episode_0020

Hero Club, a C-rank Hero at 21 years old.

Among Heroes, whose ranks originally range from S to F, being a C-rank at Club’s age is quite exceptional.

Moreover, she became a Hero right after she became an adult.

Thus, the period she’s been a Hero is barely two years.

It was originally an unbelievably fast promotion speed, but thanks to her performing missions in various harsh, remote areas,

and the countless practical contributions she made despite it being a peaceful period after the 【Great Calamity】…

Club was able to achieve a promotion speed that could be called lightning-fast.

Her path was promising, her future bright.

From a young age, she was quick to learn various things, talented enough to be called brilliant, if not a genius or prodigy.

She had never experienced a real failure in her life.

Most things she touched were resolved according to her will.

…However, perhaps such an environment made her an arrogant and contemptuous person.

She clearly spoke respectfully and treated those she acknowledged with utmost courtesy.

But those she did not acknowledge… especially if they were villains.

She treated them worse than trash or vermin, looked down on them, despised them, and scorned them as if they were bugs that could be killed with a flick of a finger… She had become such a haughty and insolent person.

* * *

“You’re targeting me, who’s clearly weak, and sniping without even confirming if I’m a villain or not… Isn’t that too much of a trashy tactic for a Hero?”

“Fuck… Is that something a villain should be saying?”

Club expressionlessly flicked a coin into the air.

The coin spun as it rose, then stopped abruptly in mid-air before flying towards Dorothy.

A whirring, tearing sound through the air.

The flying coin grazed Dorothy’s cheek.

“If you don’t resist, I won’t hurt you. …But that man there, I’ll have to break his limbs and take him.”

At Club’s menacing words, Dorothy tightly hugged the unconscious 13 with her slender arms and hands.

It seemed that 13 could use his abilities, contrary to the reports.

In that case, he required caution.

She would have to watch him, considering she didn’t know what he might do at any moment.

Even with the technology of the Hero Association, where talented individuals gathered, there was no technique to limit the power of an Awakened.

Club had only come out for leisure, so she hadn’t brought her specialized restraints…

‘I’ve already relayed our location, so all I can do is wait for other Heroes to arrive.’

“…How?”

“Hm?”

As Club clinked the coin in her hand, thinking about what to do,

Dorothy, holding 13 in her arms, opened her mouth with wary eyes.

“How… did you know we were here?”

Dorothy’s question was natural.

Too fast.

Club had clearly chased the two of them a step late, and she didn’t seem to have a physical enhancement type ability.

Even with 13’s blunders and Dorothy’s poor stamina issues, the time it took to reach this place was too short.

That’s right.

It was as if she already knew the two were here—

“Do I look like a foolish person who would reveal all their cards to an enemy?”

“……”

“And don’t do anything useless. Put that gun down.”

“Tsk…”

*Click*…

Dorothy, who had been secretly raising the gun she had given to 13, using his body as a shield while distracting Club with words, clicked her tongue.

It shouldn’t have been visible from Club’s position.

How on earth did she know?

“Put the gun down. …Are my words a joke to you?”

…What should she do?

Is the only option to try to counterattack with this gun? Her opponent is an active Hero, while she doesn’t even know how to shoot a gun, let alone has any experience firing one?

But if she just stands there doing nothing, what will happen?

She couldn’t contact the Chief of Staff, 13 was down, and the Boss probably wouldn’t even know something like this had happened…

No one was coming to save them!

“I, clearly told you to put that gun down.”

Club aimed one of the coins she was clinking and rolling in her hand, ‘loaded’ in her right hand, at Dorothy.

If she truly infused power, it would be a projectile capable of instantly shattering a human body.

Something nearly a cannonball, beyond a mere bullet, was now aimed at Dorothy’s frail body.

Of course, Club wasn’t a murderer, so she intended to control her power to avoid killing.

But anyway, villains were permitted to be killed. It was allowed by law. No, there was no law in the first place.

Villains, Awakened ones, were creatures outside the scope of law.

Therefore, it meant no one would question her even if she killed them.

“If you don’t put that gun down right now, I’ll really shoot. Put that gun down!”

“K-gh…!!”

Club’s eyes, blazing with murderous intent as if sparks would fly, focused on Dorothy, and she put force into her right thumb.

A touch-and-go situation.

Desperate straits.

Dorothy, lost in confusion and unsure what to do, gritted her teeth while gripping the gun tightly.

‘What, should I…!!’

In a chaotic and agitated situation.

As Dorothy wavered, unsure what to do,

“Dorothy, put the gun down.”

13’s voice reached her.

“13! Are you okay?!”

“Yeah. …So Dorothy, it’s fine, just put the gun down for now. You Hero, don’t threaten us with anything scary either. I won’t do anything.”

“Do I look that stupid? To remove my weapon in front of a villain?”

“Alright, alright. I get it. I get it. …Dorothy, hold my hand tightly. Don’t let go of me.”

13 whispered, pressing closer to Dorothy.

Club’s hand was still pointed at them, so if they made any suspicious move, she would instantly shoot that coin at them.

