TF Team

“I was under the impression Beyond Villain brought its Villains in from outside, rather than researching and producing them.”

The Deputy Manager duties Kwon Hyeri had spoken of turned out to be collaboration with the Villain Research Office. Collaboration on the production of new Villains, no less.

Kwon Hyeri answered at once, as though it were the obvious question to ask.

“Of the three great organizations, yes, we’re the one that brings in the most Villains from outside. But that doesn’t mean we do no research of our own at all.”

“…”

“This will be the first you’ve heard of it, I imagine. To be honest, it’s a business we’re running for the first time. Would you turn the page?”

— Flick.

I turned the page and found a business report. Written by Kwon Hyeri herself, team leader of Team 5, it made the case for new Villain research. The company is struggling to bring Villains in, and although it puts out more Villains than either of the other two great Villain organizations, its name recognition is the lowest of the three. She pinned the reason on the absence of a unified concept.

She isn’t… wrong.

Villain Corporation with its mecha concept, Superior with its beastfolk concept. Both of them produce their Villains in-house, so those Villains can’t help coming out alike in look and in ability. Which makes the names easy to remember, even after only a few deployments.

“Who is this Director Gluttony?”
“Are you familiar with Beyond Villain’s Director system?”
“No…”

The word ‘Director’ brought Belia to mind. A month had passed since I joined the company, and I hadn’t so much as sent her a message, let alone met her. Surely she hadn’t stuck me in here and then forgotten about me?

“Beyond Villain has seven Directors in all. And each of them holds one of the Seven Capital Sins.”
“The Seven Capital Sins, as in…”
“Have you heard them called the seven deadly sins?”

Pride, greed, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, sloth. The seven sins, the roots of sin as Christianity defines them. That was the exact extent of what I knew.

“Beyond Villain’s Directors are to be addressed not by name but by the sin each of them holds. That’s the company’s rule on it.”
“Then this Director Gluttony would be…”
“Effectively the immediate superior of Deputy Manager Im Taeseung, who will be working in the TF team from now on.”

“?”

I stopped reading and looked up at Kwon Hyeri. Working in the TF team? What the hell kind of bullshit was that.

Instead of answering, she pointed a finger at the back page of the document. The TF team’s organization chart and its roster were printed there.

Senior Staff Hong Jangwoo, of Team 2. Yang Hayun’s university senior, the one with the oily look about him. Don’t tell me I was supposed to work in the TF team with this man?

“Senior Staff Hong’s rank is lower than yours, but as it says there, he’s Team 2. In practice he’s your senior and the one who’ll show you the ropes, so I’d like you to follow his lead.”
“Then… I’m to be working in the TF team?”
“You practically lived in the Villain Planning and Management Office this month too, didn’t you? You’ve been promoted, so think of it as working in a different department. Any more questions?”

My mouth opened for an instant at that, then shut again.

Best not to ask about Director Belia.

I don’t know whether Kwon Hyeri knows about my connection to Belia. If she does, fine; if she doesn’t, there’s no need to go out of my way to tell her. Being my team leader doesn’t mean she has to be told everything.

“I have no questions.”
“Then off you go. From next week you report to the Villain Research Office.”
“…Understood.”
“There’s no need to look so crushed.”
“Sorry?”

— Nudge.

As I made to leave, Kwon Hyeri held out a can of energy drink.

“A TF team is an organization set up temporarily to hit a target… Once it’s produced results of some kind, you’ll come back over here. And if your share in those results is recognized, the performance bonus will come in to match.”
“Ah…”
“Nobody goes to a TF team two months after joining, but I recommended you.”
“…Me?”
“Because I thought you’d do well at it.”

— Snatch.

I took the energy drink she was holding out. The surface of the can was lukewarm, maybe from sitting out at room temperature too long. In my mind an energy drink had always been a cold thing.

“Congratulations again on Deputy Manager. I’ll be expecting results in the TF team as good as the ones in the Strategic Analysis Office.”
“…Thank you.”

— Bow.

I bent deep at the waist to Kwon Hyeri, then slipped out of the team leader’s office.

“Gwahaha! Congratulations. Deputy Manager already? Looks like Lady Belia brought in a big fish!”
“…Could we talk with your fists down?”
“Making Deputy Manager is no excuse to slack off on training!”

— Whoosh!

The words were barely out before Scorpion’s fist came flying. A brainless hook that even Future Observation was no use against. But I had watched it all the way in, and ducking my head to slip the attack was no great trouble.

“Hoh. Your eyes have come along nicely.”
“Anyone would, after getting hit that much…”
“All that whining over a handful of punches. Hmph.”

A month had already gone by since the training with Scorpion started. There were times Future Observation fired and times it didn’t, but even when it didn’t, the punches landing on me had dropped off sharply. Even without the Gift firing, I had come to see a punch and get myself out of its way.

