A Belated Discovery
Finding a secluded hideout to speak privately with Miracle Shine proved surprisingly effortless.
I was currently on Navire, the colossal artificial island that served as home to the International Hero Academy. In a ruined world crawling with magical beasts at every turn, this city was hailed as humanity's most impregnable sanctuary. Yet even this fortress had failed to elude the reach of the Villain League, an organization that had spent years planting covert safe houses across the globe.
Ironically, because Miracle Shine herself had ordered a total lockdown of the surrounding sector, we were able to slip into a nearby safe house together without a single soul interfering.
"Now then, please take a seat in that chair and disarm completely."
"Um, excuse me... if I take all of this off, I'll literally just be in my underwear."
"...I'll drape my cape around you."
Getting everything ready to question her went just as smoothly.
"Next, take this rope and bind yourself."
"Like this?"
"Yes, excellent. Now take a seat. I'll tie off the rest."
Like an actor and stagehand working in harmony before the cameras rolled, Miracle Shine and I finished our preparations in record time.
"Th-this rope is surprisingly tough."
"Isn't it?"
"Even if I use all my strength... pfft... I don't think I could break free."
Once she was thoroughly tied up, Miracle wriggled experimentally against her bonds, muttering the words while desperately clamping her lips shut against a rising giggle.
The effect is stellar.
To think one could bind the world's Rank 2 Hero with such flimsy restraints. It truly lived up to its reputation: hypnosis that compelled the subject to 'pretend to be hypnotized.'
"Well then, shall we begin?"
It was time to squeeze every ounce of value out of this before the trance wore off.
"Take a close look. This is the most common silhouette exhibited by a Kaijin."
"......"
Several hours had passed.
"Different from ordinary magical beasts, wouldn't you say? Noticeably more intelligent, with a form that mirrors a human."
"Yes..."
"In all your time subjugating magical beasts, have you ever encountered a creature shaped like this?"
"A few times, but..."
Her eyes half-glazed over, Miracle Shine listened to Trauma's lecture while drawing upon superhuman willpower to stifle a massive yawn. She clenched her teeth in silent exasperation.
Just how long does he intend to keep showing me these...?
The footage Trauma was screening was something she had seen before. Years ago, low-quality video clips had leaked across the fringes of the dark web, depicting ordinary people abruptly mutating into beast-like abominations. Those clips had spawned a viral urban legend claiming that human-shaped monsters called 'Kaijin' were secretly living among civil society.
It's been debunked as a hoax for years... He isn't a child, so why believe this?
At its height, the conspiracy theory had gained an alarming number of believers. But once forensic analysts and image experts thoroughly exposed the clips as digital fabrications, the hysteria had completely fizzled out.
Could he really be this deeply indoctrinated by the Villain League?
Yet recently, the Villain League had begun aggressively dredging up this dead ghost story, treating it as gospel truth and spreading agitation everywhere. The most infamous instance had been the catastrophic cyberattack where Pandora, the League's notorious hacker, hijacked major internet hubs—including the official Hero Community—for five continuous hours. Every single broadcast transmitted during that takeover, aside from Pandora's self-indulgent boasting, had revolved around the 'Kaijin Urban Legend.'
Could that be why my ability reacted to him...?
Her Concept allowed her to sense individuals in desperate need of a magical girl's salvation. Was it possible her power had triggered because Trauma himself was a victim? If he had been deceived or brainwashed by the Villain League, then everything—even the way he mercilessly butchered innocent citizens while screaming that they were monsters—suddenly made tragic sense.
Poor man...
For a fleeting second, Miracle Shine looked upon Trauma with profound pity. But she quickly squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.
No. I cannot allow sympathy to cloud my judgment.
No matter the tragedy of his circumstances, a villain remained a villain. The man standing before her was an unrepentant criminal.
I will save what I can, but he must answer for his crimes...
Having resolved her internal conflict, she prepared to resume her dutiful act of playing along.
"Mmm... this isn't having any effect at all."
Right at that moment, an ominous name slipped from Trauma's lips.
"Pandora, are you listening?"
Pandora? Does he mean the Pandora from the Villain League?
Her eyes went wide, and she held her breath, straining her ears.
He really is linked to the League.
"It looks like we need to begin the broadcast soon. Get things ready on your end."
The way he talks to her... they sound remarkably close.
