episode_0175

* * *

-Rewinding time, to just before Rahe entered the aforementioned plaza.

After receiving a report about a helicopter appearing in the sky, Apple immediately began to move.

Not to intercept, but to escape.

‘It was discovered faster than I thought.’

‘If I had just one more day of grace, the result would have been different.’

If she had just one more day.

No matter what No. 13 said or what the 7th Squad did, she would have been able to lead the Villain Alliance and start a war.

Winning or losing the war didn’t matter to Apple.

Her only goal was to start a war, so being attacked before the war even began was painful in many ways.

But at the same time, it was something she had foreseen to some extent.

She didn’t know the exact range of Aria’s precognition, but that’s why she thought, ‘Perhaps…’. She thought that Aria might find out the location of this place through her precognition.

It’s unfortunate, but there’s nothing she can do.

About half of the 『Lesserat』’s members are skilled workers who are hired to work in this black market.

Their abilities are excellent, but even if you give them more than a truckload of such people, they can’t beat the 7th Squad.

That’s how capable the heroes are.

For now, there’s Delta, whom she raised as a countermeasure against Rahe…

“……Well, it won’t work.”

It’s not resignation, but a cold and objective judgment.

With that, Apple immediately headed to the room where her close aides were gathered.

The villains who go outside to deal with the 7th Squad are just expendable. If she spends time and effort, she can always gather a similar group of people again.

But there are irreplaceable talents, people whose similar abilities are unlikely to be found. People who are very useful and essential to her plan.

For example, there’s the warp ability user who helped her escape from the 7th Squad to this place.

Spatial teleportation abilities are very useful but rare. The head of this black market, who previously employed such a person, could be considered lucky. Normally, it’s not easy to hire such a person even if you pay billions.

Besides the warp ability user, there are a few others with rare and outstanding abilities.

If she only has them, and if Spade is with her, she can start over as many times as she wants.

“Everyone, you’ve been waiting, right? Let’s escape from here quickly──”

Apple entered the room where she had everyone waiting.

But what greeted her when she opened the door was the pungent smell of blood and a gruesome scene painted red everywhere.

“…….”

Inside the room, horribly mangled bodies and flesh were scattered.

The head of what used to be a person, their bodies rolling on the floor.

The pungent metallic smell, the thick scent of flesh like that of an animal, was unbearably sickening.

It wasn’t hard to guess who the owners of the mangled bodies and scattered blood were.

Apple’s subordinates, whom she had kept on standby in case of emergency.

They were all dead, with vital points pierced or horribly cut wounds.

“……This is.”

Apple’s beautiful face hardened.

At the sight of the tragedy before her eyes, even she was at a loss for words.

Covering her mouth and nose with her hand, she cautiously backed away from the room, wary of any possible ambush.

Thud.

As Apple backed away, Spade, who was standing right behind her, touched her back.

When Apple turned around, Spade was looking not at Apple but at something else, as if wary of one side of the hallway.

“Mr. Spade?”

She turned her head, following Spade’s gaze.

Then, she noticed a figure who seemed to have just turned from around the corner of the hallway.

A black hat and a black mask.

Black gloves, a black shirt and pants.

A figure adorned entirely in black.

From the other side of the hallway, those red eyes shone fiercely, glaring at this side.

Undisguised killing intent and hostility reached even this place.

A hero with gray hair and red eyes.

It was Coco, a member of the 7th Squad and an intelligence hero.

She could immediately tell who had caused the tragedy in this room.

Because Coco was covered in blood.

In addition, in one hand she held what looked like a heavy military knife, and in the other she dangled what seemed to be a human head by the hair.

Blood dripping from the headless head was forming puddles on the floor.

Coco threw what she was holding in one hand, that severed head, towards Apple.

The pale head of a person rolled around.

That head was that of the warp ability user whom Apple trusted.

“…I’m screwed.”

Those words came out of her mouth without her even realizing it.

* * *

Coco’s specialty is ‘illusion magic,’ which allows her to show various illusions to opponents or hide her own appearance.

It’s a very useful ability that, just by hearing about it, has limitless possibilities depending on how it’s used.

She had shown off her many skills and accumulated many achievements commensurate with her excellent abilities, but the reason why her hero ranking was only C, like Club, was because most of those achievements were things that shouldn’t be made public.