Honestly, I didn’t expect to improve this fast either…

It wasn’t that a month of being hit had done this. Dodging on sight alone had simply become natural, after so much experience of seeing a punch through Future Observation and dodging it in time. Exercise and training had built up my stamina alongside it.

“That’s it for today’s training.”
“Sorry?”
“You said you’d been out drinking with a woman, didn’t you. And… I need to think about what the next training’s going to be.”
“…”
“I’ve taught my share of scrawny dormitory bastards, but you’re the first one like this. Gwahaha!”

The grin, and the gaze raking me up and down with it, gave me the creeps. So he meant to crank the intensity up the moment I could finally dodge a little… It worried me and I was looking forward to it at the same time. I could see myself getting stronger with my own eyes. Who wouldn’t enjoy that?

“About time you settled on a weapon, don’t you think.”
“A weapon?”
“Don’t tell me an ordinary man with no Gift at all is planning to fight with his fists? You told me yourself you went up against a fairly tough opponent last time.”

Scorpion’s words brought back the Villain from the place we’d been drinking. The lunatic who turned his left hand into a blade and came at me with it. Not one blow had landed, but if that blade had cut me, it wouldn’t have ended at a sting.

“Is there a good weapon? Something a beginner could use, maybe…”
“The best is a handgun. Small, easy to carry, and man, woman, young or old — pull the trigger and they die.”

He made a gun shape with his fingers and mimed firing it, ‘bang’.

“But they’re hard to come by in Korean society. Even in the Villain Special City.”
“Is that so?”
“For one thing, Korea isn’t a country where firearms are legal. And if guns were rolling around loose in the city, the people up top would be in danger too.”
“Then why bring it—”
“Which brings us naturally to the second-best.”

— Fwip.

What he held out was a fountain pen.

“…?”
“My arm’s getting tired. Take it, quick.”
“This is a weapon?”
“I’ll explain, so take it.”

From its look to its weight, it wasn’t much different from an ordinary fountain pen. The one distinctive thing: the words ‘Villain Corporation’ set in small letters along the side of the barrel. Which meant that this was… surely not…?

“Press the hidden button on the pen. Something will come out of the nib.”
“A hidden button?”
“Press the end three times, fast. Point the nib away from you — it’s dangerous.”

I did as he said, pulled the cap off the pen, and pressed the button on the back end three times fast.

— Zzzing—!!

“!?”

A laser flowed out, shorter than a longsword but longer than most daggers. At my reaction, Scorpion finally laughed, satisfied.

“It’s an Artifact you can use in place of a sword. The run time is limited and there’s a cooldown, but it’ll serve well enough. Cutting power isn’t bad either, you know?”
“…Is it like a lightsaber?”
“Cut something with it, if you like.”

He jerked his chin at the dummy standing inside the training room. That wooden dummy was itself a kind of Artifact. Beat it, cut it, burn it as much as you like, and given time it returns to its original shape. No Artifact made a better partner for swordwork.

All right… let’s give it a go.

I leveled the fountain pen, clumsily, fretting the whole time that some part of that blade of light might touch me. I moved slowly, copying scenes I’d seen in films and animation.

The dummy’s arm came away with a crackle. To think it could be cut through, even by swordwork this slow and this clumsy. The fear of blades lodged inside me grew a little larger.

Not, of course, the situation Scorpion had been hoping for.

“Tch, tch. Completely spooked, aren’t you.”
“Well, obviously.”
“Nothing to be spooked about. Even if you get hurt, tell the company and they’ll stick an arm back on you. Mechanical or whatever. Gwahaha!”
“…That isn’t funny at all.”

“Anyway, that pen’s a present for the promotion. Train hard if you want to use it properly.”

— Pap.

Scorpion knocked his fist against my shoulder and laughed. A Villain Corporation Artifact… and at this level of performance, I couldn’t begin to imagine what it cost. I bent at the waist to thank him.

“Thank you for the present. I’ll work hard.”
“Forget it. I picked it up somewhere myself anyway.”
“Even so…”
“I’m heading straight back, so get on with practicing.”

He waved a hand as though it were all a nuisance and left the training room. Off back to a bar that runs perfectly well without him. I knew well enough, from more than a month spent around him, that he was embarrassed.

I’d better take good care of it…

I pressed the button on the back of the pen to shut the blade off for a moment and checked the nib. It was also an ordinary fountain pen, one that really did put out ink. A pen like this I could carry around the office without any trouble.

A little more practice.

Alone in the training room, I pressed the pen’s button. Given a present like this, I ought to make it properly my own. I swung that fountain pen hard until my back was soaked with sweat.

The fifth floor of the Beyond Villain building. The place had apparently been used as a storeroom or a seminar room once, and new furniture had gone in only recently. Beyond Villain’s TF team, the ‘Villain Research Office’, had its new office here.

“Good to meet you. You’d be Im Taeseung?”

I was looking over the office’s new furniture when someone spoke to me. Not the oily smile I’d seen at every month-end evaluation, but a stiff, blank face. For now I returned the greeting.

