I’m Not That Villain

77 – Black Mamba (5)

“So-yeon-ahhh?”

I hated that voice.

The slurred end of his words, sodden with drink. That nauseating, repulsive way he had, as if calling to some cherished toy.

Still, I had to answer.

That voice would call my name until I did. If I didn’t answer at all, he’d forcibly pull me to my feet.

And that hurt more. Fingernails digging so deep, they felt like they would pierce my skin. The pain was so intense, it was better to answer now, get it over with.

“…Yes.”

I want to look at them boldly. Those eyes. I want to spit right into the hideous wrinkles etched around them.

But I can’t. Looking at him just makes me shrink. I want to fight back…

But I know all that will get me is a few more slaps.

“Let’s go.”

He doesn’t even say where.

But I understand immediately, nonetheless. Baek So-yeon, panting, was dragged along, her wrist clutched in his grip.

I want to shake him off. But his strength is overwhelming. Baek So-yeon could only stare at the wrinkled hand clutching hers as she was pulled along.

Fingernails, gnawed down, except for one. The index finger. It’s nail was grotesquely long. As if never having been trimmed, beneath that long nail…

Blood and flesh were caked.

As if it were a proud medal he’d earned himself.

We passed several darkened rooms. Children slept inside. Moments before, I’m sure, there was laughter, voices raised in play. But now…

Nothing. Dead silent. Just grateful they weren’t the ones being called, pretending to be asleep.

No one.

No one will speak for me.

Creak, creak.

The rasp of rusted wooden planks reverberated underfoot. Sounding almost like a beast’s guttural growl, it sent a shiver through Baek So-yeon, unbidden.

Down she goes. Down, ever down. Across stairs steeped in impenetrable dark…

To stand, at last, before a flickering lamp’s embrace.

A ramshackle door. Constructed of wood, yet riddled with gaps that offered a glimpse within.

Though now, nothing can be seen. Eyes not yet accustomed to the gloom cannot pierce the veil.

Even so…

She hears.

The stirrings of a person within.

“Da-jun-ah.”

A sound of someone leaping to their feet. The sound of movement.

That sound, hurtling madly towards the door, until at last, it swung open.

“Y-yes, yes…!”

Blood dripped, coalescing, from one arm. The owner of the flesh torn by fingernails, trembling violently, replied with a radiant face.

Smiling. Baek So-yeon stared, dazed, at the child. A familiar face.

Earlier, just once.

A child whose decrepit toy had snagged in a tree, crying so hard…

She had climbed, instead, to free it, to bring it tumbling down.

Eyes meet hers; the child she had helped earlier. The smile freezes, abruptly stilled. Their gaze, now averted, fixed only on the adult clasping their hand.

“H-he…he said my name, so…”

The orphanage director.

The adult holding her hand says nothing. As if savoring every word the child might utter, they wear only a faint smile.

Baek Soyeon wanted to shake her head wildly. She wanted to scream, *Don’t!*

But no sound escaped.

That mouth. The mouth she helped this morning…

Again, it leaks out. Only the child uttering the words is different, but the sound born from within it is always the same.

A sound that, at the same time, signals the beginning of her own hell…

Words that offer an escape to that child.

“C-can I… go now…?”

“Of course. You may go.”

The child slips away. Behind them remains only darkness.

She’s shoved, tumbling headlong into the interior. Baek Soyeon looked up at the orphanage director from within that darkness.

The woman opened her mouth. A bizarre, cackling sound escaped her cracked lips as she spoke the same words as the night before.

“If it becomes unbearable, give me another name.”

“…….”

Again, the sounds will come. Within the darkness, a monster will crawl.

And it will turn, and turn…

Slowly burrowing into her flesh. Resisting madly would be of no use, she knew.

*I want to die.* She already wanted to die.

…But…

*No.*

Becoming the same sort of beast as that b*stard…

“Jo…”

Terrifying. It’s madly terrifying.

Still…

I force it out.

Because I hate showing fear. Afraid that even *that* would break me completely.

“Fuck… off!”

I hate the darkness.

Because no one comes to help.

But it’s alright.

I… I…

Endure it well enough, alone.

I don’t need help anyway.

Because there’s no one who will help me…

Nowhere.

. . .

I ascend the stairs. The light flickers, then ignites, triggered by the sensor.

Darkness reclaims the places I’ve passed. But as long as my feet keep moving, the light continues to illuminate my path.

I ascend. I continue to ascend.

Baek So-yeon bolted toward the building’s rooftop. Then, abruptly, she stared at the back of the man running ahead of her.

At the forefront, the man leading the way.

Lee Seo-joon.

A foolish name. Lee Seo-joon. Truly a name for a fool, isn’t it?

