Chapter 172: A World Where Justice Doesn’t Exist Anymore

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Once they were far enough from the scene, Riven took out his car from his inventory and invited everyone inside. The vehicle was barely large enough to fit them all, yet he drove back home with a calm and relieved smile on his face. The sun had already descended completely, and the night was taking over the sky. The bright lights of the city illuminated everything below, creating a strange sense of freedom that none of them had felt in a long while. It was a complicated mixture of lingering fear and quiet excitement, mixed with deep relief and also... a heavy uncertainty about the future.

Even Kagehisa himself remained unsure of how far Riven’s true plans truly extended, but he was willing to stay by his side and see for himself what kind of man he was following. And yet, as they gazed out at the glowing night city, they slowly began to realize something sobering. Despite how hard and how desperately they had fought, the world outside remained exactly the same, as if it had been frozen in time.

The world had yet to change, and it might certainly take a very long while before any real change appeared. But now, not even Riven was completely sure whether those changes would ever be welcomed by everyone... Still, he had to press forward. He could not waste the only opportunity he had to save the future — a future that still included Her.

"Elisa... I’m coming back home," he murmured quietly to himself while driving. He noticed his phone had several unread messages. Most of them were from Elisa, repeatedly asking when he would return and expressing how worried she felt. The last message said she was cooking dinner and praying for his safe return. Other messages came from Daniela. She reported that she was taking good care of Elisa together with her brother and that he did not need to worry about anything. She also noted that Vladimir had tried to teach her a few assassination techniques, but she had not really managed to learn them.

Riven let out a faint, warm smile. He felt genuinely excited to return to the family he had built... a family that was now perhaps a lot bigger with all the new "baggage" he was bringing home.

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Back in the dark alley, the first ambulances finally arrived. Medics moved quickly among the freed captives, checking their vitals and wrapping thick blankets around shaking shoulders. Detective Mira Chen of the Hunter Association’s Special Investigations unit stepped out of an unmarked car, her badge already held out and her eyes sharp with focus.

"Shadow portal, mass release of known missing persons, no residual core signature, and the rescuers vanish without a single trace," she muttered to her partner Voss. "What could this ever be, Voss? We’ve been researching these Yakuza for a long time, yet they suddenly all vanish, and their captives are thrown right in front of us? Is this... some kind of vigilantism? Is a strong, high-rank hunter doing our job for us now? I don’t know whether to feel grateful or frustrated at how useless I seem..."

"Detective Chen, you are not useless," Voss sighed patiently. "We’ve been doing our best here, but the Yakuza moved in completely erratic ways. The factories they controlled were protected by high-ranked individuals. Even if we had sent our entire unit, we might have all died in the process."

"But is this how justice works now? We fear the very criminals we are supposed to capture?" Chen asked, feeling annoyed that she herself had become that kind of person. "We ignore crime... until someone else who is strong enough finally does the job for us?"

Voss shook his head slowly. "I know exactly how you feel... Honestly, I am glad this happened. But... it just leaves us with more questions than answers, truth be told."

Detective Chen sighed and looked up at the night sky, her gaze settling on the massive skyscraper that stood at the center of Central City — Claymore Enterprises. "We’ve found some lab equipment down there... equipment belonging to Claymore Labs. Do you know what this means? They’re colluding with criminals, Voss..."

"And what exactly do you want us to do about it?" Voss sighed while lighting a cigar. "This is life now. This is the reality we work in... Without our strongest members present in the city, there’s simply not much we can do..."

Voss and Chen watched in silence as the captives were loaded into vans one by one. Some of the rescued people still glanced back at the empty air where the portal had been, as if hoping the cloaked figure would somehow reappear. Most simply closed their eyes and allowed the paramedics to lead them away.

"I hate this," Chen sighed heavily. "I hate seeing these people like this... How long were they trapped there? How many of them died before this vigilante finally saved them?"

"..." Voss did not say a word. He was already used to the young detective’s fierce hatred of injustice — an injustice they could barely fight without enough power of their own.

"The world has completely changed ever since the Gates appeared, Detective Chen," Voss finally said. "You weren’t even alive when it first happened, so you wouldn’t know what the world was like before them. It was still a harsh world full of crime. Every single day it felt like we couldn’t do enough. Corruption spread everywhere. Even other cops and agents often failed to do their work properly. Some of them didn’t even seem to have any real drive... but every now and then there were also souls like you — full of passion, full of... recklessness and foolishness. People who cannot understand the place they occupy on this planet and always try to do more than they should..." He gently patted her shoulder. "You’re still young and still learning... You were born into this new world, Detective Chen. Just... let’s move on for now."

"..." Chen looked frustrated as she turned back to Voss with lingering anger. "With people like these capable of holding such immense power, true justice simply cannot exist... It is all just an illusion, and you know that deep down, right?"

"..." Voss looked away and rolled his eyes slightly.

"We do have strong agents. Some are A Rank, others S Rank. There’s even an L Rank — the Director himself," she continued with a heavy sigh. "But he is just one man... He cannot fight all the crime in this city, let alone stand against the entire number of people who continue to oppress innocent civilians."

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