I’m Not That Villain

89 – Wayfinding (4)

Executioner Baek-san dusted off his hands.

“Resolute.”

He quietly gazed up at the woman hanging, bound. A woman who was practically a corpse, with hardly an unblemished patch left on her.

Resolute. The perfect word to describe her.

Under no circumstances is he to open his mouth. Even writhing in agony, screaming, he eventually falls silent as a mouse.

Just what must be done to pry that mouth open?

“…S-Senior… maybe, we should stop for today…!”

“Silence.”

He stares at that mouth, stubbornly sealed.

“Hey.”

“……. “

“Just what is your connection to that b*stard, Black Mirror?”

“S-Senior…”

“Get out.”

He forcibly throws his junior out of the room. He drags a chair over, collapsing into it.

His hands are soaked in blood. Everywhere he touches, bloody prints cling. Even the cigarette he pulls out is stained, a coppery taste rising from where it touches his lips.

He doesn’t like this.

Still, work is work, after all.

“…Do you really think that he’ll appreciate you going this far?”

He lights the cigarette, inhaling deeply.

Baeksan sinks back into the chair.

“Black Mirror. That son of a b*tch made custom equipment for the world’s worst criminals and sold it to them. A completely insane b*stard. Do you even know how many victims there are because of him?”

“……. “

“He might pretend to be a normal person, but his insides are much more twisted. There’s a hidden side to him you clearly don’t know. Why are you going so far for a man like that? Nothing will come of it, no matter what you do. Just because you’re keeping your mouth shut doesn’t mean I can’t find out his identity.”

“If not you, then we’ll just break some other b*stard. I have the means. I was the one who dragged you all the way here, after all. Whether you speak or not… it’s just a matter of time.”

“……. “

“Hey. Cyber-troll murderer. If you confess the truth now, Heukgyeong’s charges themselves will be lessened. Significantly. I’ll explain the situation to those above, in a way that considers everything, so there’s room for leniency. I don’t know exactly what the relationship is between you and that b*stard… but you can’t run forever.”

The smoke tastes bitter.

Baeksan ground out the cigarette, now fully spent.

“Seoul will be occupied soon enough. The Execution Agency hasn’t given up. They merely lost a little ground in the preliminary skirmish. They’ll regroup and advance again. This time, Hundred Eyes will fall, and we’ll feast on the empty space it leaves behind.”

“……. “

“Don’t even think that other massive organizations will move. The government aren’t idiots. We’re fully prepared. The Execution Agency’s next-generation force, unknown to civilians, is currently preparing. And they are personnel, rigorously trained and ready. Living human weapons that can be deployed immediately. The moment their forward base is complete, they’ll come swarming to devour Seoul. This will be a sort of debut, a stage to showcase the power Korea has been hiding.”

“……. “

“Heukgyeong could, of course, flee the country. But do you think the Execution Agency would let him? Heukgyeong is an example now. An example for all illegal weapons manufacturers to see. We won’t miss him. We’ll capture him, one way or another. Even if he manages to escape abroad, we’re prepared to pursue. There will be no mistakes. He’ll fall into our hands before he crosses the border.”

“……. “

“The best course of action, you see… is to somehow reduce the sentence. So cooperate. If you cooperate with the Execution Agency, I’ll make sure that both your sentences, and his, are lessened. But if you refuse again…”

Baeksan rose from the chair.

He pried open her mouth, inspecting the blood-soaked interior.

The teeth. So neatly aligned.

He ran a hand across them, those teeth that had regrown despite being pulled out once already.

“I’ll pull them out again. Every single one of those teeth. And this time, I’ll hammer nails into your gums to stop them from growing back. You’ll never chew anything again, for the rest of your life.”

“……. “

“Just say one word. Where Heukgyeong is. Come now.”

Baeksan seized her chin. Forced her upright.

He lowered his voice, asked as if whispering.

“Answer the question. Murderer.”

“……”

She stared blankly up at him. Her bloodied eyes held no strength. Her whole being trembled, as if tattered in both body and soul.

Her stamina was at its lowest. Even Baeksan himself could see that her spirit was nearly broken.

Usually, reaching this point, they’d be begging to be killed. Promising to tell him anything, anything at all, just to be done with it, shivering as they spilled the truth.

…But.

The damned criminal.

“……”

Clinging, yet again, to some worthless sense of loyalty.

In a state beyond comprehension.

“…Ha!”

He’d never seen this type before. No one, unless they were mute, could act like this.

But hadn’t he seen? This woman knew how to speak. Even if she couldn’t, if she were suffering this much, she would be flailing to write something, anything, down.

But she’d refused even that…

And just accepted it, again, so calmly? This brutal torture?

“…Alright.”

Baeksan’s lip curled upward. He gripped her chin even harder, trying to mask his unease.

“I have plenty of time, little girl. Let’s see this through…”

– Huddeudeuk.

A sudden, strange sound echoed from above. Baek-san, reflexively, hurled the chained girl away.

What was that? Did Yui drop something?

He glanced up, a mere flicker of his eyes. As if to confirm he hadn’t misheard, the building shuddered, just a touch, this time.

Dust and tremors rained from above.

Yui’s scream tore through the air.

“Senpai! Intruder!”

“What?”