Her mind began piecing together the clues at lightning speed.
Then could it be that the newly appointed Villain League executive intelligence recently caught wind of is...
Just as her deductive reasoning brushed against the truth—
Thump...!
"Ahg?!"
Color violently drained from her face, and an agonized shriek ripped from her throat.
"Ah, ahhh... ugh, ahhh..."
"Hm?"
She bent double, drenched in cold sweat, her eyes pinched tightly shut as tremors wracked her frame.
"Are you hurt?"
Trauma paused his comms link, observing her with a suspicious frown as he slowly closed the distance.
"D-don't come near me!"
Miracle Shine screamed in sheer panic, her entire body shaking uncontrollably as she gasped for air.
Damn it... Why now, of all times...?!
Every single Concept user carried an inherent, unavoidable vulnerability. Miracle Shine—the champion of love and justice, the Miraculous Magical Girl—was no exception to this cosmic rule.
—Look at you, Magical Girl. What a pathetic sight.
"N-no, shut up!"
Her fatal weakness was an insidious internal voice that periodically echoed in the depths of her consciousness whenever she maintained her magical girl transformation. Under normal circumstances, it was something she could endure, but the true horror of this penalty lay in its corruption.
—You walked straight into the enemy's snare, yet you still dare to deny it?
She knew the grim history. The previous Magical Girl had succumbed to this very voice, losing herself completely before vanishing without a trace. She could never, under any circumstances, surrender to its whispers.
"Th-this was my choice! I am not in danger!"
Her hands trembled violently, but she clawed desperately against the tide of darkness in her mind.
—You have already fallen under the enemy's sway.
"...What?"
—Did you not crawl into the villain's lair of your own free will? Did you not bind your own flesh with your own hands?
As always, the phantom voice mocked her with flawless, silver-tongued venom.
"That was..."
—Your master plan? That was his design from the very start. To make you believe your mind remained sovereign, all so you would eagerly carry out his commands. You were played like a fool.
"N-no. That isn't true."
Though she shook her head frantically, seeds of self-doubt sprouted and spread through her chest like weeds.
"It isn't..."
Had she truly needed to risk everything just to infiltrate this far? Wouldn't it have been infinitely wiser to capture the wounded Trauma right on the spot and interrogate him? Or if not that, wouldn't trailing him quietly from the shadows have yielded better results?
"That can't be..."
Once those doubts took root, her face turned paper-white at the sickening possibility that her psyche had indeed been tampered with from the beginning.
—Why so quiet? Didn't you always pride yourself on your unshakeable will?
"S-shut your mouth!"
—Just accept it already.
The voice sank its fangs mercilessly into the chink in her armor.
—You can no longer tell whether you are sane or mad.
Miracle Shine's pupils trembled violently.
I-if this continues, I'm finished.
She bit down on her bottom lip so hard that blood welled up, fighting to tether her fraying consciousness.
I have to dispel the transformation right now...
She had faced this crisis several times in the past, and she had always managed to narrowly slip free by ending her transformation. Once her magical form was undone, the voice ceased its torment entirely.
I have to cancel it, but...
Standing directly before her was Trauma. And hovering right behind his shoulder was a camera-equipped drone.
That drone was undoubtedly the broadcasting equipment he had ordered Pandora to prepare. If so, she was staring down total catastrophe.
I cannot... reveal who I am...
If Trauma saw her true face without her transformation, or worse, if that camera broadcasted her civilian identity to the world, her life as a magical girl would be permanently erased. Stripped of her Concept, she would be reduced to an ordinary, powerless girl.
Th-then... what am I supposed to do...?
Even if a miracle occurred and her secret identity remained safe, a powerless civilian could never hope to escape this villain's lair. It was a flawless, inescapable checkmate.
In the suffocating grip of despair, the sinister whisper resonated louder than ever.
—Magical Girl, surrender to the inevitable.
Miracle Shine's gaze grew vacant, glazed over with encroaching madness.
—Embrace the darkness festering within you...
"Ah..."
Her slender frame shuddered violently.
I'm so sorry... everyone...
Just as a single tear escaped her eye and rolled down her cheek—
"...Hey."
Trauma's voice cut through the haze, thick with sheer annoyance.
"Just whose face do you think you're brainwashing someone in front of?"
Trauma whipped out a smartphone, his thumb tapping the screen in rapid succession.
