The Project Goes Live

That evening. The closed-off practice hall in the basement of the apartment building.

I’d come down for training with Panthera. Undoing one button of my shirt, I fixed my eyes on Director Panthera, planted across from me like a lion, and slipped my hand through the gap to the WD-401 switch.

“Director, are you really sure it’s all right for me to use the Artifact?”
“Of course it is. Instead of spending your time worrying about my body, look after your own bones.”
“…”

Panthera threw out his chest in triumph and flashed me a savage smile.

I know he’s training me… but he really is insufferable.

He was a good person, at least. Belia had asked, and here he was, giving up his evenings to train me. He wasn’t the least bit slothful, which left me wondering how he’d ended up Director of Sloth. But that was that. As the man he’d beaten black and blue, I was waiting for one thing only: my chance at revenge.

Even that Speedgirl let the first blow land… Let’s get one hit in. Just one.

I wanted to shave that arrogance of his down, even a little.

The moment I engaged the WD-401, a mechanical vibration buzzed to life, vrrr—! It synced with my heartbeat and began pumping explosive strength through my whole body. I thought about pulling the fountain pen out of my pocket, but decided to leave it where it was.

Bringing out the fountain pen, the lightsaber, would be too much. One slip and someone really could end up dead.

— Fwoosh!

The instant the thought settled, I kicked off the floor and launched myself at him. I closed the distance in a heartbeat and drove my fist out with everything I had. Behind that fist was a single wish: just once, to be the one getting revenge.

“However I look at it, that Artifact is wasted on you.”
“!”

Inside my accelerated vision, his eyes were tracking me exactly.

— Tsss—!

Just as I was certain the hit had landed, the star sigil carved over Panthera’s chest gave off an uncanny light. His head tilted away at a strange angle, and my fist missed by a hair’s breadth. Explosive speed, at least one and a half times what he’d shown before. No, more than that.

What the hell is this…!

Before the shock had even registered, his counter came rushing in. I twisted on instinct and barely got clear, yet the air pressure grazing my cheek was enough on its own to leave the skin stinging.

Panthera burst into a hearty hahaha and tapped his own chest.

“Surprised, seeing my Gift?”
“…What is that? The star on your chest.”
“My Gift. I call it Starlight Power.”

The name was so Hero-like it left me speechless. Was the Director of a Villain organization even allowed to hang a name like that on his own power?

He knocked his fist lightly against his chest and carried on.

“It is not a difficult ability. Very intuitive, very efficient.”
“What do the stars mean?”
“I can carve stars into my chest. One to five of them, no more. Every star that goes on raises the output of my strength.”

He was enjoying my bewilderment, and kept explaining. The peculiarity of the stars aside, his ability really was simple. More stars, exponentially stronger power, and a duration shortened by exactly as much. Being able to control those stars freely was plainly a huge talent in itself.

So this is what it takes to climb all the way to Director on a body-enhancement Gift…

With the ordinary body-enhancement type, the body is often locked in its transformed state. Queen Crab and Hedgehoggirl, the ones I’d met back in my Assistant Manager days, were the same; neither could control their own Gift. Next to that, a Gift you could control at will, like Panthera’s, carried a huge advantage, and not merely for the convenience of everyday life. It mattered just as much in combat.

Panthera smiled, the star still shining. Did even a plain body-enhancement ability have to reach this level to make Director in one of the three great Villain organizations?

“At your current level, one star is about all I need. Take it as an honor, Squirt.”
“…So up until now, you were overwhelming me without even using your Gift?”
“Mm. That is about the size of it.”
“This is insane.”

My mouth had gone bone-dry, and I swallowed a bitter mouthful of spit. Amos’s remodeling had strengthened this body of mine, and Panthera had been handling it without so much as reaching for his Gift. What kind of certified monster was this?

“Let’s go again.”
“Oh? Not broken yet, are you.”
“If this were enough to break me, I’d never have joined Beyond Villain in the first place.”

— Tk-tak!

I pushed the WD-401’s output higher again and started throwing afterimages all over the place.

All right, stay calm. On speed I’m a cut above him. Aim for every opening I can get.

I used that speed to throw his eyes off me. After that, the plan was to slip into the blind spot outside his field of vision and drive a blow home. Watching me, Panthera laughed.

“Move in nothing but straight lines like that and a child could read your trajectory!”
“What…? Ugh!”

— Whuuump—!

His fist landed dead on my face. My guard was up, and still the shock hit like an iron hammer. I rolled across the floor, graceless.

“Not yet! You have a long way to go yet!”
“Wait…”
“In a real fight there is no such thing as wait!”

— Kaboom!!

Panthera bore down on me like a machine whose engine had finally caught, pressing in like a madman. For the hour that followed, a one-star monster mauled me without mercy. If this was one star, what on earth would five be like?

— Tsss, tsssss—!

“No… Time! Time out, seriously!”
“I told you before, there is no such thing as time out… Hm?”

