Even Villains Need Someone to Watch Their Back -1-
Chae Yuha slammed the X button the instant it appeared, banishing the status window from her sight.
“Right then. I hereby declare the first official meeting of the Villain Alliance now in session.”
“Waaah~”
Clap clap clap. Applause burst from everyone except one man.
“Why aren’t you clapping, mister?”
“Yeah, oppa, you have to clap too.”
“......”
Clap. Clap… clap.
“Hehe.”
Chae Yuha’s lips curved at the sight of him reluctantly bringing his hands together only because his little sister had asked.
She gazed warmly at the four people gathered around the table and began.
“First up is self-introductions. Anyone who wants to go first, raise your hand.”
“Me, me! I do!!”
The brightest personality in the group—Seolhwa—shot her hand into the air.
“Then let’s start with you, Seolhwa.”
“Okay! My name is Kim Seolhwa, I’m an eighteen-year-old Enhanced Human! I only received the procedure recently, so I still can’t control my output very well! My ability is… healing? Something like that! Honestly I don’t know much about it myself, but after running a few experiments it seems I can’t heal anything I don’t recognize as a living creature! Thank you!”
“Wonderful. A truly excellent introduction. Everyone saw that, right? Just like that. Next—”
“I’ll go.”
Surprisingly, the second hand that rose belonged to Kim Seokho, the man who still harbored clear hostility toward Chae Yuha.
“Name’s Kim Seokho. Older brother to the Kim Seolhwa sitting right there. Thirty-three years old. I’m an Enhanced Human, but I possess no ability.”
“Why are you leaving out the part where a thirty-three-year-old is unemployed?”
“.......”
“Just kidding! I only meant it would have been nice if you’d mentioned your decade in the food-service industry! Next!”
Seokho exhaled through his nose like he was swallowing a curse and folded his arms.
“A.G.O, would you like to go?”
“Y-yes…? I-I’m…”
A.G.O kept her head bowed, fidgeting with her fingers as though checking Chae Yuha’s mood.
“I am… a fifth-generation Vitaloid manufactured by Wunhwa… My designation is A.G.O… I was originally a household model, but I was discarded… Hehe. After spending all my time on the internet, I’ve become quite knowledgeable about that field…”
Seolhwa shot up from her seat.
“A.G.O?! You mean the A.G.O who had three million subscribers on Aker?!”
“Huh? Ah, yes… Though not anymore…”
“Wow! I’m a fan! Thanks to you I learned what was happening in the world while I was stuck in the hospital!”
“Ueh… R-really? Th-thank you…”
Seolhwa and A.G.O clasped hands and shook them up and down. Though calling it a handshake felt generous; it was closer to Seolhwa enthusiastically pumping A.G.O’s limp arm.
“What about you, sis?”
“......”
Nadja stared at Chae Yuha with an expression that said she had no idea how she was supposed to play along. From her perspective, it was impossible to understand what on earth Chae Yuha hoped to achieve with this farce.
“Can’t do it? Then I’ll go first.”
Chae Yuha took a slow breath. Just in case, she spread her jamming ability at full power, scanning the area for any listening devices.
…None.
Of course, not everyone schemed with the same cowardly thoroughness she did.
“My name is Chae Yuha. That’s an alias. I don’t have a real name. No one ever gave me one. As for my age… Sis, how old am I right now?”
“…Twenty-two.”
“That’s right. Twenty-two. Wow, everyone! This is the first time I’ve learned my own age!”
At her playful tone, Seolhwa tilted her head.
“Huh? I feel like I saw this exact self-introduction on the internet not long ago.”
A.G.O added quietly, “Ueh… It’s similar to the self-introduction Last gave… that first-generation Enhanced Human… at the Supreme Court…”
Nadja looked at her with complicated eyes, as if she had finally caught on to Chae Yuha’s intention.
“You’re all quick on the uptake. Seems my eye for people is still reliable.”
Chae Yuha took another deep breath and continued, careful to keep her smile from cracking.
“Shall we start over from the beginning? My name is Chae Yuha. I am a first-generation Enhanced Human. My abilities are psychokinesis and electrical-signal manipulation. I can even control the electrical signals in the brain—though it hurts. Sometimes I catch fragmented glimpses of the future, but I can’t choose when or what I see.”
“Huh?”
“What?”
“Ueh?”
“.......”
The moment her introduction ended, everyone at the table froze.
Seolhwa was the first to break the silence.
“Um… When you say first-generation Enhanced Human, you mean you’re a survivor of the original enhancement experiments, right?”
“Probably.”
