Even If This World Becomes a Mess, Police Still Work(7)

The moment girl Mina opened her eyes. Mina trembled from the discomfort that enveloped her entire body, as if it had been waiting for her.

Like a herbivore sensing a giant predator approaching, Mina urgently opened her eyes and looked around, feeling a terrible foreboding.

But the place where she had fallen asleep was the familiar detective’s house. No unknown threats or dangers were visible.

Mina suppressed her pounding heart and slowly traced back her memories of how she ended up here.

She had clearly suffered severe injuries after being one-sidedly defeated by an unidentified woman. Yes, that definitely happened.

For reasons she couldn’t understand herself, instead of going to the hospital, she had come to the detective’s house. And after some time, when the detective’s hand touched her forehead, she fell into a comfortable sleep with that warm sensation.

Recalling this, Mina felt anxious that Detective Lee Munsu might have discovered her identity, along with the thought that even she herself felt what she did was crazy.

But what could she do? Even if he really figured it out, it was all her fault.

Mina, with her legs trembling from anxiety, pushed aside the mistakes she had made into a corner of her mind and decided to solve the question that arose.

That question was exactly how much time had passed.

In her hazy memories, the sun seemed to have set and risen several times. That means she had been in the detective’s house for several days in an unconscious state due to severe injuries.

When she checked the time on her heavily cracked but barely functioning phone, truly, two days had passed.

Goodness. Then, she had become a person who broke into someone’s house without the owner and rested?

Given the detective’s personality, he probably wouldn’t mind too much, but resting in someone’s house without the owner doesn’t make her a hero. She’s just a nuisance.

The floor is warm and there’s warm bedding piled up. Detective Lee Munsu must have seen her injured and provided this consideration without asking other questions.

Though that was appreciated, Mina heaved a deep sigh as she recalled the foolish things she had done during the Minus incident and afterward.

Her face reddened, and while it was a dark history she’d rather erase from memory, the girl calmed herself and reconsidered the sense of crisis she had felt earlier.

First, her body is significantly better than before, and although there’s some pain when moving, it’s not to the level where she can’t fight.

Then why did she feel this sensation? She had never experienced intuition screaming at her like this.

She wondered if perhaps that woman had come here to finish her off completely, but that was also negated as the surroundings were too quiet.

Is her body overreacting because this is the first time she’s been injured so severely? Shaking her head at the unfamiliar sensation, she turned on the television in the house to check the outside situation.

And what appeared as soon as she turned on the news channel was the face of an announcer shouting gravely about reporting the current situation, and the sight of her familiar school enveloped in ice.

According to the time floating next to the news screen, it’s still when students would be there.

The announcer states that a criminal who had been battling police in the middle of Seoul has now fled to the school and is holding students hostage.

Mina could tell just from seeing the black coat and the huge ice on the screen that this criminal, called Hahoetal, was the entity that had always interfered with her.

Hahoetal, who is staging a protest on the school’s rooftop, can kill students at any time. No one watching this screen would be unaware of that.

Moreover, right next to the screen where Hahoetal is standing – Detective Lee Munsu is collapsed.

As soon as Mina saw this, she felt her mind go blank and, forgetting her body’s pain, rushed to the school.

Mina checked what had happened during the two days she had been unconscious using her phone. The prison that had contained supervillains had been destroyed, and the supervillains she had arrested were rampaging. People were dying.

I shouldn’t have been unconscious. I should have fought them!

Surely if I had, Detective Lee Munsu wouldn’t have ended up like that!

The news announced that the criminal was a being called Yagi, the team leader of the Special Investigation Team, but Mina thought she shouldn’t stop any longer and rushed, turning off the news.

Hahoetal. An ability user who has appeared in various incidents and can control mutants that only occur when an excessive amount of superpower awakening drug is administered.

It was already half established through various cases that the detectives also knew that woman follows the orders of the entity that created the superpower awakening drug. And the police are also trying to arrest Hahoetal.

How she ended up at this school and revealed her face is unknown. It was surprising even to Mina that her identity was Yagi, the team leader of the Special Investigation Team.

But one thing is certain: if she doesn’t stop that woman, Detective Lee Munsu and the students’ lives are in danger.

With that thought, the moment Mina arrived at the school and her feet touched the playground, she was greeted by mutants.

“-Interference…!”

“Kyaaaa!!!”

