episode_0016

The 7th Squad’s base of the Hero Association, its cafeteria.

“Spade Sunbae-nim? Sunbae-nim!”

“Huh?”

In the middle of his meal, Spade, who had zoned out, snapped back to reality at the sound of his name.

In front of him was his homemade Spam fried rice, and beyond that, Club, who had just sat down with her lunchbox in front of her.

*…Ah, I was spacing out again.*

“What’s wrong? You’ve been like this a lot lately. Even the Captain is worried.”

“Sorry. I had a strange dream yesterday.”

“A dream? A nightmare?”

“Well. I don’t know if I can say I remember it, or if I can say I don’t….”

“What do you mean?”

Anyway, as it was a dream, he didn’t remember all the details.

At the very least, he was sure he had seen that detestable, pathetic, and irritating villain brat’s face.

And even a very faint memory remained that something incredibly embarrassing had been done to him by that man….

*‘Ah, seriously. It’s trying to come back to me again.’*

Just recalling it made his heart pound, and his face began to flush.

Strangely enough… in response to this situation, he even felt a tingling sensation in his groin.

*‘…Something feels strange… My body… Why is it like this… It keeps happening…’*

Approximately two weeks had passed since the skirmish with #13.

For some reason, he had dreamt such dreams three times during that period.

Since he didn’t fully remember all his dreams, there might have been more.

*‘Is it because I’m so angry about letting #13 get away?’*

He had indeed been incredibly furious at that guy for taking Apple hostage….

Even so, he didn’t think he was thinking so deeply about him that he would appear in his dreams.

Besides, for some reason, whenever he thought of that guy, his body felt strange….

Like a core deep inside him was tingling and vibrating.

He also felt a dull ache in his lower abdomen.

*‘Haa. What in the world is going on.’*

His body became strangely agitated, and before he knew it, he found himself pleasuring himself.

Self-gratification that he barely managed once a month.

Yet in the past two weeks, he had already done it four or five times.

“Haa…”

“You’re really strange today, Spade Sunbae-nim. Are you on your period?”

“Can you not say things like that while I’m eating?”

Spade sighed and shot a side glance at Club, who was sitting across the table.

Club, unfazed by Spade’s gaze, continued to munch and swallow the contents of her delivery lunchbox with her small mouth.

Neat black hair neatly cut around her neck.

A ribbon with a clover design in her hair, befitting her codename.

A junior with a slender jawline, sharp eyes, and overall delicate features, who in many ways gave off the impression of a fussy cat.

*‘Asking how often she masturbates would probably be rude, wouldn’t it?’*

He thought himself pathetic for thinking such things while his junior was right in front of him, but….

*‘It’s bothering me.’*

For Spade, who was unaccustomed to sexual acts, his transformation into someone who masturbated two or three times a week was utterly bothering him, and he couldn’t stand it.

So Spade, agonizing over whether he could ask this, finally shook off his distracting thoughts and just made a suitably innocuous remark.

“Now that I think about it, it’s already been three months since Club came here, hasn’t it? Have you gotten used to it?”

“Yes. I have no problem adapting. Eating in this unnecessarily spacious cafeteria is still a bit weird, though.”

Just as Club said, this cafeteria felt too large for just two people to use.

Even if all the other 7th Squad members gathered to eat together, there would still be many empty seats, making it feel bare.

Moreover, off-duty personnel usually ate in their rooms upstairs, so this place was inevitably always empty.

“There were still many people here until recently, you see. It was also used as an evacuation shelter during the Great Disaster.”

“The place I was at, even though it was a base, was a cramped place. We always ate together, so it was never quiet back then.”

“Club, you said you came from an island, right?”

“Yup. It was a really damn boring place.”

Her expression was so flat that it was hard to tell if she truly felt that way or not.

Club hadn’t been assigned to the 7th Squad for long.

As villainous crimes decreased after the ‘Great Disaster’, heroes weren’t as necessary as before, so many people across the country retired or scattered.

Rather than merely individual will, there were various reasons like finances, so it felt more like a restructuring.

The island Club mentioned was where a large number of heroes had been dispatched to monitor a villain organization of note.

That island was a strategic point for monitoring villains who conspired with foreign organizations of a different scale than domestic ones.

A while ago, as the brokers who aided the conspiracies were largely arrested, the number of villain organizations using that route had decreased to almost none.

Naturally, the heroes there had nothing to do and were barely needed anymore, so only a minimum number of personnel were left, and the rest were sent to branches that still had demand.

Club was one of them, which was why she had recently come to this 7th Squad.

“When I was on the island, I always ate the same thing, and even if I went out to play, it was always the same old thing… Even when I was off-duty and trying to relax, I only ever saw the same faces when I walked around outside, so it was so, so fucking boring.”

“Compared to that,” Club said, holding up the lunchbox in front of her.

“This place is a complete paradise. Anything you want can be delivered with just a few taps on your smartphone! The mainland is fucking awesome. The metropolitan area is even better.”

“Certainly, having lots of food and good delivery services changes your satisfaction with life… More importantly, Club, can’t you do something about your way of speaking? It’s vulgar for a girl.”

“’Fuck’ is my identity, so I can’t help it.”

The two continued their meal, chatting idly as usual.

The Captain of the 7th Squad seemed busy, and other heroes were either off-duty or had other errands, so no one else came to the cafeteria.

“Spade Sunbae-nim, do you have something to do tonight?”

“Huh? Tonight I’m on patrol duty.”

“That’s a shame. If you were off-duty, I was thinking of asking you to hang out.”