“…Probably?”
“Yes. I don’t have any memories from when I was little.”
Chae Yuha tapped her own head lightly with a finger.
“Whatever happened in that place, who was there—none of it remains.”
“…Hoo. The more I hear, the less sense it makes,” Kim Seokho cut in. “Then what the hell do you want? What’s your goal in dragging us into this pathetic little villain game of yours?”
“Ouch. That one actually hurt…”
“We’re only here because you gathered us! Get serious!”
Thud. The table trembled. He hadn’t struck it with real force—if he had, it would already be splinters.
“Serious, huh…”
Seokho’s roar made Chae Yuha’s movements pause for a moment. She had always believed herself to be serious. From the moment she fell into this world, there had never been a time when she wasn’t. Yet here he was telling her to get serious. In a way, it was a blade that could cut deep.
“Do I look like I’m playing around to you?”
The only one who noticed the shift beneath her words was Nadja.
Just then, city lights spilled through the window. The faces of the group, previously half-hidden in shadow, grew sharply clear. Each expression radiated a different emotion—fear, dread, rage, suspicion.
Chae Yuha set aside the false smile she had worn like armor since the day she arrived in this world. For the first time, she spoke with something close to sincerity.
“What I want is power. Power so vast that no one can ever control me again.”
“We have lived our entire lives being manipulated by something.”
“Even being born was not my will. Everything that came after was even less so.”
“I was raised with the label ‘first-generation’ for the sake of convictions that belonged to people I had never met.”
“But even those convictions were shattered by another set of convictions, and we lost all meaning to our existence.”
“I opened my eyes in a place that had nothing.”
“My memory of why I was there was hazy. All around me was only trash.”
“Thinking I had to survive somehow, I walked toward the place where light glittered.”
“There, everyone was frantic to find a being called a first-generation Enhanced Human.”
“It didn’t take long to realize they were looking for me.”
“I was terrified. I knew I couldn’t hide from their eyes forever.”
“How many times did I clutch my chest in fear, wishing there was even one person I knew nearby? I can’t even count them.”
“.......”
A heavy silence fell. Every face at the table had grown solemn.
Chae Yuha clapped her hands brightly, shattering the heavy mood.
“Shall we return to the original topic? I want power. Power so enormous that no one in this city can ever move me against my will. The form it takes doesn’t matter. As long as I can reunite with my lost family and smile together again.”
She pointed at the Kim siblings.
“What about you two? Have you ever lost something precious because of the same colossal currents of power?”
“.......”
“Mom and Dad…”
Seokho stayed silent. Seolhwa murmured through trembling lips.
“In a rotten city like this, of course you have. So let me ask—do you have any guarantee that the same thing won’t happen again?”
“…No. Before, I was the only one who could support my sick sister, so I was never drafted for surface exploration. But now we’re both Enhanced Humans… We have no excuse left to avoid conscription.”
“Then I’ll ask one last thing.”
Chae Yuha brought out an empty cup and five colorful toothbrushes she had prepared in advance. She held them out to Seokho and Seolhwa.
“Will you become my family? When times are hard, when it hurts, can you be the people I can trust and lean on without hesitation? It’s a metaphor, so please don’t take it strangely.”
“…Pfft.”
Seolhwa laughed. She wiped the tears from her eyes, picked up the pink toothbrush, and dropped it into the cup.
Seokho clenched and unclenched his fists, clearly wrestling with himself. Finally he muttered,
“…I still don’t fully trust you yet.”
Reluctantly, he picked up the blue toothbrush and placed it inside.
“Your turn, sis.”
Chae Yuha, in an obviously good mood, turned to Nadja, who had remained silent the entire time.
When their eyes met, Nadja looked at her with an expression that seemed on the verge of tears.
“…Nadja Herald Punk. Twenty-four years old.”
She picked up the gray toothbrush and dropped it into the cup.
“Also a first-generation Enhanced Human. My ability… it’s hard to explain in one sentence. Just think of every weird machine I handle as a byproduct of my power.”
“Ueh… Two… two first-gens… I feel like I’ve been dragged into something absolutely insane…”
A.G.O curled into herself, shivering as if terrified.
Chae Yuha personally carried the cup and remaining toothbrushes over to her.
“Will you do it? Become family.”
“…Y-yes, yesss!! I will!! No—please let me!!!”
A.G.O fumbled in a panic, grabbed the yellow toothbrush, and shoved it into the cup.
And finally.
Chae Yuha placed the last turquoise toothbrush inside the cup and smiled brighter than she had ever smiled before.