I Became a Police Officer in a Superhero Genre

It was early morning. To be precise, 5:30 AM.

After handing over the case of the Destroyer guy [whom New Hope took down (I fired all the bullets I had at him from the side. They didn’t work, but)] to another investigation team,

I, who had lost my car, trudged to the station on foot and checked the time when I arrived.

To be honest, I could have arrived earlier, but after parting with my Starex, which I had bought with the little money I had saved since becoming a police officer, in such an absurd way, I needed time to compose myself.

It feels like it was just yesterday that I was happy about finishing the installment payments, damn it. In my heart, I wanted to throw everything away, drink some alcohol and go home, but

sadly, since I was the first detective at the scene of the kidnapping incident, there were more than just a couple of reports I had to write.

If I put it off, paperwork just piles up, so I won’t feel at ease unless I finish it today, damn it.

As I trudged along, I indulged in vain delusions that could only come true in dreams, like wondering if I could get insurance money if I told the insurance company about this, or if I could get some compensation if I told the station. But when I entered the station.

Well. The atmosphere in the station was strange when I arrived.

Usually, at this early hour, you’d see detectives sipping coffee with sleepy faces or holding their heads because of incidents from the night before, but today was a bit different.

“You’re here. I was just about to contact you. Good timing.”

The one greeting me as soon as I arrived wasn’t the captain or Sai, but Team Leader Yagi. Although she had risen to the position of team leader, she usually didn’t mingle with the investigation team and worked at her desk every day,

but now she had taken off her cherished uniform and was dressed in sneakers and clothes easy to move in. The other team members all had stern faces too, creating an atmosphere that would be believable even if you said they were heading to a battlefield.

As I blinked my eyes, not understanding the situation, the team leader calmly told me to sit in an empty seat and then stood in front of the whiteboard usually used for case briefings.

“As some of you may know, I’ll explain again. Yesterday morning. As a result of interrogating the suspects in the attempted kidnapping of minors, we confirmed that these suspects are members of a religious group called ‘Human Center’.

They say they committed this incident due to a doctrine that they would be saved through killing those who harbor hatred towards superpower users.”

“Up to here is what you all already know, and except for the fact that the children who were almost kidnapped are superpower users, you might think this isn’t a case we need to spend time investigating like this.

But the important thing is because of a fact revealed by the testimony of one of the suspects in the additional investigation.”

After that, the team leader started putting up photos of someone on the whiteboard.

I was looking at the whiteboard wondering who these people were, but by the time the number of photos exceeded 8, the atmosphere became heavy as if everyone in this place, including me, had intuitively understood the meaning of the photos.

The people in the photos all have unusual hair colors and strange objects sprouting from their bodies that ordinary people wouldn’t have. Superpower users. All those there were superpower users.

“The suspects testified that besides this kidnapping incident, there were attempts at kidnapping and murder. After confirming the relationship with superpower citizen reports of missing persons-

It has been confirmed that the citizens in these photos were killed and abandoned by members of the pseudo-religious group called Human Center.”

Knowing about the Superpower User Suppression Incident in the novel, I had worried that they might have committed crimes before the kidnapping attempt – but I thought, so they really did kill people.

But damn, did they kill 8 people? However, that’s just the ‘minimum’, we don’t know how many more victims there might be that the currently captured suspects haven’t mentioned and are hiding.

Those damn bastards. I clicked my tongue and understood why the team leader appeared in person to talk about this case.

Although it’s not like the usual cases of superpower users rampaging, if all the victims are superpower users, it is a case we should take on.

When one of the detectives gathered in their seats made a sound like a sigh, Team Leader Yagi nodded as if satisfied. But that face looked quite awkward, as cold as a doll’s.

“Well. From here is the main point. Special Investigation Team 1’s goal is to arrest the suspect called ‘person’, the bishop of ‘Human Center’, on charges of special murder, serial murder and aiding murder, and various other charges before this morning passes.

Resistance from believers is expected during the arrest operation, but

since most of these believers are ordinary people, direct suppression should be avoided, but if the situation goes wrong, we’ll move flexibly according to on-site judgment.

Therefore, an experienced and capable detective will be in charge of on-site command for this operation.”

After mentioning the detective who would be in charge of on-site command, she looked around at the detectives around once, then stopped twice. One place was Sai sitting near me, and the other time was me.

