"Bastard, do you have a plan or not?!"
Standing on a skyscraper, Raven didn't even call her Jackal anymore, directly addressing the centaur scientist on the other end of the comms as "Bastard" to express her dissatisfaction.
"Almost done! I'm arranging it now! Stop rushing me, it's already on the way."
The idiot on the other end seemed to know she was in the wrong and didn't argue about her colleague's choice of address, just kept giving Raven evasive answers, filling the World Serpent executive with an increasingly ominous feeling.
"You've been useless for so long today! Jackal, you need to get your act together! I've been freezing my ass off on this rooftop in the northwest wind for three hours!"
"Well... I saw on the news that there's a festival today, and on a whim, I thought, 'Hey, we can work with this'..."
"Work with this, and then what? Where's the plan?!"
Raven and the others crowded around the comms, listening in, were all dumbfounded...
"Is she Jackal or a husky...?"
Doll Sirin muttered under her breath, earning approving and agreeing glances from the others nearby.
"Well, Gray Serpent is away, isn't he...? We've run into a small problem with our intelligence work in Arc City... That guy mysteriously hid his intelligence processing center in some unknown corner, and now we can't even contact him..."
Jackal, on the other end of the comms, mentioned another absent executive, brazenly shifting the blame onto World Serpent's number one overworking employee.
"Don't give me that crap! Gray Serpent told us before he left that he'd be unreachable for a while! You idiot, if you can't handle it, don't take it on!"
"Back in London, you almost got me killed! That scythe was just one centimeter from my neck! Do you get it? Just one damn centimeter..."
Suddenly recalling past experiences, Raven grew increasingly agitated, then abruptly realized something...
"Wait, you idiot, you're not planning to go in yourself again, are you?!"
"So what if I am?!"
As if Raven's words had reminded her of her last humiliating defeat, the defiant Miss Jackal got fired up all over again.
"This time it's Arc City, Raven! This time, there's nothing to fear!"
"In this battle, the advantage is mine! Raven, it's time to make Schicksal and the Herrscher understand who this city really belongs to!"
"....."
The comms were hung up again, leaving the group on the rooftop staring at each other in the biting wind.
"...So that idiot not only hasn't come up with a complete plan, but she's also planning to go in herself?!"
Bella and Rita glanced at each other, then turned to Raven.
"How has your World Serpent managed to survive for thousands of years without getting wiped out...?"
"That's where Gray Serpent's near-death-by-overwork comes in... Wait, I'm getting sidetracked. That idiot is probably coming here herself. What do we do then?"
"Slacking off and going easy on them are definitely not options anymore..."
The group fell into deep thought again, the more dangerous members already considering whether to just knock that purebred husky unconscious and fast-forward through the night.
"Forget it, I'll go ask the Little Ancestor..."
After racking her brain without finding a good solution, Raven decided to turn to a certain Miss Imhotep...
-
"Speak."
The other end of the line was bustling; Imhotep seemed to be in some downtown area.
"Little Ancestor, Jackal said she's making a move tonight, but after all her talk, she hasn't explained any coherent plan..."
"And then? Did she stand you up?"
"No... Not only did she fail to explain anything coherent, she got all fired up and is planning to come down personally to micromanage..."
"...."
The other end of the line went completely silent.
"Oh, right, she also said she's going to show Schicksal who this city really belongs to... The maid next to me is already sharpening her knives..."
"...She's coming down personally?"
"Yes."
"What does she usually dress like when she goes out...?"
Imhotep asked a seemingly unrelated question.
"Just like how we usually see her, and to maintain her aloof and mysterious act, she almost never takes off her mask."
"Good. Second question: are the local law enforcement familiar with her appearance?"
"Hmm... Not familiar. Although she's a director at Heliopolis Life Sciences, she never appears in public, so basically no one recognizes her... As for the law enforcement, I'm quite familiar with them. Bronie is always out there speeding on her motorcycle, and I'm the one who has to bail her out and pay the fines every time..."
"Excellent... Excellent—Does she also carry a lot of vials and jars of potions and stuff...?"
"Exactly. According to her, it's so she can conduct experiments whenever inspiration strikes..."
"So, Little Ancestor, what's the point of asking all this...?"
Raven exchanged a few confused glances with the others beside her.
"Idiot—A city just lifted from high alert, a rally celebrating victory. What do you think the Arc City government's attitude toward security will be?"
"Wait, Little Ancestor, you don't mean you're going to..."
"You don't know how to make a tip-off call? Are you a moron???"
"A mysterious, sneaky person dressed strangely, hiding their face, and carrying vials of obviously suspicious chemicals—would you pass up such a gift-wrapped performance bonus?"
"Isn't she trying to make everyone understand what this city truly believes in?"
"This is Shenzhou—anyone who disagrees can get the hell out!"
"Uh... Little Ancestor... Is this really a good idea?"
Having proposed a plan no one had expected, Imhotep impatiently replied to Ms. Island Bomber's hesitation on the other end of the line—
"I'm downstairs right now, about to go on a date with Kyuusyou—"
"If you let Jackal interfere, you'll find yourselves strung up from the top of the Heliopolis Life Sciences Pyramid!"
"Uh... That's not what I meant... Little Ancestor, what if Jackal gets desperate and attacks the police...? A mad scientist carries just as many dangerous gadgets as a mercenary..."
"Then wouldn't that just confirm her malicious intent? The Arc City police are no pushovers."
"Remember how they chased us for eighteen blocks before we finally shook them off? Those hardasses from the Arc City Police Department... are mostly former Valkyries who took early retirement from Schicksal and were reassigned by the local government—"
The call was abruptly disconnected.
"...Damn, a squad of retired Valkyrie cops... plus a dozen cybernetically enhanced officers—hope Jackal makes it out okay."