episode_0021

I don’t think heroes are bad people.

Of course, I don’t think villains are bad people either.

Because you can’t judge a person by just looking at one side.

As I slam the hero who was about to shoot electricity to the ground, I breathe a sigh of relief inside.

That was almost a disaster.

“You…!”

An familiar voice is heard, and when I look towards the sound, Snow is staring at me with wide eyes.

“How are you here this time…!”

“There are more people.”

Upon hearing my words, Snow’s face shows a look of not understanding what I’m saying, and then quickly changes to a look of bewilderment as if she understood.

“Where…?”

“I don’t know either.”

If I knew, would I be here like this? I would have told Eclipse or Firebringer to snipe them.

“You think they only released one mole? There are probably more.”

“…”

Upon hearing my words, Snow’s eyes dart around and she bites her lip.

“I’ll let it slide this time, but next time we meet, we’re enemies.”

“Aren’t we enemies now?”

“…”

Snow glares at me and then heads in another direction.

At least one is taken care of.

“Ugh…!”

I make eye contact with the hero who is grabbing his wrist and glaring at me fiercely.

“Bad Face…!”

“Lower your eyes.”

As I lower my voice and say quietly,

“…”

The hero, who was making eye contact with me, quietly turns his gaze elsewhere.

Yeah. He has no choice but to lower them because he’s scared. I practiced while looking in the mirror, but even though it’s my face, I really can’t get used to it.

“How…! Could it be that villains are behind this protest…!”

“Just try saying that out loud.”

When I take out my smartphone and show him a picture of the hero trying to throw electricity, the hero closes his mouth.

“Let’s try some public opinion warfare together.”

“…”

The hero just closes his mouth and lowers his head.

“Caught him.”

A voice is heard from behind, and when I turn around, Eclipse is looking at me with his arms crossed.

“You were right. The heroes planted moles.”

“Rather than the hero side, they’re just guys with dead consciences.”

There’s nothing scarier than black-and-white logic. It’s just that there are bad guys mixed in.

“What are you going to do?”

“For now.”

-Crack!

“Kuaaaack!”

As I twist the hero’s wrist, he screams.

“I’ll make sure he can’t do anything stupid.”

“You mean neutralize him?”

“That’s right. Can you do it?”

“Are you asking me that?”

Eclipse looks at me with a confident expression.

“Of course I can.”

“Okay. Then do it.”

Upon hearing my words, Eclipse hides himself in the darkness again.

“You, guys…! Weren’t you rivals…!”

“We’re like friendly rivals.”

Mutual benefit creation through fair competition.

And that mutual benefit is mainly money.

“Try saying this too. That the villain Bad Face appeared and colluded with Eclipse to prevent the protest from turning into a bloody incident.”

Like people would believe that.

Muttering like that, I kick the hero with my foot.

“Cough!”

The hero rolls across the floor.

“I’m going.”

Saying that, I hide myself in the crowd and put on a mask.

The mask Eclipse gave me is really helpful in times like these.

Otherwise, everyone would have recognized me and it would have been a disaster.

In the previous case, I revealed my face to let them know that I intentionally intervened, but there’s no need to do that now.

Because they’ve already received the message I wanted to convey.

*

“What?”

As Bad Face predicted, it was like a bolt from the blue for the heroes, or more precisely, those who were trying to manipulate this incident.

“Bad Face appeared and stopped them from causing a bloody incident?”

What am I hearing right now?

The man who stood on the platform grinds his teeth and mutters to himself.

If it were a hero, he would have called, given orders, or at least solved it by pressuring them with results.

A villain, though.

Unlike heroes, who have a clear organization and hierarchy, villains are loosely connected.

In other words, no one in a higher position can stop Bad Face from doing whatever he wants.

Of course, the man doesn’t have connections with villains either.

If you borrow his words, he made connections with villains based on the principle that where there is light, there must also be shadow,

But the problem is that those villains don’t know anything about Bad Face’s identity.

Even when I asked villains who were somewhat well-known, their answers were always the same.

‘I don’t know where he came from. It’s like he fell from the sky.’

