"Hoo... hoo..."
Tom and Jerry sat back-to-back on the newly laid Mondstadt City plaza floor, which still carried the scent of fresh wood. Their two little paws each held a miniature towel that had appeared from who knows where, vigorously wiping the exaggerated, waterfall-like sweat from their brows.
Their chests heaved violently, and their faces were etched with exhaustion, yet their eyes held a sliver of the achievement of completing a massive project.
Looking around, Mondstadt City, which had previously looked as if it had been visited by a Category 10 hurricane and an earthquake, was now completely renewed!
Not only were the collapsed houses re-erected, but Jerry had also used his nimble little hands to draw cute graffiti on the walls (though some parts looked a bit off, such as adding a mustache to the statue of the seven);
The cracked streets were paved even smoother and more level than before, capable of reflecting people's silhouettes;
Areas blackened by cannon fire were painted snow white, and the corner of the Knights of Favonius Headquarters that had been smashed down was repaired by Tom using unknown materials, making it seamless and even shinier than the surrounding area!
The entire Mondstadt City seemed to have undergone a magical grand renovation, appearing even tidier and prettier than before—if one ignored the occasional, slightly jarring cartoon decorative paintings.
Acting Grand Master Jean, standing on the newly repaired balcony of the Knights of Favonius Headquarters, looked at the "peaceful" scene below, and finally let out a long breath of stale air that had been suppressed in her heart for a long time.
She felt her soaring blood pressure, which had nearly ascended through the roof, finally slowly drop back within the safety line.
She even managed a rare, tired but genuine smile.
It was over... this nightmare was finally over... May the Anemo God bless us, Mondstadt has finally returned to peace... Perhaps, she could consider giving those four guys a vacation? No, forget it, them resting might be even more terrifying... However, Acting Grand Master Jean, and all the Mondstadters who thought the disaster had passed, rejoiced too soon.
The scene of peace lasted for only... perhaps the length of a single song.
Just as Tom and Jerry had caught their breath and exchanged a glance—a look that no longer held their previous deadly rivalry, but rather a hint of mutual appreciation and "comrade-in-arms" camaraderie—
It was unclear who struck first; perhaps it was just an accidental clash of gazes, perhaps Jerry thought Tom's whiskers looked a bit punchable, or perhaps Tom thought the way Jerry wiped his sweat was too smug... In any case, the next instant!
"Bang!!!"
A red, sizzling firecracker flew out from someone's hand, accurately hitting the opponent right on the forehead, exploding into a small cloud of smoke and sparks!
A brief moment of silence.
Followed by—
"Squeak squeak squeak!!!" (How dare you ambush me!)
"Meow ow ow!!!" (You started it!)
The "comrades-in-arms" who had just fought side-by-side instantly became bitter enemies!
A new round of even more intense and reckless chasing and explosions once again played out within the newly renovated Mondstadt City!
Furthermore, because they had just "rebuilt" the city and knew every corner and every hidden passage like the back of their hand, this chase became even more dazzling, and the destructive power... was even more precise and efficient!
"Why are they fighting again—!!!"
Acting Grand Master Jean, who had just returned to her office and hadn't even warmed her chair, heard the explosions and familiar screams outside, sprang up from her seat, clutched her head, and let out a scream bordering on collapse!
She felt her recently lowered blood pressure surge again as if she had ridden the Stormterror Express, her temples throbbing violently, and her vision even starting to darken.
She practically scrambled to her desk, trembling as she pulled open the drawer and grabbed a bottle of special blood pressure medicine that Zane had previously "friendly sponsored," allegedly from Bubu Pharmacy. Without looking, she uncorked the bottle, tilted her head back, poured the entire bottle of pills into her mouth, and swallowed them down without even drinking water!
(Zane's internal monologue: That bottle was for emergencies, two pills maximum per dose... Acting Grand Master Jean, may your digestive system rest in peace...)
The office door was pushed open, and Miss Lisa from the library stumbled in.
Her usual laziness and elegance were completely gone. Her normally beautiful purple witch hat was askew, and her face and mage's robe were covered in black soot, as if she had just crawled out of an exploding alchemy furnace.
She weakly waved a hand that was blackened by smoke:
"Jean... my dear Acting Grand Master... please think of something... I just wanted to go to the library to find a quiet book to read, but those two little rascals threw in a smoking 'gift' from somewhere, blowing my hardcover edition of Advanced Theory of Elemental Reactions into dandelion fluff... If this continues, my library, no, all of Mondstadt, will be torn down for a second time..."
Acting Grand Master Jean looked at her disheveled close friend, listened to the incessant explosions and the cries of the cat and mouse outside the window, and the last thread of her sanity completely snapped.
She cast a pleading gaze toward Zane, the only person in the room who still maintained relative calm (on the surface).
"Esteemed Zane..."
Jean's voice was tearful, almost a plea.
"Please... use any method... make them stop... permanently..."