The reason why Spade and Club treat her with respect despite having the same or lower hero rankings is because they are well aware of that fact.

Under special orders, she had infiltrated this black market earlier than anyone else.

In doing so, she single-handedly infiltrated deep into enemy territory and slaughtered all the villains who were obstructing her, including the warp ability user.

Originally, she was only ordered to ‘kill the warp ability user,’ and the rest was a unilateral decision.

And it’s the same now.

Facing Apple, who was a traitor and a spy, Coco immediately went into battle mode, even though it was outside the scope of her orders.

“Coco, you were only ordered to deal with the ‘warp ability user,’ right? Anything more than that would be dangerous. But even so, if you try to hide your appearance and continue to track us, that would be troublesome.”

“……..”

“What do you say, Coco? Would you like to have a little chat? Instead of talking barbarically with knives and blood, wouldn’t it be better to learn more about each other’s needs through conversation like civilized people──”

Apple tries to ask Coco for a conversation with her eloquent words and tongue.

But Coco doesn’t seem to want to respond to it, and her body flickers like a mirage and disappears.

Apple tried to follow the disappearing Coco with her eyes, but

“…There!”

Bang!

In an instant, Spade pushed Apple away and punched the air.

She must have hit the air, but the sound of impact was followed by the sound of something hitting the wall.

The air, which should have been empty, distorted for a moment, and Coco’s figure reappeared.

Coco barely managed to take Spade’s punch with her arm, but there was clearly a bruise on her exposed arm.

“Kuh… Spade…!”

The knife stained with blood in her hand is shining.

Perhaps she was thinking of ambushing Apple and slitting her throat with it. Just like she did to the other villains in that room earlier.

But it was useless. Spade’s sixth sense and intuition are seeing through her illusions.

Coco’s body flickers again like a mirage.

But this time, Spade reaches out again as if not to miss her,

Clang!!

A window breaks, and something flies towards Spade.

Spade barely manages to twist her body to avoid it.

What pierced the floor and stuck was a 7.62mm bullet.

“Sniping… this is…!!”

Almost at the same time as Apple realizes who it was by, the windows continue to break or the sound of something piercing the air is heard, and something flies in.

Spade uses her enhanced fists and legs to perform miraculous acrobatics, knocking it away, blocking it, and avoiding it.

Thanks to this, Apple was not injured by the bullets.

“Spade, be wary of Coco, be wary of Coco!!”

Coco’s figure is not visible. If they are ambushed from a blind spot again, Apple will surely die this time.

She shouted while being wary of that, but Spade only looks at the other side of the hallway while blocking the incoming bullets.

“…She’s gone.”

“Yes?”

“She’s gone. She’s not here anymore.”

Coco’s presence had disappeared from the hallway.

It seemed that she retreated as soon as the ambush failed.

Whether it was to help Coco escape, Club’s hail of bullets also stopped.

Silence returned to the hallway, which was littered with broken glass, fragments of broken walls, and rolling bullets.

“Why…?”

Is she going to let them go like this? Why did she retreat from there?

Is it not her purpose to catch or kill her?

There was no time to think about the reason.

Because Spade immediately sensed something flying in rapidly from outside the building and hugged Apple.

“Spad──”

Smash!! Boom!!!

With a loud noise, the remaining windows and window frames were broken again, and something rolled into the hallway.

It broke through the door across the window with the momentum it had flown in, and went further inside.

From beyond the wall, the sound of things falling down in a mess was heard.

It wasn’t Club’s sniping. That big lump just now wasn’t a bullet. It was definitely….

“Ugh… Ck…! It hurts… I’m going to die… I didn’t really die though…!”

Someone struggled to walk out from beyond the broken door.

The man who came out of the door pulled out a large shard of glass stuck in his body and threw it on the floor.

He was a complete mess, not in perfect condition, but considering the loud landing just now, he was in fairly good shape.

What flew into the hallway, the person who flew in, was none other than Villain No. 13.

He was flying through the air with Rahe’s power… or rather, thrown, and accurately reached this place.

“Long time no see, Spade. And Apple behind her. I, this real villain, came to punish you villains who betrayed your comrades and ran away.”

Even though there was blood flowing and bruises all over, No. 13 was smiling, showing his teeth.