Let’s say she checked on Sai because she’s her master. But why me?

… Well, I’m not so tactless that I don’t know why she called me.

But honestly, even if it’s self-inflicted, should they entrust on-site command to someone with a tunnel in their hand? I carefully raised my hand with the cast on it, holding a glimmer of hope, and

Yagi smiled beautifully but terrifyingly enough to make one’s bowels clench, just like when we first met at the restaurant, and said.

“Yes, Detective Lee Mun-su. Please ask if you have any questions. By the way, I’m just saying this, but this mission is a direct order from the team leader.

If you refuse, there will be light disciplinary action as well. Speaking of disciplinary action – a one-month pay cut would be appropriate, right? Well, this is just talk, so you don’t need to mind it. So, what’s your question?”

“How should we prepare weapons? The guys we caught this time had tools too, shouldn’t we bring tools as well?”

“That’s a good question. Yes. We’ll bring tools too. Since they’re people who killed superpower users, prepare guns as well in case of emergencies, but please think of using them only in the worst case. I’ll leave other things to on-site judgment.”

Afterwards, Team Leader Yagi received and answered a few more questions from those going to the scene. And of course, the on-site command authority landed on my shoulders.

You ask why me when there’s a captain? What can I do when the team leader in charge of the case directly appointed me? No, to begin with, that person is dancing happily in the corner saying he’s not taking on-site command.

The desire to throw the transfer request form that had been sleeping in my pocket for quite a long time instead of the USB surged up, but I regained my senses and gave up.

I had expected this to happen from the moment I encountered Human Center while chasing the kidnapping case.

And since I was planning to dig in rather than run away when the original work’s events occurred to check for evidence of Sai committing crimes, it’s not something to complain about why nothing goes the way I want.

But, quite amusingly, even in this situation, I couldn’t help but think.

If I had known it would be like this, I should have had a drink and come in the afternoon.

I missed my beloved car especially today. Although we parted at the junkyard just a few hours ago, anyway.

Before arriving at the scene, I first mulled over the Superpower User Suppression Incident from the novel that I had written down in my notebook.

In the novel, it starts with protagonist Mina helping a woman who had collapsed from exhaustion on the street by chance while going about her daily life after the mayor kidnapping incident.

Our world setting’s officially recognized sucker girl wondered how a properly dressed woman could collapse from exhaustion on the street in this day and age.

The woman told the child who helped her about her situation as if she couldn’t bear not saying it, and the content was like this.

The woman was an ordinary mother of a household, and she said she was living happily with her husband and two children.

But one day, the children went out and didn’t return for 3 days, and when they came back, there was a big change in the children who had been no different from other children.

That was the awakening of superpowers.

Originally, both children had ordinary black hair, but it changed to natural sky blue and red colors, and the first daughter even had wings sprouting, she said.

The woman and her husband were shocked and asked the children what on earth had happened, but the children couldn’t remember anything, and

the woman said that as a parent, she was happy the children had returned, but she was very scared when her children suddenly became superpower users like those appearing on the news overnight.

Mina was a bit shocked by the woman’s appearance as she spoke as if confessing a sin, but the novel said that even Mina could understand the woman’s feelings.

As much as the hero New Hope became famous, stories of superpower users causing accidents and committing crimes appeared on the news every day,

and because of that, people had a prevalent perception that those who became superpower users were potential criminals or monsters who could cause destruction at any time, so it couldn’t be helped.

Up to here, it could be seen as something commonly seen in households that include someone who has awakened as a superpower user, but the problem is what comes next.

The woman and her husband were still accepting them because they were their children and were getting used to the days while pondering what they could do for the children,

when suddenly one day, everything changed when dozens of people broke into the woman’s house and attacked all the family members to the brink of death.

When the woman came to her senses, the children had disappeared leaving only pools of blood, and her husband was in a coma, perhaps from being hit in the head wrong.

In a situation like being struck by lightning out of the blue, the woman was discovered by Mina while calling out for her children, trying to find them somehow without knowing where to go, that was her circumstances.

The content after that is Mina promising the woman that she’ll definitely find her children, then learning about the pseudo-religious group Human Center suspected of being the kidnappers with the help of Sai, the detective who believes in her,

and catching on that they’re suspected of kidnapping and murdering several other superpower users besides those children.

Hearing that story, Mina attacks Human Center without hesitation and easily subdues the bishop, but.

