The sofa, the bed, the computer, the wardrobe stuffed full of clothes, even the TV.
The household setup of the two people, who had probably only been apart from me for at most two weeks…
“You guys really had everything neatly prepared.”
“Ahaha…”
“I don’t think I gave the two of you that much money.”
“W-We worked really hard…!”
It was all so tidy and perfectly arranged, as if someone had supported them behind the scenes.
“Hmm…”
It was the moment when suspicion turned into certainty.
These two must have grown this much with Seo-yoon’s help.
Otherwise, there was no way they could have furnished their place with such expensive furniture in such a short amount of time.
…No way.
The only thing these two had in common, with no clear connection between them, was that they had spent a few days with me.
And the fact that Seo-yoon had offered the right help to such people meant…
It would imply that Seo-yoon had been at the scene when I released them.
And for her to have been nearby during that situation…
…She knew where I was?
That would mean there was a prerequisite. Seo-yoon must have known my location.
“……”
Looking at the faces of the man and woman in front of me, who were clearly watching my every reaction…
They had the kind of expressions that said they’d never reveal the truth, even if it killed them.
“Hoo… Well, I suppose it’s not really a problem.”
So, for now, I decided not to dig deeper into it.
“I’ll drop by from time to time.”
“…Really?”
“That’d be amazing!”
When I stood up and said I’d visit occasionally,
Dream Caster made a face like she was praying I wouldn’t actually come.
Mr. Seong-won, on the other hand, looked genuinely happy at the thought of continuing to see me.
They’re really bad at hiding their emotions.
It was in that moment that I thought I might have figured out how Seo-yoon got the information out of them.
…
On the road to Busan, with Seo-yoon currently in her Mobia state riding in the car.
“What are you going to do now?”
When I asked what she planned to do from now on, now that she had quit being a hero…
“I’m thinking of becoming a villain, just like you.”
I could hear Seo-yoon casually saying she’d become a villain, as if she were choosing a lunch menu.
“Hm… is it because of the Vice President?”
“Yes. I’m not the type to just sit back and take it. I want revenge.”
Though I already knew about her bad history with the Vice President from what she’d told me the day before,
As someone who saw Seo-yoon like a younger sister… I couldn’t help but wish she wouldn’t walk the path of a villain.
“What did your parents say when you quit being a hero?”
“They said they hoped I wouldn’t do anything dangerous.”
“Our Seo-yoon’s a dutiful daughter, right?”
“Totally! I’m good at school, I’m pretty, and I listen to my parents!”
“Then why don’t you listen to them this time too, like the dutiful daughter you are, and stay away from dangerous villain stuff?”
“Now that I think about it, I’m a fire-element dutiful daughter.”
Wow…
So Mobia had fire abilities.
This was a moment that should make all the villains in South Korea nervous.
“Heh…”
I set aside my unnecessary thoughts for a moment.
And started thinking about how I might be able to persuade Seo-yoon.
I mean…
“You’re not saying you want to be a villain with me or anything like that, are you?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying!”
Drinking the kimchi soup before the rice, as they say.
I never even said I’d take her in, but she was already ready to become a villain on my side.
“…As you probably guessed, no.”
“You’re going to say something like, ‘Being a villain isn’t right for you’, right? That heroes and villains are different from the very beginning….I know you’re going to say that.”
“No. The girl at my place would absolutely go berserk the moment she sees you.”
“Hehe, oh come on… That’s a joke, right? …It is a joke, right?”
The reason I couldn’t accept Mobia as a new villain member wasn’t some cliché excuse. It was a practical one.
“She’s serious. She’d probably wrap herself in explosives and raise hell just to kick you out…”
The moment I brought Mobia along as a new teammate for Pyro Bomber…
That would be the day the secret base I built came crashing down.
“Uh… So she really doesn’t like me, huh?”
It was hard to say it was entirely Pyro Bomber’s fault.
A woman who had become a villain due to childhood trauma related to her “gender”.
A woman who had spent most of her life running from heroes.
A woman who resented the hero who didn’t help her as a child…
To someone like her, Mobia was probably the most hero-like person imaginable.
“She hates all heroes.”
It was clear that bringing those two together would do no good for either of them.
“Ah… What if I tried really hard to convince her or something like that?”
“Hmm… I’ll try bringing it up gently. But if she reacts badly, there’s nothing I can do.”
“…Alright.”
It was a relief.
That Seo-yoon didn’t obsess over becoming a villain no matter what.
“Hey, kid.”
“Yes?”