Mina immediately clenched her fists and began fighting the mutants. She broke the ice pillars surrounding the building and fought, slamming the mutants to the ground.

Her body hurts. Joints and bones creak, and strength doesn’t enter her body. But if she gives up here, there’s no one to stop that villain.

After avoiding the attack of a mutant that stretched out an arm with rotating blades, she grabbed that arm and slammed it to the ground.

She blocks a mutant spewing lightning by breaking and throwing ice chunks that surrounded the building.

A mutant that boasts huge muscles and swings its fist is pushed back with strength by facing its fist with her own and slammed to the ground.

How many are there? Fighting in a trance, her body was suddenly standing in front of an empty entrance. She had come here after repeatedly pushing and being pushed.

That was truly – a great crisis.

“N-New Hope! Did you come to save us!”

“Please save us, New Hope!”

“New Hope! Please! Please save us!!”

Familiar faces are seen here and there. Although they couldn’t be called close, they were those who had shown kindness to her who was alone.

A mutant, roughly 4 meters tall, broke through the wall and chased after Mina with an attack, and Mina blocked the attack with both hands. Blood comes from her mouth along with the sensation of something breaking inside her body.

This mutant is strong. But at best, it’s similar to or just slightly stronger than Sikgwi.

If it were Mina in perfect condition, the current Mina who has grown since fighting Sikgwi would easily defeat it, but it’s difficult in her current state.

No, it’s not just because of the injury that this mutant is a problem. The issue was being indoors. A classroom with about 20 students trapped.

If she gets pushed back by this strength, while she might be fine, the students behind her would surely become crushed meat chunks.

But if she lets it fall by letting her strength flow, even if this huge monster just flails in the classroom, it would be fatal damage to ordinary people.

So what she can currently choose is to engage in a test of strength to push it back with force.

Meanwhile, her wounds that had been healing seemed to reopen, and teeth gritted from pain as blood leaked from wounds that had been gradually healing, but Mina endured.

Swallowing blood, Mina thought further.

The mutants had not attacked the students until now, but they had merely not attacked, as if holding them hostage.

The mutants have herded her into the school building and created this situation where she must protect the students.

She knows. Mutants don’t have the intelligence to create such situations. They are like puppets that move according to commands, and there is a separate entity giving those commands.

An entity that has not shown itself until now, like Hahoetal.

“As expected, New Hope. Even in that physical condition, you’re not pushed back against this number of mutants. Amazing.”

Behind her. Mina saw an entity that opened its mouth in a tone that simply stated facts, sitting on the window sill outside.

A supervillain called Hahoetal who hid her face while in the position of the team leader of the Special Investigation Team, committing crimes, and now revealed to be named Yagi.

It was a villain who appeared at the worst timing. But the condition of that Hahoetal was somewhat strange.

One arm is missing, and not only is she dropping ice pieces all over her body, she’s also emitting a cold that’s chilling to the body.

A face she had seen many times while working together. The silver hair and gray eyes she had seen at crime scenes emanated a mysterious beauty.

But now she was giving a sense of precariousness, like facing a snowman that might melt at any moment.

Is she actually dying? Though dressed in black from head to toe and not easily visible, looking closely, there seems to be bleeding as blood is dripping on the floor.

Is the supervillain Hahoetal dying now?

No, what’s important now isn’t whether she’s dying. What’s important now is the fact that with her arm bound to this huge mutant, whatever Hahoetal does, she can’t stop it.

The students swallowed their screams at the sudden appearance of Hahoetal, unable to even scream.

Mina took a breath, intending to push away the bulky mutant that was pressing down on her and throw herself out the window with Hahoetal.

But before that, it was Hahoetal who extended her remaining arm towards the students.

She smiled as if wearing a mask. The cold lingering in her hand was at a temperature that could freeze and kill a person immediately.

“New Hope. You have to choose. Either kill me, or let the students die. What choice will you make?”

“…What?”

Mina momentarily asked back, wondering if she had misheard the absurd statement.

She’s suddenly saying to choose between killing her or letting the students die? What is that woman thinking?

If she were saying she wouldn’t resist New Hope and would spare the students, that would be understandable.

But what does that mean? Kill Hahoetal herself, or let the students die?

“My master wishes for you to choose. Let me say it again. If you don’t kill me, those students will die.”

Master? Hahoetal’s master. What Mina thought of when hearing about an entity giving orders to Hahoetal was the blonde woman.