"That's rather insulting."
In the very next instant—
Fwwwoooosh...
"Huh?"
A burst of crystalline refreshment flooded her psyche, instantly blowing away the suffocating mental fog.
"Wh-what is this? Why is my mind..."
It was a sensation of pristine clarity she had never once experienced while transformed. Stunned, Miracle Shine stammered out her confusion before suddenly freezing.
The voice... it's gone?
The loathsome whispers that had been driving her to the brink of insanity had vanished into thin air.
"Ah, it's nothing impressive," Trauma replied, scratching the back of his neck casually as she stared at him in wide-eyed disbelief. "I don't have an official cleansing function ready yet, so I concocted a makeshift blend of mild aphrodisiac, dependency, and euphoric effects."
"...Excuse me?"
"You feel pretty fantastic right now, don't you?"
The moment he said it, a bizarre, prickling heat rippled across her skin, making her shudder from head to toe.
"Wh-what on earth did you just do to my body—"
"More importantly."
Trauma's gaze hardened. He suddenly gripped his staff and lunged forward with explosive speed.
CRACK—!
He brought the heavy staff down with ruthless force, striking right toward her.
"Ah...?!"
Miracle Shine reflexively squeezed her eyes shut. But a moment later, when she felt a warm, viscous fluid dripping heavily onto her bare knees, a violent shiver ran through her, and she forced her eyes open.
"......!"
Her breath seized in raw terror.
Skrrr... skkrrk...
A grotesque, squirming organism resembling a cluster of fleshy tentacles was mashed against the head of Trauma's staff, writhing as it leaked dark, putrid blood.
"Can you see it now?"
"Wh-what in the world is that...?!"
As she stared at the eldritch horror with an ashen face, Trauma addressed her in an eerily calm, gentle tone.
"Haven't I been telling you all along?"
Her Concept—the power to detect individuals crying out for salvation—was thrumming within her chest, screaming with an intensity she had never felt in her entire life.
"Kaijin are real."
The man in the black mask stood over her.
"Welcome to the truth of this world."
Tilting his eye-patterned mask back just enough to reveal a faint smile, the man looked down into her trembling eyes.
After taking the time to calm the shell-shocked Miracle Shine, I sent her away with a promise to meet again in a few days once she had regained her composure.
Having conclusively proved the existence of the Kaijin, I wanted to discuss matters further, but time was against us. Word had just come in that Top Heroes were currently en route to this safe house.
I thought I'd have a little more time...
How on earth had they caught onto this location? All the media helicopters had been evacuated from the airspace, so they shouldn't have had any visual feed. Had they somehow sensed that their fellow hero was compromised?
Squelch...
"Quiet down."
Tired of the creature's dying groans, I slammed the mangled thing stuck to my staff against the concrete floor, splattering it into paste.
Disgusting parasite.
This particular creature hadn't burrowed inside Miracle Shine's body; it had been woven directly into the fabric of her combat suit. That was the real reason I had demanded she disarm herself earlier. The moment I started showing her the truth, the parasite had panicked, slithering out of the suit in an attempt to latch onto her skin.
If I had left it alone, what would have become of her? The thought alone was chilling.
In any case, I need to get out of here...
I felt a twinge of concern for Miracle Shine, who had clearly been deeply traumatized by today's revelations. But I had strictly warned her to stay vigilant around other heroes, so nothing catastrophic should happen immediately. She was the world's Rank 2 Hero, after all; she wouldn't be taken down easily, especially now that the wretched parasite gnawing away at her sanity had been eradicated.
Whirrrr...!
"......?"
Just as I turned to slip out the back exit, Pandora's surveillance drone buzzed into view, orbiting around my head in delighted circles as if greeting me. Why was this thing still here?
I stared at the floating projection with a deeply puzzled expression.
"With what?"
A livestream? What the hell was she babbling about?
"Wait a minute."
Feeling a sudden surge of dread, I yanked out my smartphone. The instant I unlocked the screen, a trending live stream notification made my eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets.
What kind of unhinged bullshit was this?
My hand shaking with pure horror, I tapped into the ended stream. The video thumbnail displayed my own masked face looming ominously over a bound hero.
"What did you just do?!"
"........."
Does that mean every single thing that transpired from the moment I said 'prepare' was broadcasted live to the entire planet?!