Was she too late? New Hope discovers children horribly murdered in the basement of the cult. Mina suffers great mental anguish. That’s the content of this episode.

The most important content in this episode is that Mina recognizes the hatred and gap between superpower users and ordinary people and ponders what she can do about it-

Come to think of it, the children I rescued yesterday. They seem to be those winged children that appeared in the novel. It’s the same that their family members were assaulted and knocked unconscious by the suspects.

Although I didn’t intend to, this time the original content was completely shattered from the very beginning and flew away to the Milky Way.

Alright, let’s forget about how this episode will flow. No, if we catch the bishop of Human Center now, this incident will end too.

I blinked my eyes while rubbing my head where there was a scar from the previous incident.

It’s good if innocent kids don’t have to die, and if Mina, that little one, doesn’t have to see children’s corpses, right?

Come to think of it, this incident is later revealed to have been orchestrated by Sai to torment Mina, so even if I stop this, I wonder if she’ll plot something else-

“Deputy Chief, are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

“… No.”

“We’ll arrive at the scene soon. Detective Lee Mun-su. Get your mind straight.”

For now, escaping from here is more important! Fuck.

While heading to the scene. I’m now in a Lamborghini I had only heard the name of. The owner of this car is Special Investigation Team Leader Yagi.

Her father is a high-ranking person and there was a description in the novel that she’s rich too, but to think a kid in her late 20s would drive a Lamborghini.

If I hadn’t smoked and saved money until this age, could I have bought a Lamborghini too? Probably impossible.

Although I felt some skepticism about life, even more than that, my heart was filled with an indescribable discomfort.

The reason for that is obviously because of Team Leader Yagi holding the steering wheel next to me and Sai sitting in the back seat.

While heading out to arrest the bishop of Human Center.

Because my beloved car was completely smashed last night, I was going to ride in another guy’s car, but before I could ask the other guys if they had space, Yagi somehow knew this and shouted at me to ride in her car.

I thought she would be going out too since she wasn’t in her usual uniform, and because she shouted that we needed to go quickly, I had no choice but to follow Yagi and get in her car.

But fuck, I didn’t know it would be a Lamborghini and that Sai would be riding together.

My body trembles at the terrifyingly comfortable seat and touch. Or it could be trembling because I’m trapped in the same space with two people who might be after the USB in my pocket.

I pretended to scratch my body and checked once more if the USB in my pocket was still properly there. Fortunately, it’s still in its original place.

Since the duct tape I had fixed it with wasn’t enough, I even got special fabric material and sewed it in, so it shouldn’t be easily discovered – but I’m still anxious.

I try to keep a calm face by stiffening my facial muscles as much as possible, but I’m not sure how effective it will be.

Just being in the same space with me like this feels like a scheme plotted by Sai and makes me anxious. I forcibly looked only out the window and prayed that we would arrive at the scene quickly.

But as expected, as if she had no intention of leaving me alone, Sai sitting in the back seat spoke to me.

“Deputy Chief. You know New Hope well, right? I’m just curious… if New Hope knew about this case, what do you think she would think?

All the victims are superpower users, and she’s a superpower user too, right? So I’m worried. To think they’d kill people just because they look a bit different outwardly and have special powers.

If she learns about such terrible people, even if it’s New Hope, wouldn’t she quit being a hero?”

Sai speaking from a position where her face isn’t visible well in the side mirror. I felt a bit creeped out by her question.

Right now, unintentionally, I’ve ruined the plan she designed. Whether this is a warning or has some other meaning, it’s certainly not a good meaning.

Or maybe she’s just saying it’s a shame that she tried to torment me in this way.

Anyway, I think she’s quite a nasty woman just as I know, but to avoid showing it as much as possible, I rested my chin on the window and said my thoughts.

“I don’t know. What she’ll think.”

“Even though you’re the Deputy Chief who gets along well with New Hope, you can’t know such things?”

“Right? How would I know that when I’m not a superpower user who can read minds.”

“Hmm.”

Sai made a strange sound whose meaning couldn’t be understood at my answer. Was my answer quite unsatisfactory? But what can I do, it’s really like that.

New Hope, Mina is a fool who risks her own life to help people. During the Dokkaebi incident, I was certain she would come because it was just as I knew, but

I can’t help but not know whether that child who learns the content of this incident will continue hero work just like in the novel or not? This is reality.
Mina could break down in the face of great despair.

