kill her. Understand?”

”I was an orphan too,” Jiang Qingzi said, his voice dropping. ”I don’t want us to abandon Ziling.”

”Magic Boy, you’re far too naive. Things aren’t the same anymore. When the boss took you in, we were just starting out. We didn’t have nearly as many enemies.”

As Bandage Man spoke, he turned his head, his wrapping-concealed eyes locked on Jiang Qingzi.

The two remained in a tense standoff until another clear, cool voice echoed through the ruins.

”It matters not. We will vote on it in a few days.” The Pope suddenly spoke up, cutting their argument short. His voice was deep, as calm as a placid lake.

With The Pope’s words, Jiang Qingzi and Bandage Man both fell silent.

’Obedient, aren’t they? It seems this Pope is their absolute leader.’

White Jack was just thinking this when a sudden, frigid wind struck from behind, causing his top hat to sway.

He turned his head to see a human figure rising out of his own shadow, like a fish breaching from a jet-black lake.

An instant later, the figure pressed a tachi against his throat.

”Don’t move, or your head will part from your body,” the person behind him whispered in a clear, feminine voice.

Looking out of the corner of his eye, White Jack saw a black-haired young woman. Her eyes were as pitch-dark as the polar night, and she wore a black kimono that stood in stark contrast to her snow-white skin.

[Superhuman Codename: ”Sorakagehime”]

[Type: Shadow Warrior]

[Danger Rating: B+ Rank]

[Superhuman Profile: In her youth, Sorakagehime was a member of a Japanese shadow warrior organization. After the organization was completely annihilated, she became its sole survivor, drifting across the world until she caught the eye of Death Crow’s leader, The Pope, and joined their ranks.]

”Can we calm down for a second?” White Jack tilted his head and spoke placidly. ”Comrade, shouldn’t you at least wait for your leader to get here before you kill me?”

”They are already here,” Sorakagehime said flatly.

Shifting his gaze, White Jack saw the three figures from the neighboring building vault through the windows, landing squarely inside the room with him.

The three of them slowly walked over.

”I kept feeling like someone was following me,” Jiang Qingzi said coldly, his hands buried in his pockets. ”I thought something was off, so I had Kagehime check for me. I didn’t expect we’d actually flush out a rat.”

”You were simply too dense,” Sorakagehime said expressionlessly.

”If it had been me, I would have spotted him a long time ago,” Bandage Man chimed in.

Jiang Qingzi merely shrugged, seemingly unable to be bothered to argue with them.

The Pope shut his Bible. Slowly raising his profound eyes, he stared directly into White Jack’s hollow gaze. After a long moment, he spoke calmly.

”So then... who exactly are you?”