My stomach plummeted as I scrubbed through the recording. The video clearly depicted Miracle Shine bound to a chair, convulsing in sheer agony while forced to stare at an eerie screen. Then, it captured me walking forward, striking her with my staff, and dark crimson fluid splashing across her legs.
And Murphy's law dictated that the broadcast cut off right at that exact frame.
"Fuck! People are going to completely misunderstand this!"
The Kaijin tentacle hadn't been rendered clearly on the camera feed at all. To anyone watching, it looked precisely like the title suggested: an unhinged villain abducting, torturing, and brainwashing a beloved magical girl.
"Are you insane?! Why would you broadcast that live?!"
"I meant the Kaijin we have locked up in the holding cells! I told you to broadcast them!"
My voice climbed an octave in pure, unadulterated outrage. The drone flinched, hovering backward slightly.
"I sent you a text saying we should just do it today since we were already deployed!"
"You didn't see it because you were playing Tekken, didn't you?"
At my freezing glare, the drone drifted silently in midair before suddenly turning tail and buzzing away at top speed.
"Tsk."
Somewhere out in the digital ether, I could practically hear the sound of my public reputation shattering into dust. Well, I was operating as a villain now, so technically it didn't matter. But becoming globally branded overnight as degenerate filth who violated and abused a magical girl was a bitter pill to swallow.
"You are so dead the second I get back..."
I spat the threat toward the drone peeking out from around the corridor corner, letting out a heavy sigh as I pushed my feet forward.
"...Ugh."
A dull throb of agony flared through my muscles.
Is my self-hypnosis wearing off already...?
Just as all Concepts bore weaknesses, mine was no different. Every activation drained my mental fortitude. As mental stamina depleted, the duration of hypnotic conditioning decayed exponentially. The self-hypnosis suppressing my pain receptors was finally reaching its absolute limit.
"No... leave it."
As Pandora's drone zipped back to hover beside me, nudging against my shoulder as if trying to support my weight, I waved it off and forced myself onward. Top-Ranking Heroes were closing in on this sector. Calling villain reinforcements now would escalate this into an all-out bloodbath.
"If I survive, I'll only come back stronger..."
Placing my faith entirely in the passive growth of my Tempering skill, I dragged my battered body forward—only to freeze dead in my tracks.
"A-Class Villain, Trauma."
The heavy iron blast door of the safe house swung open, and an entirely unexpected figure stepped into the light.
The presence outside... was it her?
Standing before me was none other than Great Order.
I had sensed someone lingering outside the safe house moments ago, but I had assumed it was an encroaching hero scout or an lurking Kaijin. I never dreamed my own biological older sister would be the one waiting.
"Stand down. I have no intention of becoming your enemy."
Gritting my teeth, I raised my staff, but she held up both hands in a placating gesture.
"I heard everything you said in there."
"........."
"As expected... you truly are the being I have sought for so long."
Unsure of her motives, I watched her in silence as a faint, tranquil smile touched her lips. She closed the distance between us step by step.
"Tell me, Trauma... you know Kang Haneul, don't you?"
A chilling gleam flickered in her eyes.
"...What do you want?"
"Let us make a deal, Trauma."
The words that followed fell from her lips without hesitation.
"I will aid you unconditionally from this day forth. In return..."
Listening to her terms, I couldn't help the bitter smile that tugged at the corners of my mouth.
"At the earliest possible opportunity..."
I gave a slow, deliberate nod.
"Grant me the privilege of killing Kang Haneul with my own two hands."
After all, granting her that wish aligned perfectly with my plans anyway.
Meanwhile, at that very hour.
Once Kang Haneul's childhood friend and closest partner, now a rising star bridging the Secret Intelligence Bureau and the Police Department as Rank 17 Hero—Lee Se-ah.
"......."
She sat at her desk, staring with hollow, unblinking eyes at the contents of a confidential dossier that had just arrived at her office.
Clutched in her trembling fingers was an old photograph: a white-haired girl flashing a bright smile and holding up a playful peace sign.
"Lumia... you..."
Staring down at the girl's face, Se-ah murmured in a voice barely above a whisper.
"...What on earth is this appearance?"
In the silence of her office, the frantic, desperate pleas of her abandoned childhood friend seemed to echo faintly in her ears.
Don't trust Lumia.