I answered thinking like that, but whether it’s my imagination or not, it sounds like Yagi stepped hard on the accelerator and the engine sound gets louder, and the internal temperature goes down. My back started to break out in cold sweat at that change.

Am I going to die for answering wrong, damn it. As I clenched my fist tightly and swallowed dry saliva, Sai asked another question as if giving me one last chance.

“Then what do you think, Detective? Are the media that babble every day on the news that superpower users are bad worse, or are the people who say superpower users are bad without any thought worse?”

I thought for a moment at her question. What answer does she want? Is it to say it’s not you first?

No, I don’t even understand why she got upset at my answer in the first place, so how can I accurately guess the answer she wants?

The second hand in my head ticks, letting me know time is passing. As an ominously strange silence sinks heavily in the car, urging my answer, I closed my eyes tight and said.

“The ones who killed people.”

“… Haha! That’s right! Yes, they’re the ones we must catch. The murderers.”

This time, fortunately, it seems I gave an answer she liked as Sai laughed. Then the air inside the car became warm and light too.

Fu… fuck. Should I feel relieved that I survived this?

I felt like crying at the fact that I have to go through such hardship because I lost my car, but that didn’t last long either.

The police who arrived at the scene immediately got out of their vehicles and raided the place thought to be the headquarters of Human Center.

That building looked like an ordinary residential complex on the outside, and there was no particularly notable feature except for the cross mark attached to the outer wall of the building,

but it’s natural that there aren’t many pseudo-religious headquarters that advertise “I’m a cult”, so it was an expected appearance if expected.

I got out of Yagi’s car and shouted while running out with the guys who got out of the car together.

“Alright! When we enter the scene, Team 1’s top priority is to find and arrest the bishop guy! Team 2, mark the believers! Even if they block you, subdue them and push through without hitting them as much as possible! Team 3, block escape routes! Let’s go!!”

“”Yes!!””

The detectives rushing into the building in an instant searched the area that looked like living quarters on the first floor, confirmed there was nothing, and immediately headed to the second floor.

When we went to the second floor, what we saw was a place that looked like a sanctuary at first. But the door was shattered as if something like a bear had burst out from inside.

And in the place where there should have been something like a cross, there was a statue of the pattern drawn on the white T-shirts the suspects were wearing.

“- Reached second floor. No one in sight. Team 3, did you see anyone escaping?”

“[This is Team 3. Reporting no one has escaped.]”

“Confirmed. Then, third floor. Let’s go to the third floor!”

My fellow detectives and I went up thinking there might be someone on the third floor roof, but nothing was visible. No, there were tomatoes and peppers, so it’s not that there was nothing.

Let’s see, not only is there no bishop, but no ordinary believers are visible either. This meant one thing.

“Fuck, they’ve already fled!”

My fellow detectives and I scratched our heads irritably or spat out curses at the fact that we had come up empty-handed.

Even if they noticed we were coming, it doesn’t make sense to escape this quickly in less than an hour. These bastards must have run away as soon as their believers were caught.

We need to find something to figure out where they might have escaped to, but looking around roughly, it seemed too clean for any evidence to remain.

So how do we catch these bastards now. I held my head and first looked around the second floor where the sanctuary was as much as possible.

And then suddenly I felt wind flowing from behind the platform at the very front. A hidden door. I immediately called out to the detectives around.

“- Here! Hidden room found! Gather around!”

Right after, I knocked to open that door, then realizing it was a door that had to be pulled to open, I pulled the door. The door opened lightly as if it wasn’t locked.

Speculating that since it’s a secret room, ledgers might have been kept here or it might have been used as the bishop’s personal room, I looked inside.

And what I saw when the door opened was-

My photos taken from who knows where and articles related to me densely packed on the walls of the room.

All those photos and articles had their eyes neatly gouged out with something like a knife and painted over with red lacquer. So. You know. That thing.

That thing you commonly see in the homes of stalkers when you catch them. But fuck, why me?

“What is that?”

“Looks like Deputy Chief had a fan here. No, is this a stalker?”

Sai was saying ridiculous things like having too many fans isn’t good either, but she had a somewhat displeased look on her face.

But the most displeased person here is me. I’m so displeased that I’m confident I could win first place if you asked who’s the most displeased person in the world. You fuck.