Just… well. Thinking about it brought a snicker bubbling up. Disgusted with himself, he laughed once more.

Truly a foolish name. How could a name be like that?

This whole charade is foolish, too. It would be better to just sell myself. Or at least get some collateral before acting; that would benefit me more…

Truly.

Truly, he’s working so hard at something that brings absolutely no benefit.

No one even asked him to.

No one promised him anything.

“Hey!”

“What!”

“Are you a fool?!”

“If you have time to spout nonsense, run!”

A voice comes from behind. The din, born from where the darkness has descended, fills the entire building.

“They’re going up!”

“Chase them! Call for backup!”

“This is Delta…!”

Enforcers.

Armed guards.

They were a tide, coalescing, hunting them. The pursuit, born on the ground, swelled with impossible numbers, clawing up the buildings after them.

“Rooftop!”

A towering skyscraper. A monolith eclipsing all below.

At last, they reached the top. The frigid air bit with icy teeth. Lee Seo-Jun glared at the building across the void.

“Further than I thought!”

“We can just barely reach, Master.”

“Then hurry! We’re royally screwed if they catch us!”

For a moment, crimson sparks crackled from his hand. Something akin to his power, being siphoned into the Orb…

Then, with a shudder, it vomited forth a long line. At its tip, a head shaped like a harpoon formed.

He loaded it directly into a dedicated device shaped like a gun. He aimed at the distant skyscraper.

THWACK!

A thunder like gunpowder exploding echoed as the harpoon pierced the heavens. It flew, seeming to vanish into the encroaching dark…

Until, a distinct thud, a sound of something sinking deep into purchase, rang out.

Lee Seo-Jun secured the tail end of the line to the building’s railing. He knotted it tight around a sculptural feature, a small figure clinging to the roof’s edge, almost invisible unless closely observed.

CRUNCH!

Satisfied with the secure hold, he gripped the gun again. The Orb pulsed, gulping energy before ejecting another projectile.

“As I forewarned, a smokescreen. Its effect is temporary, but it will obscure the Executors’ vision until we cross.”

“Excellent, Scarlet! Now! Baek So-Yeon!”

He extended his hand.

Baek So-Yeon hesitated, almost imperceptibly.

“Th-there’s other ones we can just take, right?! There’s no reason to ride together…”

“If they pop a smoke grenade, your vision goes dark in a heartbeat! And you hate the dark!”

“W-w-w-w-what does that even matter in a situation like this?! Fretting over something like that…!”

In a flash, she’s forcefully grabbed.

Pulled straight into his embrace.

“Just bear with it, even if it’s uncomfortable!”

In a heartbeat, her body is lifted into the air. A dull thud echoes alongside.

A bullet soars skyward. And then, cascading rapidly onto the body being moved…

Black, mist-like things descend.

Static… crk-crk…!

Only the sound of a tool rapidly descending along a connecting line. Everything else is sucked into the darkness in an instant, vanishing from sight.

The darkness arrives. And again, those strange sounds begin. A voice, in a fleeting moment, whispers in her ear.

Even after exhuming the grave and dismembering the corpse once more.

Even after spitting on the tombstone and pouring a truckload of his favorite liquor on top…

That voice still echoes.

“Soyeon-ah.”

“Soyeon-ah!”

But in that instant, it’s overlaid.

Another voice drowns it out.

The already embraced body is drawn in even deeper in a heartbeat. The hand gripping her waist pulls her even tighter, making escape impossible.

Body pressed flush against body. The warmth, a palpable thing. From within the slowly parting black fog…

“Look at me!”

A voice, not the Director’s, rising to drown it out, shouts.

The space between them shrinks, their mouths mere breaths apart.

*Whiishh!*

The shriek of the line tearing through the air. And then, the cityscape once more, a glittering expanse regained…

She sees her opponent.

Lee Seo-joon’s face.

“No need to force yourself to look at things you don’t want to see, is there?!”

A sickening rush of speed.

The plummeting fall.

The line cleaving through the city.

And above it all, her opponent smiles.

“Just look at me! Me…!”

「Because I endure well enough alone.」

「Because I don’t need any help anyway.」

Baek So-yeon gasped, clutching at his clothes, burying her face in his chest.

A voice rises, a voice that drowns everything else.

As if to bury all those sleepless nights, haunted by the darkness behind closed eyelids…

That voice speaks.

In childhood. In the very deep of childhood…

The words I always longed to hear.

“I’ll help you!”

Black Mamba.

Boss of Hundred Eyes.

A woman who, after learning her Ability, smeared only blood across her face instead of tears.

And now, she closed her eyes.

Nodded, almost imperceptibly.

To hide the tears welling at their corners…

“…Yes.”

Clinging to his embrace with every fiber of her being.