Club placed her chopsticks on top of the completely emptied lunchbox. She seemed to have finished her meal.

“Last time, when I arrested a large number of ‘Abyss’ members, a reward was issued.”

“Ah, now that you mention it, that’s right. The rehabilitation efforts were also finished, weren’t they?”

“Yes. As usual, they prostrated themselves with tears before Apple-nim, swearing lifelong loyalty.”

“…Seriously, what is up with that person?”

“How would I know something Sunbae-nim doesn’t know?”

A while ago, shortly after she had joined this squad.

At that time, while on patrol, Club encountered a group from the villain organization Abyss who were carrying out an operation, led by the Chief of Staff, and defeated and arrested all of them on the spot.

Unfortunately, the Chief of Staff who was leading the group escaped, but he still remembered Club boasting at the time that she had thoroughly wrecked his body to the point where he would be incapacitated for a while.

Chief of Staff… Abyss….

*‘#13.’*

Inadvertently recalling #13 again, his heart pounded!

A warmth slowly rose from his lower abdomen.

*His junior was right in front of him… No… Please, don’t feel this strange way…*

“So that’s how it is, since the reward was issued, I was thinking of getting new shoes or something… Spade Sunbae-nim? Are you okay?”

“Ah… yeah. I’m fine. And if you’re buying shoes, I have a place I can recommend――”

Spade told her the name of a famous department store in S City, which was under the 7th Squad’s jurisdiction.

Since it was a big mall, there would surely be products to satisfy even the picky Club.

“I see, ■■ Department Store! I should check it out tonight. Thank you.”

“Alright. And there’s a really famous dessert shop there. Make sure to stop by there too. I’ll give you money, so buy some for me too.”

“Desserts…! I’ll definitely stop by!”

Club, with an excited expression, typed the names of the department store and dessert shop she had just heard into her smartphone’s notepad.

***

……………………… ……………… ……

“Dorothy! Dorothy! Dorothy! Dorothy! This ice cream is fucking delicious…! My tongue feels like it’s melting away… It’s so incredibly delicious, words can’t even describe it! I’m so happy right now!”

“……Stop being so dramatic. It’s annoying to watch.”

A certain location in S City, ■■ Department Store.

Inside a famous dessert shop located on the top floor. #13 and Dorothy were sitting across from each other at a table.

#13 was eating ice cream from a cup with a delighted expression, while Dorothy across from him was cutting up mochi filled with ice cream, wearing a displeased expression.

For reference, Dorothy had shed her usual white coat and was in casual attire.

Dorothy’s appearance without her white coat was quite a refreshing sight even for #13.

“Seriously, #13, do you even have any awareness that you’re a villain whose face is known and who’s wanted?”

“Come on. No one would expect a villain to be strolling around a place like this. Do I have to be cooped up in my hideout my entire life?”

In reality, even without any special disguise, no one recognized #13 as a villain.

If you just act confident, no one will look at you suspiciously.

After all that trouble coming to a famous dessert shop, if you worry about other people’s eyes and can’t properly enjoy the taste, how sad would that be?

“……I really shouldn’t have invited a guy like you… Ah, but I didn’t want to come alone either… And since it’s ice cream, if I don’t eat it directly at the shop…”

“Dorothy, you usually substitute meals with CalorieMate or similar things, but you’re really obsessed with sweets, aren’t you?”

“Shut up. My brain structure is different from yours, so I need that much sugar. It’s natural to be serious about sweets.”

“It’s quite annoying, but since it’s true, I have nothing to say.”

The Boss was holed up in his room today due to work and had no intention of coming out, and the Chief of Staff passed, saying his condition wasn’t very good.

However, of all days, today was the last day this shop was selling its seasonal limited-edition dessert item.

As a dessert enthusiast, Dorothy couldn’t possibly pass it up, so she ended up dragging #13 along.

Though she was regretting it in many ways now.

“If I weren’t here, you wouldn’t have even been able to order properly.”

“……I could have. By pointing with my finger… or by showing them my smartphone notes….”

“But you wouldn’t have been able to sit alone in the shop and eat, would you?”

*…!*

Since that was also true, Dorothy could only press her lips together in annoyance.

This was because she understood her own extreme social anxiety very well.

Instead of someone with whom she had an understanding, she would constantly get nervous and shrivel up in front of an unspecified crowd, unable to speak properly.

If #13 weren’t here, she wouldn’t have been able to eat desserts directly at a shop like this.

She should definitely be grateful for that, but for some reason, she absolutely refused to say ‘thank you’ to this man.

“Anyway, I’m grateful that Dorothy invited me. I wanted to come here too, but I couldn’t because it felt awkward for a man to come alone.”

“#13, you usually roam freely, don’t you?”

“Back then, I went with the Chief of Staff.”

“What? Are you saying you don’t have a Chief of Staff now?”

“The current Chief of Staff is a girl, though. Take a girl I’m not even dating to places like this? …No, is that guy really a girl? Is she truly a woman? Huh, Dorothy? Please tell me it’s not true. I still can’t believe it. It’s all a joke, right? You’re both ganging up to trick me, right?”

“I have a lot I want to say about this, but did you two guys go to places like this together?”

If you were coming to a dessert shop like this, wouldn’t it be better if your companion was a woman?

Two burly men sitting across from each other, silently spooning ice cream in this charming dessert shop…

*‘Ew.’*

Since Dorothy knew what the former Chief of Staff looked like, recalling that scene made her feel a little nauseous somehow.