“‘Villains have no human rights,’ huh.”
I quietly chewed over the words Flare—Han Ju-a—had said, which I’d overheard through the wiretap.
Considering the extreme hostility toward villains written in her special notes, I suppose you could call it a kind of ideology that sustained her.
It wasn’t as if I couldn’t understand it.
Leaving aside what had made her hatred of villains take root, I didn’t exactly look kindly on that breed called villains either.
“Sure, well, everyone has their own circumstances and their own beliefs.”
And when one puts those beliefs into action, one must also bear the responsibility.
Hating villains and wanting to kill them, but being unable to, and so leaving behind a brand that would never fade—up to that point, fine.
But what did she intend to do after that?
Hadn’t our Nova pointed it out with perfect accuracy?
Hatred only begets hatred.
A brand that would never disappear for the rest of one’s life would make them unable to forget the pain of that moment, and that would soon become hatred and give birth to revenge.
Just like me, right now.
Of course, I’d erased it cleanly with my ability, leaving no trace behind, but the terrible agony I’d felt back then still made my insides boil whenever I thought about it.
“She made a doughnut in someone else’s side. How could I forget that?”
If it had merely been on the level of ordinary subdual, I wouldn’t have bothered paying attention to Han Ju-a.
I was already stretched thin just trying to raise Nova. Where would I find the time to care about an extra who didn’t even appear in the original work?
And yet, her actions had already crossed the line enough to make me personally plan revenge like this.
“Flare, you messed with the wrong person.”
The only reason I became a villain was to make Nova the protagonist.
Therefore, the only one allowed to harm me is Nova, and I can never grant that right to any extra other than Nova.
“You ready, Pureungi?”
“Purrrr!”
My pet horse Pureungi, transformed by the power of the Core Relic—Accel. Since an entire week had passed since its battle with Nova, its condition was at its peak, and the Core Relic itself was burning with motivation as well.
“Good. Pureungi’s got no problems either. Then……”
Adjusting my mask along with my coat, I climbed onto Pureungi’s back.
“Let the hero hunt begin.”
“Neheheheigh!!”
@
It was truly sudden.
Kwaaaang! While she was on her way back after speaking with Nova, an explosion erupted, one that seemed as if it would tear her eardrums apart.
A massive dust storm surged from the impact, and Han Ju-a instinctively spread a curtain of flame so she would not be caught in it.
“Wh-what is this?!”
For a simple explosion accident, there was something strangely familiar about it.
As if it were like that day, during the escort mission, when the bombardment had fallen from the sky──.
“My subordinate made quite a noisy entrance back then, too.”
At the calm male voice, wholly out of place amid the thunderous roar, Han Ju-a’s face stiffened.
She had never met him in person, but she had heard that voice before. Slowly, she turned her gaze toward the direction it had come from.
Click, clack. The closer the sound of footsteps beyond the smoke came, the clearer the silhouette grew.
And at last, the cause of this bombardment revealed himself.
“Sigma……!”
“It’s been a while, Hero Flare. Though this is the first time we’ve faced each other like this.”
Yes, it was certainly the first time they had faced each other like this.
That day, as soon as she heard that Nova was going to the terminus, she had rushed there, and at the suspicious man loitering beside the fallen girl, Han Ju-a had fired flames without asking a single question.
The flames had pierced precisely through the man’s side and inflicted a fatal wound, but when his entire body suddenly began to blur, she had fired again with even greater force—only for him to vanish without a trace before the attack could reach him.
She had regretted letting a suspicious person escape, but to think the one she had missed back then had been Sigma, the leader of Deviant.
She could not say how furious she had been upon learning that truth.
She had resolved that if they met again, she would pierce through his arms and legs as well—yet to think he would appear directly before her eyes like this.
“Ha. You trashy villain. Knowing that I’m Flare, and yet you still show up in front of me without fear. I guess the wound you received back then wasn’t enough?”
“As if. I suffered quite a bit thanks to the doughnut you made in my side.”
“A doughnut? Heh, you’re the first one who’s ever put it that way.”
Sigma, the leader of Deviant. The insane villain who had attacked her during the escort and terrorized a train in broad daylight was now right before her eyes.
Revolting, horrifying, insect-like filth, refuse, human scum that should never exist…… A villain like this, one who would only bring harm to the world as long as he lived, had to be burned away by fire and erased cleanly.