The WD-401 had let out a strange noise and stopped, overloaded. That was the first time I’d genuinely driven the Artifact all the way to its limit. Panthera noticed too, and drew back his fist.

“So the Artifact is spent… It held out a good while, at that. Where did you get it?”
“The black market… and, haah, a Villain Corporation Midas piece… is what it is.”
“Hm. That figures.”

— Splat.

I sprawled out spread-eagled, dragging in ragged breaths. Between the heat and the muscle pain that had swallowed my whole body, I hadn’t the strength left to twitch a finger. Panthera tossed a bottle of recovery agent onto my chest, offhand.

“Drink. We end today’s training here.”
“…Thank you.”

I wet my burning throat and barely managed to push my upper body up. Panthera knocked back a recovery agent of his own and rested. Even that monster sweated, it turned out.

Now was the only chance I’d get to ask, so I did.

“Director, about this project… please lend me some personnel from the Combat Analysis and Evaluation Office.”
“What? What is this, out of nowhere. Bringing up work in the middle of training.”
“It’s because this is that important a matter.”

Panthera’s face screwed up, openly put out.

“The Combat Analysis and Evaluation Office must have no shortage of Villains specialized for combat. I need them.”
“Need them for what?”
“Well…”

Panthera let out a disbelieving laugh at the sheer nerve of the demand. Undeterred, I laid out at length why I needed the people. For the Tower of Babel project to succeed, we had to collect evidence of the Association’s illegal acts.

“Do you really think that rough lot will listen to a fresh-hatched chick like you?”
“If I have to, I’ll use force and make them submit. So just set the stage for me.”
“Force? …Hm.”

Panthera made to argue, then shut his mouth.

“At your current level, you could certainly put down the riffraff.”
“Sorry?”

He got up, gathered his coat, and tossed the words out flatly.

“I will have a word with the ones under me, so do not worry about that part. I do not say a thing twice.”
“…Are you serious?”
“In exchange, if the results are lacking, I will wring your neck myself. Bear that in mind. Lock up properly before you leave.”

He turned his enormous back on me and disappeared into the darkness of the practice hall.

I tipped the rest of the recovery agent into my mouth and hauled my creaking body upright. A Director had given me his word in person, so the hounds, the personnel who would cut off the Association’s money line, were as good as ready.

All right, that’s the preparation done… I just hope nothing goes wrong in carrying the operation out.

I rolled my stiff neck and stepped out into the apartment corridor. Once the Villains for the actual job were lined up, the operation had to be built so that nothing blew up. For now, I needed to get back and draw up the plan. Training had finished early and I’d drunk the recovery agent, so staying up a little later should be fine.

The next afternoon.

“…Are they really coming?”
“I told you to wait a bit, didn’t I. The Director put the notice up this morning.”
“Ah, yes…”

Hong Jangwoo and I were sitting in a small meeting room attached to the Media PR Office. That morning Director Narci had sent an official request for cooperation to the Villain Planning and Management Office, the Combat Analysis and Evaluation Office, and the Strategic Analysis Office, calling for Villains or staff members to take part in the Tower of Babel project. Narci and Panthera had both given their word, so somebody was bound to show up…

“There’s only five minutes left on the recruitment window already.”
“…And nobody’s come?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“…”

But I’d just learned how foolish it was to put my trust in Directors.

Am I going to have to run this on my own?

Collecting the evidence took three things: video evidence from the hotel, video of the labor exploitation at the merchandise factory, and data on the discriminatory placement of Heroes. The hotel and the labor side meant going in person, and there was no helping that. The placement data was another matter. It could be generated if the Strategic Analysis Office and the Villain Planning and Management Office controlled where the Villains were deployed.

Getting all the way out to the hotel and the factory to film it is going to take a while…

I looked over at Hong Jangwoo beside me. I was still wanted as a B-rank Villain, after all, so the real legwork was something the two of us could handle between us.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Jangwoo. Let’s suffer through this together.”
“…Sorry?!”
“Well, if you and I don’t do it, who will? There’s nobody else.”

I pointed at the empty meeting room as I said it. With a decent turnout I’d at least have thought about running interviews. As things stood, if anyone did show up, I’d be reduced to begging them not to leave.

“U-um, it’s on the hour. The time we set is up.”
“Nobody came. Let’s just fold it. We’ll head up to the Media PR Office and put the operation together ourselves.”
“Ah…”

I made to leave the meeting room, taking a near-tearful Hong Jangwoo with me. And the moment I reached for the door handle, someone flung the door wide open.

“…Huh?”
“Ah, um, i-it’s been a while…”

A woman stood in the doorway. Shoulders drawn right in, like a small animal’s. And hair standing up in spikes.

“Hedgehoggirl?”
“…But you said you’d c-call me by my name, not my Villain name.”
“Ah, sorry. Wi Seona… that’s right, isn’t it?”
“Yes…”

A Villain of Beyond Villain… ‘Hedgehoggirl,’ Wi Seona.

“Has the interview finished already…?”

She had volunteered for the Tower of Babel project.