Before he could unravel the question, *jjuk*, the basement ceiling ripped apart.

A deluge of dust. Baek-san’s ability stirred, instinctively, his hand flying to cover his mouth.

Spatial Distortion.

Anchoring spatial coordinates, twisting them to his whim.

– Chwaak!

A flash of light plunged down upon him. But it wouldn’t touch him, not even close.

His distorted space, reacting in a heartbeat, deflected the assault. Instead of cleaving his skull, the blade scored the unforgiving earth.

– Jjeok!

A blade. Undeniably a blade. Ridiculously long, yes, but simply a blade.

Yet, the instant it kissed the floor, fissures erupted and the basement floor became a tattered rag. As if dozens of slashes were unleashed in a single stroke, every visible space was shredded.

An ability.

This was an ability.

Even if he knew not its kind, distance he must gain!

Baeksan retreated at once. He bolted, hugging the wall, fleeing, in truth, from the cellar.

Yui was there. Alive, thankfully, or so it seemed, gasping, clutching her shoulder.

Her reflexes were not of the slower sort. Nay, she had even earned an A on the grading exam, so keen were they.

Yet, that thing pierced through it all, ambushing her, wounding her, then…

…charged headlong into this underground place?

-Thump.

“…Two?!”

At the belated sound of footsteps, Baeksan hurriedly assumed a fighting stance. But the doll before him did not lunge at him; it merely brushed past, swiftly moving forward.

“……”

Its pace slowed, gradual. Then, slow as the crawl of time, it halted before the bound woman.

A mask it wore; its expression concealed. But a current, uncanny, emanated from its form, materialized, near visible upon its back, and Baeksan could not lower his hand.

…Something.

Something was amiss.

The weight, the pressure emanating from the woman, that was the sort one felt in the presence of a criminal of great consequence. An instinct, built upon years of experience.

Yet, it tolled again.

Because of the unknown man standing before him.

“…Who are you?”

“……”

He did not answer. Without another word, he reached out to the bound woman and slowly lifted her down.

The woman, after twirling her sword to gain her footing, asked the man,

“Shall I kill them both?”

“……..”

The man did not answer. He merely stroked her face, as if examining her condition.

That voice. Not the man’s voice, but the woman’s.

For some reason, it was a voice he’d heard before, and Baek-san narrowed his eyes.

What about the clothes she’s wearing? Plain clothes. But if he were to overlay it with the clothes he remembered…

“…Teresa?”

“Hmph?”

She narrowed her eyes. At that narrowed gaze, Baek-san cursed under his breath.

A follower of the Bad Sector. The crazy b*tch who so boldly calls herself their right hand, what is she doing here?

Could it be that the cyber-attack murderer…

…was connected to the Bad Sector?

“…Yui.”

He calculates his chances of success. A rapid calculation. But no angle appears feasible.

There is only one option. Baek-san swiftly chose the more promising of the two.

“Run.”

“Y-yes?! But…!”

“Shut your mouth.”

Now was the moment, while the man’s gaze drifted. Baek-san wasted no time, tucking Yu-i under his arm.

The woman, Theresa, a follower of the Bad Sector, moved her blade.

“Did you think I’d let you escape?”

“You’ll have to. I have a certain confidence when it comes to flight.”

A momentary warp in space, conjured on instinct, devoured the blade once more. Again, the sword struck awry, detonating against the wall in a deafening roar, reducing it to rubble.

Dust billowed, a choking cloud mingling with the echoing thunder. Within that chaos, Baek-san moved with practiced speed.

He’d found another thread of possibility. That was enough.

The Black Mirror… it was clear.

It was undoubtedly directly linked to the Bad Sector.

-Crash!

Shards of the shattered window rained upon the floor. Baek-san sprinted away, scanning behind as he ran.

No pursuit. It seemed the woman was the target after all.

“W-what in the world is happening…?!”

“I don’t know the precise details, but I know the answer. Our priority is requesting support from headquarters.”

“Y-yes?”

“A heavy hitter has emerged. Theresa. That madwoman is as dangerous as the Bad Sector itself. She’s been hidden for so long, her location impossible to pinpoint. To think a depraved criminal would appear during a situation like this…”

Baek-san hastily pulled away.

Towards the relocated Execution Agency headquarters.

“Wh-who is Theresa?!”

“A follower of the Bad Sector. One of the three I *must* capture in my life. If we’re speaking purely in terms of danger level, she’s Black Mamba class.”

“T-that serious, is it?”

“Considering how desperately she was protecting Hei Jing’s acquaintance…”

Baeksan bit his lip.

“She must have been planning something in Seoul. Perhaps even cultivating an ability-user legion for the Bad Sector, with a dedicated equipment craftsman at her side.”

“T-that’s too much…!”

“You think not?”

Baeksan felt a craving for a cigarette, more intense than ever before.

“That woman is capable of anything. You could consider her even more deranged than the Bad Sector. For that man, she’s the worst kind of fanatic, willing to do anything. In any case, we can officially move forward now. Request additional manpower from the enforcement agencies. The target we’re chasing is no longer just an illegal weapons manufacturer. We must regard her as a member of a criminal organization threatening national security. As an accomplice to the singular criminal who dared to raid an enforcement facility.”