……No, no. She must not kill him. Death happened in an instant. Something like that deserved a pain far more horrible than death. She had to make him look upon a wound that would never fade, a brand, and remember his sins until the day he died.
Yes, as long as she didn’t kill him, that would do. Considering how dangerous he was, the Association wouldn’t say anything if she turned him into a lump of charcoal.
“Your eyes have completely gone mad. What are you thinking so hard about?”
“What am I thinking, you ask? Your words, coming from a mere villain, aren’t worth answering—but I’ll tell you one thing.”
Whoosh. Han Ju-a, her entire body wreathed in flames, fixed her eyes on Sigma.
“I was thinking about how to burn you without quite killing you.”
“Hah. You’re a complete lunatic.”
At her madness-soaked momentum, Sigma recoiled in a deflated voice.
“Don’t think you’ll be able to run away like last time, villain! I’ll make you regret coming here alone for the rest of your life!”
The heat of the flames swept the dust away in an instant, and walls of fire blocked every direction—up, down, left, right, front, and back.
In that sealed chamber, no different from a prison of flame, there was nowhere to run.
She did not know by what means he had vanished last time, but this time, she had no intention of letting him escape.
Now the only future left for Sigma was for his entire body to burn in Han Ju-a’s flames.
It was a desperate situation.
No matter how powerful a villain might be, in such a situation, they were bound to shrink back or grow tense—but──.
“You seem to be misunderstanding something.”
The man before her eyes was far too composed, even in this inferno.
“Do you think I came alone?”
“What?”
Did what he just said mean he wasn’t alone?
But from the moment he had first appeared, he had been alone the entire time.
No matter how hard she looked around, there was no one except Sigma──!!
Whoooosh──!
A gale blew.
It was not the hot wind caused by flames, but a wind like a storm.
The walls of fire that had been blocking every direction vanished as if torn apart, and before her eyes, where only Sigma had been a moment ago, there was another presence.
‘…A horn?’
In the instant between closing and opening her eyes, a horn extending long in a spiral was pointed toward Han Ju-a’s brow.
What was this……?
And when she blinked a second time, Han Ju-a finally recognized its identity.
A pure white horse, its entire body covered in white armor.
The villain Nova had fought to the death atop the train in the broadcast, Deviant──Accel Unicorn.
“……Deviant.”
It had exploded in its battle against Nova, but according to the Association’s report, there had been no remains of it found at the scene.
It had been strange that not only broken mechanical fragments, but not even the slightest trace had remained—yet to think it was moving around perfectly fine like this.
“That’s right. My subordinate, brought down by Hero Nova. It must have been its first real battle using a Core Relic, yet it fought very well.”
As if recalling the events of that time, Sigma nodded.
“But the finish was regrettable. It wasn’t in a completely destroyed state, though since it was atop a moving train, I suppose it would have been difficult to confirm. If you meet Nova, I’d like you to tell her not to forget to confirm the kill next time.”
“You bastard……!”
She realized the truth too late, but that did not improve the current situation.
Because she had focused all her attention on Sigma, she had allowed such a simple yet fatal ambush.
Regretting it now would change nothing.
She did not know the details of the horn before her, but her instincts warned her that the energy accumulated there was no ordinary thing.
If she moved even a little, she had no idea what would be done to her.
This was a disaster. A cunning villain like this would never have acted alone, yet she had made this mistake because she let her excitement get the better of her.
Just as her mind fell into confusion over how to escape this crisis—
Accel Unicorn, which had been brimming with force as though it would pierce her brow, suddenly retreated a great distance.
“Huh?”
At the unexpected movement, Han Ju-a let out a foolish sound.
Accel Unicorn leapt lightly, and before she knew it, it was standing side by side with Sigma.
“You died just now because of that.”
Sigma looked down at Han Ju-a with a sardonic smile.
“You bastard, what are you doing……!”
“It’s simple. Just as you brought pain upon me, I shall bring humiliation upon you.”
At Sigma’s mockery, which looked down on her, the thread of Han Ju-a’s reason snapped.
“……I’ll kill you. I’ll burn every last one of you until not even ashes remain!!”
“Kuh, is that something a hero should say? You’re practically a villain yourself.”
“Shut up!”
Around Han Ju-a, who answered with rage, flames far larger than before began to whirl.
The air heated as if screaming, and the ground began to melt from the heat.