No expression could be seen on Zane's face, which was perpetually covered by a metal mask, but the low pressure and black malice that began to emanate from him, almost solidifying, caused the temperature in the entire office to drop several degrees.
Without speaking, he silently and steadily hoisted his massive thunder hammer, which once again pulsed with dangerous electrical arcs.
He With heavy steps, Like an executioner walking to the execution ground., He walked out of the Knights' headquarters step by step..
He walked out of the Knights of Favonius Headquarters with heavy steps, like an executioner heading to the scaffold.
In the street outside, Tom was occupying a newly repaired fountain pool as a "fortress," clutching a large handful of multicolored firecrackers, a familiar wicked grin on his face, throwing them one after another at Jerry, who was nimbly leaping across the opposite eaves, causing water to splash everywhere and stone chips to fly.
It was so engrossed in playing that it completely failed to notice a massive figure, radiating an ominous aura, had silently appeared behind it like the Grim Reaper.
Zane raised the thunder hammer high in his hand, not condensing any lightning, but relying purely on physical force—
"Bang—!!!"
A dull, massive sound that made one's teeth ache!
The side of the thunder hammer solidly smacked Tom right on his round back of the head!
The wicked grin on Tom's face instantly froze, his eyes bulged suddenly, his tongue uncontrollably flopped out, and his entire cat body seemed to have its bones removed, being flattened and compressed at a visible speed... Finally, with a "splat," it was tightly stuck to the ground, becoming a uniformly thick, neatly edged—cat pancake, complete with the outline of a tail and whiskers.
Zane didn't spare a glance for the "cat pancake" beneath his feet. Calmly, he pulled out a strangely shaped Grappling Hook Gun from behind his back, aiming it at Jerry, who had just stopped due to Tom's cessation of attack and was now standing triumphantly on the hand of the statue of the seven, hands on his hips.
"Whoosh—Click!"
The grappling hook accurately grabbed Jerry's tiny waist, sharply retracted, and instantly yanked him back in front of Zane.
Jerry hadn't realized what happened yet, only feeling dizzy, before meeting Zane's cold (and murderous) gaze beneath the mask.
It looked at the thunder hammer in Zane's other hand, which was still faintly smoking, and then glanced at the familiar, motionless "cat pancake" on the ground, instantly understanding its predicament.
"Gulp..."
Jerry swallowed hard, its small body starting to tremble like a sieve, tears instantly welling up in its eyes as it looked at Zane with a pitiful, survival-driven gaze.
Zane ignored its attempt to look cute, placed Jerry on his other palm, and then raised the thunder hammer again—
"Bang—!!!"
Another heart-stopping dull thud!
Jerry followed in Tom's footsteps, turning into a thin—mouse pancake, with features frozen in terror.
Zane expressionlessly bent down, picked up the "cat pancake" and "mouse pancake," and, treating them like two pieces of clay, roughly kneaded, squeezed, and folded them... Finally, he forcibly balled them up into a blue-brown, extremely bizarre-looking cat-and-mouse hybrid sphere!
He placed this "sphere" on the ground, and then pulled out a Golf Club from who knows where, which shone with a metallic luster and looked highly professional.
He adopted a standard hitting stance, his gaze sharply locked onto the "cat-mouse sphere" on the ground. Taking a deep breath, he drove power through his waist and violently swung his arm—
"Whoosh—!!!"
The Golf Club struck the "sphere" precisely, cutting through the air!
The sphere, formed by Tom and Jerry, instantly transformed into a blue-brown meteor, as if endowed with a rocket booster, soaring into the sky at an utterly unscientific speed and angle!
It flew higher and faster, piercing the clouds and slicing through the sky, leaving a faint, distorted trail across the azure firmament, finally vanishing at the edge of everyone's vision, becoming an invisible "star" in the daytime.
Zane silently withdrew his gaze, casually tossed the expensive Golf Club onto the ground like trash, clapped his hands, turned to Acting Grand Master Jean, Lisa, and the crowd of secretly watching Knights of Favonius behind him—all of whom were completely petrified—and spoke in his signature calm tone:
"It's handled. You shouldn't have to worry anymore."
Acting Grand Master Jean looked at Zane, then at the carelessly discarded Golf Club, and finally up at the sky where Tom and Jerry had vanished. Her lips trembled for a long time, and in the end, her myriad words condensed into a single phrase, filled with immense relief and a hint of bewildered gratitude:
"Th... Thank you, Esteemed Zane..."
(The heartfelt wish of all Mondstadt citizens: Finally... they're gone!!! May the Anemo God bless us, don't let them fall back down!!!)
Meanwhile, in the depths of the distant starry sky, in some unknown corner, a blue-brown "meteor" was plunging without hesitation toward a new world whose art style also seemed somewhat unstable... Perhaps a new, chaotic adventure awaited them there.
But at least, Mondstadt City had finally welcomed a genuine, hard-won peace