Burial

He casually tossed a clean roll of gauze to the boy, letting him bandage his own wound. Judging from his sullen expression, he probably wouldn't let Henry do it for him.

Henry then took off his tuxedo coat, wrapped it around the black girl's body, and began to consider how to dispose of it.

Going through the proper channels for burial is definitely out of the question; neither the police nor the hospital will be easy to deal with. Henry doesn't know where there are Church and cemetery managers who take bribes and don't ask about the origin of the body.

The methods used by gangsters or Continental Hotel to dispose of corpses focus on making the body disappear, showing little respect for the deceased. Henry didn't even bother to investigate further.

The reason he wanted to take the extra effort instead of rushing things was not only to give the deceased a proper send-off, but also to comfort the living. The child's feelings were secondary; the main reason was Henry's own lingering guilt, which prevented him from acting hastily.

So Henry asked, "How do you usually handle these kinds of things?"

"Which kind?" the brat retorted sharply.

Ignoring the brat's annoying behavior, Henry calmly asked, "What do you usually do when someone dies?"

"You can either leave it lying around, or move it to the Cannibal Street to sell for money, depending on how much meat it contains. Dried or rotten meat will fetch a lower price. But I won't agree to you treating Skye like that; you said you'd bury her."

... Cannibal Street. When Henry first heard the name, he thought it was a street full of ruthless characters who would eat people, all of them like Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

Now it seems that the street's reputation for being "cannibalistic" is in many ways. In short, sending people to that kind of place probably wouldn't end well. So Henry had to find another way.

Building a grave in the sewers? Recalling that one of the girl's last wishes was to leave this place, even though she wished upon the devil rather than herself, Henry found it hard to be cruel and still buried her in the place she wanted to leave.

Henry initially intended to carefully lift the Black girl, but considering there was another Passenger, he could only hoist the petite body onto his shoulder. Then, with a swift movement, he scooped up the other unruly child and tucked him under his arm.

The dead, of course, wouldn't protest, but the living were far from obedient. The child, realizing he'd been grabbed, struggled and cried out, "What are you doing! Put me down!"

"Shut up! Clench your teeth if you don't want to bite your tongue off." As soon as he finished speaking, Henry used his Super Speed combined with his flight ability to instantly escape the New York sewer maze and head straight from the East Coast to the West Coast.

As for the three Sparrow that suddenly lost their target, they were forgotten by the escaped Kryptonian. So the three spy planes began to split up and ventured into the crisscrossing tunnels of New York's sewers, autonomously searching and recording their findings.

According to their operational logic, once they lose sight of their target, they will search outwards from the point where they lost sight of it, gradually expanding the search area. Only when they find the target again will the three Sparrow regroup and continue tracking it.

However, it was clear that the three Sparrow were destined to fail. They could only search blindly in the sewers of New York until the Kryptonian remembered them.

When the little boy, who hadn't even had time to scream, landed on the ground again, he lay down and dry heaved. He couldn't even tell where he was.

Actually, if the child had been fully protected by the Kryptonian Biological Force Field, his discomfort wouldn't have been so severe.

But how could Henry let a troublesome kid who kept causing him trouble get away with it so easily? As long as he wasn't torn to pieces by the powerful wind pressure, he was fine.

Once the dizziness subsided, Putz was finally able to see where he had been taken.

It was a beautiful hillside surrounded by tall, lush trees. Looking out, one could see a whole forest and distant, rolling mountain peaks.

Where is this?

"Joshua Tree National Park in California. This is a secluded spot I found myself; it's not a popular hiking or picnic route, basically deserted. No one will bother it."

Taking advantage of the child's vomiting, Henry went to the Sheep Cave Valley Laboratory and retrieved two shovels. He threw one aside by the pit and used the other himself.

Using the Kryptonian's abilities, the dog could dig a hole—the image is too beautiful for Henry to imagine. So, let's use tools instead.

The Black girl, wrapped in clothes, was placed beside a tree not far away. The brat didn't say much, enduring his hunger and exhaustion, he grabbed a shovel almost as tall as him and began shoveling dirt.

He didn't even think about how he got from the East Coast to the West Coast in an instant. Perhaps even a child who didn't go to school seriously wouldn't understand such a basic geographical concept.

Henry was naturally the main force in digging; he couldn't possibly leave the entire task to a child who struggled even to lift a shovel. Before long, they had dug a sufficiently deep hole.

When burying a body in the wild, the key is to dig deep enough. This not only masks the smell but also prevents other animals from digging up the carcass and gnawing on it.

That's why United States use the phrase "six feet below" instead of "burial," because they often bury coffins six feet below the ground. This is based on long-term experience and doesn't have any particular meaning.

After digging the deep pit, Henry carefully lifted the Black girl into it. His own Tinkerer's suit jacket then became her shroud.

When Henry climbed out of the pit, intending to cover it with soil, he saw the boy's forlorn expression and said, "Say goodbye to your friend properly. I'll help you again after you've covered it with the first shovelful of soil."

"Why are you doing these things?" the child suddenly asked.

After thinking for a moment, Henry finally spoke up, "I originally just wanted to find the person behind you, so I secretly followed you. I didn't expect to find out about you and her, and I also saw the scene of you being bullied this morning."

"After you left, I noticed she wasn't making any move, so I showed up to check on her. Actually, I still had a chance to save her then, but I chose to respect her decision. By the time I regretted it, it was too late."

Most of what he said was true, including the choice he regretted. However, Henry omitted the fact that the great demon Mephisto had intervened and taken the girl's soul. After all, that was too difficult to explain.

As for whether to give the coin to the child as a keepsake... Henry rejected the idea as soon as it came to mind.

First, it was uncertain whether the coin was related to the Black girl's soul; second, it was an object of the devil, and carrying it around wouldn't be a good thing. So, it was decided to abandon the idea.

The child didn't dwell too much on the fact that Henry had a chance to save him but ultimately couldn't. He simply asked, "Did Skye say anything at the end?"

She said she wanted a home, with mom and dad, to eat a turkey dinner, and to brag about it to you. But she also hoped you'd stay with her, and that her parents would agree to let you stay with her. In the end, she still thought of you.

Henry spoke the Black girl's last wish, even though it was a wish spoken to a demon. And this wish made the child beside her cry, sobbing uncontrollably.

For a moment, Henry didn't know what to do. Should he comfort him, or give him some time to vent his emotions?

However, the crying didn't last long. Soon, the child turned into sobbing and tried to force a smile onto his face.

He kept rubbing his eyes and wiping away his tears, saying, "You need to smile more. Skye doesn't like other people crying. Because whenever someone cries, she cries too."

He laughed and cried for a while before reluctantly shoveling a shovelful of dirt onto the body at the bottom of the pit. Henry then followed suit, covering the body with the dirt he had dug out.

When all the soil was returned to the original pit, the excess only bulged slightly, showing how petite the person buried inside was.