“Good to meet you, Senior Staff Hong. Deputy Manager Im Taeseung, Team 5.”
“Yeah… good to meet you. You’d be my junior, I take it?”
“That’s right.”
“Keep up on your own. I only look after the ones who keep up.”

I offered him a handshake, and he turned aside as though he hadn’t seen it. This was the man I was supposed to stay glued to, as the senior showing me the ropes.

…I might honestly have had it better with Ko Hyeonsik.

“You know rank doesn’t mean anything in the Strategic Analysis Office anyway, right? Just because I’m Senior Staff and you’re Deputy Manager doesn’t put me below you.”
“That’s true.”
“So don’t call me Senior Staff. Call me senior. I’ll be calling you Taeseung.”
“Understood.”
“What, something you don’t like?”
“Sorry?”

I’d let myself go half-vacant while we sorted out forms of address that could hardly have mattered less, and out of nowhere Hong Jangwoo was the one picking a fight. We’d met for the first time today. What was this…

“Your face looked sour, so I just asked. Why so startled?”
“No, it isn’t that…”
“Not that I need to look. A two-rank promotion last month, and this month the highest record on the books… enough to have your shoulders riding a little high, isn’t it.”

He came close and whispered by my ear.

“Get a grip, Taeseung.”
“…”
“I’m not enough of a moron to miss it when I’m being looked down on. Know your place. What’s a guy one month into the company doing working his brain that hard? At any other company you’d still be a rookie.”

— Pap. Pap-pap.

He patted my shoulder in a way that made my skin crawl.

“Don’t stand there stiff like that. I’m saying it so we can do well together. Hm?”
“…”
“You’re supposed to answer.”
“Yes. Understood.”
“That’s right. Standing around with a face like you’ve been chewing shit changes nothing. You work hard. If you’re a rookie, act like a rookie. Okay?”

He was Yang Hayun’s university senior, which put five years between us at the very outside, and here I stood taking a lecture from him. It beggared belief. Early days for a lecture on the rookie’s attitude, when today was our first meeting. And if he was going out of his way to do this to me anyway…

Breaking my spirit before the work starts in earnest, is that it? Or maybe he’s just like this to begin with.

Hong Jangwoo’s month-end evaluation had come out poor compared with the month before. From where he stood, a man putting up absurd results would be a thorn in his side. Taking it as him simply venting on me was, in every way, the more reasonable reading.

Right in the middle of that thought.

“So this is my Villain Research Office…”

“?”

“Sooo fun! I’m gonna make lotsa lotsa fun stuff from now on!”

A little kid was looking around the office with shining eyes. Small enough that, at the most generous estimate, middle school still looked out of reach. The grubby lab coat hanging off the kid was so big it dragged along the floor, and the sleeves were so long you couldn’t properly see the fingers.

What surprised me more than any of that, though…

I hadn’t sensed another living soul there at all.

Clothes dragging along the floor with every step, and still I hadn’t known anyone was there until the voice came. The moment I realized it, my body went rigid. This was absolutely no ordinary little girl.

Her hair, above all, was pale green from the roots. Not dyed, either; it was as though it had simply been pale green from the start. The kid wore that natural pale green hair braided into two plaits.

Hong Jangwoo, though, screwed up his face as though he’d felt nothing at all.

“The hell? Did somebody bring their kid in to work?”
“Hunh?”
“This is no place for a squirt like you. Go on home.”

— Shoo-shoo.

He waved a hand as though shooing off an insect. At that, the face of the little girl he’d called a ‘squirt’ twisted up like a demon’s, enough that alarm settled on Hong Jangwoo’s own face for a moment.

“Squirt…? You don’t mean me, do ya?”
“Uh, uh…?”
“I said, are you talkin’ about ME!!!”

— Pap.

She gave Hong Jangwoo’s shin a punch. A light little thing, like a child at play. And yet he clutched his leg at once and went down.

“Gyaaaaaaagh!!!”
“Hmph! That’s what you get for callin’ me a squirt!”

She stuck her tongue out and laughed, playful.

But I had seen it. Hong Jangwoo’s leg, where the girl’s hand had lightly touched it, had turned into an octopus’s.

“Ngh, nnngh… you, you little shit, what the hell did you just—!”
“Ah! Did you jus’ swear at me? You’re gonna be in big trouble! Don’tcha know who I am?”
“What…?”
“I said, you still don’t know who I really am! Dummy.”

— Hup!

She caught hold of the name tag dangling from the lab coat she wore. It had swung about so violently every time she moved that I hadn’t been able to make out the name on it… Held still by her hand now, the tag read as follows.

“…!”

Neither I, reading the tag late, nor Hong Jangwoo could get our mouths shut.

One of only seven Directors in the whole of the giant Villain organization Beyond Villain.

She had appeared in front of me and Hong Jangwoo.