‘If he had a face like that, I wouldn’t be able to not know. Maybe he’s a villain from another country.’

‘He might be an artificial human.’

‘He might be from another world.’

And so on, a situation full of nonsense.

“…First, use all available personnel.”

After all, even if they do, only Bad Face is moving.

The hero, whose both wrists are broken, says that Eclipse and Bad Face are working together, but that doesn’t make sense.

He probably confused another villain with Eclipse.

Anyone who has seen the recent news would know that Eclipse and Bad Face fought like crazy.

But those two are working together?

That’s absurd.

“At best, it’s just one. No, at most, it’s two.”

He only needs to succeed with one person, and Bad Face has to block all attacks.

In other words, he has no choice but to win.

“No matter how much you fly around.”

He receives another call as he mutters like that.

Current situation reporting! Hero Snow and some other heroes are running around trying to prevent a bloody incident!

And, Bad Face keeps interfering! Over here too, Aaaagh!

He felt like he was going crazy.

*

“Did you take care of it well?”

“I knocked them out and burned their hands too. When they wake up, it’ll be hard for them to grab anything or even walk because of the blisters.”

“Good job.”

I look proudly at Firebringer, who is becoming a blister master, and look around.

Anyway, the protest is proceeding very safely so far.

The survival rate is also returning to normal.

But the fact that it hasn’t returned to its original state yet means…

“There’s a variable left.”

“Yes?”

“What is Eclipse doing?”

“When I contacted him earlier, he was burying a person’s lower body in the ground.”

He was pouring concrete.

I look around.

“Awaken! Awaken!”

“Abolish! Abolish!”

Everyone is working hard.

If you become a villain, you don’t have to become an obligated hero.

But there must be people who really think that and turn to villainy.

Society will be very noisy for a while.

Mainly in terms of public order.

But hey, that’s a hero’s job, not my job.

“But is this really enough?”

“For now.”

I nod and answer Firebringer’s worried voice.

“But someday we might not be able to stop it…”

“We won’t be able to stop it.”

“Yes?”

Firebringer looks at me with wide eyes.

“We’re outnumbered. How are we going to win?”

“Then, doesn’t that mean there’s no reason for us to do this?”

Firebringer mumbles while looking at me, and I shake my head as I look at her.

“No. That’s not true.”

“Uh…”

“First of all, we divided the heroes.”

We give a sense of alertness and injustice to the heroes who sold their conscience.

We also give a sense of alertness in a different sense and further a sense of mission to heroic people like Snow, who is running around over there.

If the inside of a group is divided, it is difficult to decide on one opinion.

Of course, in the end, those with loud voices will win.

But it will take time to get there, and those who cannot sympathize will leave.

“Then we move.”

“Uh, how?”

I smile at Firebringer, who is looking at me.

Didn’t I just receive a really good item?

“Uh, uh, um, you’re not going to kill people or anything, are you…? I don’t care about illegal stuff, but killing too many people is a bit…”

“I just smiled.”

“Ah…”

*

In the end, the protest ended peacefully.

The old slogan, “Beautiful people are beautiful even when they leave,” has reappeared due to the protest ending more peacefully than expected, and the way people view ability users is also changing.

“…”

The man who was watching the news messes up his hair.

It’s twisted. Really twisted.

It’s twisted from the first button.

And to be defeated by a collaboration between a villain and a hero.

“…No.”

He quietly mutters.

It’s not over yet.

I have something prepared because I knew this would happen.

“Is the preparation to spread the news ready?”

“Yes, it’s ready.”

The woman next to him nods at the man’s words.

“Okay.”

A bloody incident didn’t happen, but you can use other emotions.

Just make the emotional rift between ability users and non-ability users deeper.

The two groups are different after all, so they won’t be able to understand each other.

Upload stories of non-ability users who have been harmed by ability users, and package them appropriately to highlight the dangers of ability users.

What should I name it? Right. If it’s –

Breaking news.

And, the news anchor opens his mouth with a bewildered expression.

“Just now, anonymous data has arrived.”

A red title flows across the bottom of the screen.

“…?”

The man’s mind went blank.