She didn’t know why that woman came to mind, but this suspicion, almost a certainty, led her to think that woman is indeed the root of all these incidents and is currently targeting her.

With such overwhelming power, what scheme is an entity that can manipulate even the team leader of the Special Investigation Team plotting?

Mina continued her thoughts internally but still couldn’t understand. It was because she knew almost nothing about that woman who had stayed with Detective Lee Munsu for two months.

She doesn’t know why she caused such incidents, why she created and spread something like the superpower awakening drug, and why she was by the detective’s side.

If there’s one thing she does know – it’s the emotion that woman held for the detective.

But even that, she doesn’t know if such a volatile woman still holds the same emotion.

Mina herself currently knows nothing. But if there’s one certain thing, it’s that she has no intention of weighing the lives of the students and the two on a scale as Hahoetal said.

Mina put strength in her legs. She forcibly pulled up the corners of her mouth while whipping her body that trembled and felt like her legs might give out at any moment.

“Is that so…? What a damn choice! But… since I don’t like either! I!”

She gathers strength. Mina grabbed both arms of the huge mutant and twisted her body, slamming that bulk towards Hahoetal.

“I’ll arrest you! And save all the students! That’s my choice!!”

Kwagagak!!

As the 4-meter body flew, the ceiling split and debris fell, causing students to scream.

But that’s less deadly than Hahoetal’s attack, and it could also interfere with Hahoetal. The action Mina just took was the best choice possible in the current situation.

“Ugh?!”

As the huge bulk came crashing down, Hahoetal flinched. And not missing that moment, Mina rushed in like a bullet, trying to throw her and the mutant out of the classroom at once, but.

“- As expected, I. As he said, you can’t even be restrained by ordinary methods…”

Ice burst from Hahoetal’s hand and bound her body. Mina clicked her tongue at the quick reaction, as if she knew she would move like this.

The ice wall, along with debris around it, held not only Hahoetal’s own body but also Mina’s body, and an ominous crackling sound came from the ice wall.

Mina immediately tried to break the ice with force and shake it off, but she couldn’t move due to Hahoetal’s subsequent action.

With a face still emotionless to the point of being nauseating even in this situation, Hahoetal extended her remaining arm towards the students in the classroom and silently looked at her. Yagi.

She could immediately use force to break the ice and blow her away, but in that case, the giant mutant bound in ice would be released.

Even in this situation, Hahoetal was forcing a binary choice where her own life was put on the scale.

Good heavens. What on earth makes this woman move so blindly?

Not just anything, but with her own life on the scale, how can she be so blindly devoted?

Since becoming a hero, she had seen countless criminals, and as many monsters wearing the guise of humans, but she had never seen such a bizarre thing.

Mina couldn’t understand. She couldn’t explain the woman in front of her by her own logic.

“What… what happened to you that you can even throw away your own life at a single command?”

To her question, Hahoetal, Yagi, smiled with emotion for the first time. A smile tinged with bitterness.

“You will understand. You’ve been saved by someone, haven’t you? You know the joy of when the one who saved you needs you?”

At Yagi’s words, what Mina recalled was Detective Lee Munsu.

“There was someone who reached out to me on the worst day of my life.”

There was only one person who had reached out on the worst day when she thought the world couldn’t get any worse.

“That person saved me. Smiled at me saying it was okay now.”

With a face soaked in fatigue and tiredness, he vowed to catch the criminal who had killed her family.

“What’s strange about giving my life for such a benefactor?”

Admiring such a detective, she put on a mask and soared into the night streets to become a person like him.

Mina knew nothing about this woman. But she could understand that, similar to herself, on her worst day, someone had reached out to her just as Detective Lee Munsu had done.

But. That’s why. It’s even more incomprehensible.

How did someone who experienced something similar to me end up like this?

Crunch, the ice starts to crack. The giant mutant was breaking the ice with force.

The giant mutant had its head shortened and was radiating killing intent, as if it would break this ice and rush at the students who couldn’t even flee out of fear.

Mina thought. In her current physical condition, could she subdue Hahoetal and then neutralize the rampaging mutant before it reached the students?

To be honest, the attack just now was an attack with all the strength she could currently muster. Her stamina is exhausted. The bleeding is even continuing.

Though she’s reached her limit – she must do it. She must. She must do it herself.

Just as Mina was about to forcibly move her body that wouldn’t respond, at that moment.