“Just focus on your studies. Don’t even think about getting a job.”
“I’m super capable, you know?!”
…
After arriving at the school attended by the gem-ability high school girl, I waited for the school day to end.
If she ended up in danger like last time,
.
I was planning to use Mobia’s reputation to protect the gem-ability user girl.
“I hope our hero Mobia doesn’t have any reason to spring into action today.”
“I’m not a hero anymore.”
“People still think you are. Actually, since it’s come to this, how about just studying hard, and when Korea faces a big crisis, you can be a part-time hero as a hobby?”
“…I watched that anime, oppa.”
“Ah, geez.”
As the high school day came to an end, I waited for the students to come out…
“?”
“?”
Suddenly, four police cars drove into the high school grounds.
“…Why are the police here?”
Something was clearly going very wrong.
I wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with the gem-ability user girl, but…
“…Should I go inside and see what’s going on?”
For some reason, I got the feeling she was being bullied at school.
So I asked Seo-yoon to go inside and check things out for me.
“Here, this is my other phone.”
“You have two phones?”
“One’s for work, and the other’s for personal use. I’ll start a video call on this one so you can watch, too.”
Thanks to the fact that Seo-yoon had two phones,
I could find out what was happening inside the school without having to go in myself.
And so…
– I’ll just step in for a bit.
Watching Mobia enter the high school through the phone screen…
There was…
“Ah…”
The girl with the gem power.
She was gripping another girl by the neck while holding a purple-glowing gem in her hand.
“…This is bad.”
Judging by the other students lying unconscious on the ground,
It was clear she had already used her gem ability to commit murder.
Since the Hero Association wasn’t functioning properly at the moment, it must have been the police, not heroes, who were dispatched here.
There was a set course of action for me to take in situations like this.
“…Seo-yoon.”
– …Yes?
“You know WWE, right?”
– You mean… that staged wrestling thing?
“Yeah. Just…. don’t kill me, okay?”
– …No way.
“I’m coming now.”
I hung up the call without another word.
Then, putting on the Villain Hunter mask, I got out of the car and started running toward the school.
***
…I killed them.
Why?
I’d held it in for so long.
It wasn’t anything new—
Just another repeat of the same day.
But today, I couldn’t hold back.
“…….”
– Kyaaaa!
– A villain! It’s a villain!
It was a cheap death.
Amethyst, the gem symbolizing death, wasn’t even that expensive.
I used an amethyst to kill the ones who had tormented me.
“.…..”
– Sae-eun…! Sae-eun…!
– Call the police, hurry!
Two male students who had touched me in the middle of the hallway collapsed and died.
And the girl who had just stood there blankly watching—
I reached out my hand and took her life as well.
…Only one left now.
Holding the last remaining amethyst in one hand,
I stood in the hallway, gripping the neck of the final girl in the group who had started tormenting me there, lost in thought.
“I’m sorry… I’m so… sorry… I was wrong, Sae-eun… please… please…”
If I used this amethyst to kill Kim Ga-eun, who was now begging for her life…
Then I wouldn’t be able to kill the others I still had to deal with.
I had endured so much just to reach this day.
I had held it all in, just to kill all of you…
“Please… let me live… I… I was really wrong… I-I’m… reflecting on it…!”
It had already happened.
And now, I had to deal with the situation as quickly as possible.
Thinking of the gems inside my bag, I tried to find a way to kill as many as I could—
“Hands up!!”
“Don’t move!!”
By the time I came to my senses, I was already surrounded by police armed with tasers and handguns.
I had spent too long hesitating over using the last amethyst… maybe I had dragged things out too much.
Or maybe the Korean police had just responded incredibly fast.
Whatever the case was, just as I had decided that I would at least make sure to kill Ga-eun, one of the ones who tormented me—
“…..?”
My hand began to be pried away from her neck by a force I had never felt before.
Along with that…
– Mobia!!
– Hero Mobia is here!!!
I heard people shouting that Hero Mobia had arrived.
…It’s over.
There were still so many I needed to kill.
I had held it in for years because of that…
But because I failed to hold back in just a single moment… I hadn’t managed to kill everyone I’d targeted.
Because of one mistake I made…
“……”
Only one villain had ever succeeded in escaping from Hero Mobia.
The Villain Hunter.
Even on a global scale, Mobia was counted among the greatest heroes of all time…
So the moment I realized that all of my plans had now come to an end—
Boom!
Hero Mobia… had vanished, along with a giant hole torn into the ground.
Leave a Reply