Moreover, for some reason, she was fully aware of actions taken in her blind spots, even those meant to avoid her gaze.

If they did anything suspicious, she would really know immediately.

However, even in this desperate, touch-and-go situation.

13 looked up at Club with a somewhat relaxed expression.

…No, even if his expression seemed relaxed, his condition was quite serious.

Sweat beaded on 13’s forehead, as the impact from the blows to his side and temple still hadn’t faded.

‘This hurts like hell.’

Especially to Dorothy, he had put on a brave front and said he was fine, but a large, dark bruise was spreading across his side beneath his clothes…

Honestly, he was scared to even look at his own body later.

“…Hey, Club. The Chief of Staff said he was indebted to you last time.”

Chief of Staff… it seemed the villain they missed last time was called by that title.

At the time, she had hung that man up and tortured him to lure out his other subordinates and arrest them all, but she had ended up letting go of the one she had judged unable to move anymore.

How on earth did he escape?

For Club, who had almost no failures until now, it was a humiliating and disgraceful failure.

“Oh, that’s right. How about it? I can make you end up just like your subordinate.”

“Hmph… The Chief of Staff had almost all his bones crushed… So, was that what you used last time too? That coin? That thing that looks like it could be shot at any moment?”

‘……?’

13’s tone felt somehow unsettling, but the reason was unknown.

He seemed to be trying to buy time by talking, but she also had to wait for her colleagues to arrive anyway.

‘In that case, should I provoke him a little?’

An enraged person’s thinking ability diminishes.

While there was an intention to exploit that fact, more than anything, it was Club’s own personality.

Feeling a faint spark ignite within her sadistic nature, which found peculiar pleasure in being arrogant and crushing opponents,

Club distorted her lips into a sneer and replied to 13’s question.

“No, I only used my ability to neutralize that Chief of Staff… After that, I just hung him up and beat him relentlessly.”

“I tied up a helpless villain, hung him, and then, very, happily, with all my might, I just beat him, over and over and over. So that the runaway subordinates could hear the sounds very, very well.”

Club, with contempt and scorn, graphically described the situation at the time.

What weapons she used, how she beat the Chief of Staff.

Wooden planks, iron pipes, large nails, hammers, pliers, and various other things.

She also mentioned that it happened to be a building under construction, and there was no shortage of materials since there were toolboxes and various supplies nearby.

Where and how she hit him, how she broke which bones, and what the sensation was like at the time.

How he desperately endured the pain with every bone fracture, and how he finally let out groans as he reached the limit of his endurance.

How the subordinates, whom the Chief of Staff had barely managed to evacuate, couldn’t bear his painful groans and rushed back towards Club… and how, conversely, they were subdued.

Club simply spoke of all of it in a voice full of contempt and mockery.

13’s fists clenched tightly as he listened, and veins bulged on his forehead.

He wanted to scream loudly right now. He wanted to pounce on the woman in front of him and take her down.

But he didn’t have the strength to do so, and that was terribly frustrating!

“………You, Hero-bitch.”

13 muttered, chewing on the words, but

“So what, you wormy villain bastard?”

Club simply retorted coldly, dispassionately, cruelly, and brutally, as if she found him utterly displeasing.

Anyway, it was roughly time now.

Her requested fellow Heroes and people from the specialized arrest agency would soon arrive.

Then, 13 would be finished. She would torture… interrogate these two, find out their current hideout, and finish off the remaining members nicely.

……She was thinking that, when.

“We’re never letting go of our hands.”

13 suddenly muttered that.

“……? Are you lovers? What are you suddenly talking about?”

“Dorothy and I are holding hands tightly right now, and our bodies are pressed close as we’re sitting on the floor. Club is approximately ■■ away from us. The coin in your hand is aimed at my head, ready to shoot at any moment.”

What is this? Why suddenly?

“I threw away the gun, but I have a flashbang. Everything’s ready. And you haven’t noticed.”

This man, now.

“You, who are you talking to…!!”

“—Here it comes.”

Just before Club shouted something and flicked the coin with her finger.

Faster than that, 13 tossed something without any preparatory movement.

She hadn’t expected this at all, and her gaze involuntarily followed it.

A bomb? Or another weapon?

Her gaze reflexively landed on a cylindrical object, about two finger-joints long, rolling across the ground.

She didn’t know it was a makeshift flashbang specially made by Dorothy.

*Flash!*

*Boom!*

“?!”

As 13 intended, the flashbang exploded instantly, and a violent burst of light and noise erupted between the three people.

“You damn villain bastard…!!!”

*Whiz!*

But Club was also a veteran Hero.

She was momentarily flustered, but her body moved faster than her thoughts, flicking the coin she had ‘loaded’ onto her finger, sending it flying towards 13, whom she had been aiming at.

*Thud!*

“Ugh…!!”

It sounded like something had been hit with a dull impact. It felt satisfying.

Thinking that, Club waited for the light and sound to clear.

“……Fuck.”

And then, as her vision returned, she looked down at the empty, deserted parking lot floor and let out a groan.

The black cat that had been near the three people a moment ago had long since run away and disappeared, startled by the loud noise and light.