“Kyaaaa!!”

“Th-those guys weren’t knocked out?! Why are they getting up!!”

“Save us, New Hope!!”

Good heavens. The mutants that Mina had neutralized earlier were staggering and approaching the students with broken bones and crushed bodies.

It’s not just the classroom where Mina is. Mutants can be seen entering classrooms on the opposite windows as well.

Mina felt her heart beating rapidly. The options are increasingly diminishing. Screams of students and cries of mutants echo from all directions.

But she had no intention of giving up hope.

Even if she died now, she gritted her teeth, burning with the will to save everyone.

A hero is one who doesn’t give up. That person she admires is also someone who never gives up.

So, I can’t give up here!

Mina gave strength to her entire body, burning with fighting spirit. The thick ice splits, unable to contain Mina’s body. She clenches her fist strongly and applies force to blow away the woman in front of her.

Seeing Mina’s eyes burning with such an indomitable will, Yagi said:

“As expected, this alone won’t do. Then let me add another option.”

“On the rooftop of this building, Detective Lee Munsu is tied up. I’m bound in ice. If left alone, he will die. Detective Lee Munsu’s life and mine. Which will you choose?”

“What?”

Mina felt her mind go blank for a moment.

Additionally, with the sensation of all the blood vessels in her body burning and her vision fading, Mina froze her body, but.

She forcibly reasoned with herself that he would be fine. Because he had always been that kind of person.

“Ah, I made a mistake. Looking now, he’s dead. My mistake. I’m sorry, New Hope. I wanted to give you another option using him.”

“While trying to bring him here, his body was torn by ice due to my mistake. Like ice pieces shattered into bits.”

“You liked that person, didn’t you? It’s regrettable. He couldn’t even leave last words.”

Immediately after, Mina felt as if something was strongly striking her body.

It could have been the bulky mutant that had been thrashing to escape just moments ago hitting her.

Or perhaps her body moved on its own due to uncontrollable rage.

She doesn’t know exactly what happened.

But when she came to her senses, Mina’s fist had penetrated through Hahoetal’s, no, Yagi’s stomach.

In that state, she smiled and placed her hand on Mina’s face.

“As… he said. That’s what he said… if I said this… you would do this.”

Blood. It’s hot. Pulse. The feeling of internal organs on her arm. People’s screams. Cheers. Mutants leaving as if having completed their task.

It was all a surreal landscape like a dream. Mina couldn’t be sure if she had really done this.

One of the departing mutants tears off the child mask from Mina’s face, who is standing stunned, unable to accept the current situation.

“Uh… that face…”

“Mi-Mina, isn’t that her? The orphan girl?!”

“N-no way, New Hope was that orphan girl?!”

Mina was aware of this fact but couldn’t react.

The cold emanating from the dying human in her arms was so chilling and ominous that she thought she wanted to vomit.

“…L-last, message. New Ho… p… to you, the reason for, making, this choice. That is…”

Yagi speaks, spitting blood. The reason for all these acts. Mina wanted to know that reason too.

What was the reason for making her do such a thing? She wanted to know what purpose was sought by making someone kill another person, but.

“Be…cause… I, dis, like, you.”

What she said wasn’t particularly reasoned.

Just because she disliked Mina herself.

Hearing those words, Mina felt like she would vomit. If there had been a purpose, she could have at least understood.

If there had been an evil plot, and lives were used for that plot – a deed that would incur heaven’s wrath – she could have been angry and thought of revenge.

But for mere harassment? Just for that, lives were sacrificed?

For such a not-even-funny act, killing the detective?

“I also if… if…”

If. That short word was Yagi’s last words. Helicopters fly beyond the collapsed school wall, filming her.

Mina didn’t know whether she should be angry at the fact that the person she respected had been killed, or whether she should be anguished over the fact that she had killed a person.

It was all so absurd that she couldn’t even react.

Her identity was revealed. She killed a person. The detective was killed. Amidst her brain not functioning due to events that happened in an instant.

“…What is this.”

Mina looked to where the familiar voice came from.

Detective Lee Munsu was looking at her with a bewildered face. He’s alive. Before rejoicing at that fact, Mina thought about how her current appearance would look to him, and.

She could only hope that all of this was a terrible nightmare.

Mina couldn’t even laugh at the too, too terrible malice.

The foreboding she felt when she came to her senses today might have predicted what would happen now.

It truly was the worst day.