Villain Executioner (1)
December 2024, somewhere in Gyeonggi Province. Late at night.
A back alley lit only by harsh fluorescent streetlights, not a neon sign in sight.
"Hah... hah...!"
A young man ran gasping through the alley, his breaths ragged. He wore an ordinary t-shirt and jeans, but what stood out were the fresh cuts across his body—like he'd been slashed by a sharp blade. And those wounds were multiplying in real time.
Stab!
"Aaaagh...!!"
The young man tumbled to the ground. A stinging sensation made him claw at his ear, and his fingers came away slick with hot liquid.
"Ugh... uaaah...!"
It was severed. The searing pain was worse than anything he'd ever felt. But he couldn't just lie there amid the trash.
"H-Help! Somebody, please!!"
Slash!
No sooner had he cried out than the trash bag beside him split cleanly in two with a metallic clang. The spilling garbage looked like exposed brains, and he swallowed hard, imagining it was his own head's fate.
"Ugh... uaaaah...!"
He knew he shouldn't scream. But the scream escaped anyway.
Over there.
"Where do you think you're going~?"
From behind came a woman in head-to-toe black tights, humming a tune. Her face was masked, eyes hidden behind sunglasses, and her hair fully encased in latex tights.
"If you get caught now, I'll chop you up nice and clean all at once. Want that? Or should I dice you up?"
Her chilling voice triggered a fleeting news clip in the man's mind.
Pepper Cutter. The so-called castrator. She wielded her ability like a toy, lashing with whips before severing what men valued as much as their lives.
If she caught him, he'd die for sure—bled out, found as a corpse with his lower body soaked in blood.
"No!!! I don't wanna die!!"
Desperation clawed at him.
"Hero! Please, somebody help me!! Please!!"
"No such thing."
Whoosh.
A whip lashed toward his throat. Not an ordinary black whip, but one like thorny rose stems. This was Pepper Cutter's superpower.
She could have been called Rose Whip for manipulating plant stems as whips. But her villainous atrocities twisted her moniker into something far more horrific.
"No one's coming to help. Even if someone notices the commotion, they won't show up themselves. They're all holding their breath."
"Guh... grrrk...!"
"The second someone reports a hero, an alarm blares, and I take out the snitch first. Anyone listening nearby? Try reporting me. Man or woman, I'll fuck you up."
Pepper Cutter threatened her surroundings with brazen confidence. Someone in the alley might wake and report her, but unfortunately, anyone could do it.
Reports triggered a massive hazard alert. And Pepper Cutter had the power to hunt down and kill anyone inside a building.
"Ohohoho, time to harvest? Don't worry. I'll cut you so fast you won't feel a thing."
"S-Stop...! Why are you doing this!!"
"Why? Need a reason? Haha, nope."
She licked the whip handle in her hand.
"I've got the power to kill, and no law can touch me. Killing with superpowers doesn't screw up my real life. Got it?"
"You... no way...!"
"Right. I'm unregistered. Still a regular civilian, not on the superpower registry. Could be someone you met this morning, or just living in the same city—or country. Either way..."
Whoosh.
"...you're dying here."
"Gah... guhhek...!"
"Not just dying, either. You'll suffer till the end. Oh, wondering why so cruel?"
Pepper Cutter leaned close, pulling off her mask just for him, grinning wide.
"Just 'cause. I want to. I want to slice off guys' dicks and chop 'em to bits. Weird? Nah, simple. A psychopath awakened superpowers and turned villain."
"Ugh... kahk... h-heuk...!"
"Aw, why cry like a little bitch? Look, you pissed yourself. Fucking disgusting."
She stomped his solar plexus with her boot heel.
"Makes me sick. You trash like you—"
Weeeeooooweeeeooo.
Villain Detected! Villain Detected!
Hero Dispatch Requested Immediately!!
The blaring alarm made Pepper Cutter whip her head around with an irritated grimace.
"Ugh, damn it. If I report—"
Beyond the alley.
A man in a black suit held a smartphone displaying the villain alert. Even his necktie was black. The only color came from the golden glow of his Dokkaebi Mask.
"Wh-what...? N-No way?!"
Pepper Cutter's voice froze.
"H-How are you here?! Why are you?!"
Didn't they teach you in elementary school morals class? If a citizen spots a villain, report criminals to police and villains to heroes?
"Y-You...!!"
Whoosh.
Pepper Cutter yanked her whip back from the young man.
"You're a villain too! From the secret society...!"
That's why. Can't just let someone run around killing indiscriminately. Especially if it's a villain under our 'society.'
Clank.
Guess I'll have to execute you myself.
The masked man, Dokkaebi, pocketed his smartphone and pulled forward the object slung on his back.
Pepper Cutter. You've sullied the society's name. As the society's executioner, I hereby sentence you to death.
It was a baseball bat.
The society doesn't kill indiscriminately. That young man will one day serve as a minion in the world we conquer.
The bat gleamed black like ebony—not quite aluminum—with sharp golden thorns studded densely along it.
All humanity will become the Total Leader's 'taxpayers' and 'slaves.' You've slaughtered those who would be her slaves without mercy. Your crime is grave.
"You... you bastard! What do you plan to do with me?!"
Execution as a villain. Execution as a citizen. Simple.
Dokkaebi leveled the bat at Pepper Cutter one-handed.
I've reported you. Now handing you over to the heroes.
"You psycho fuck! Villain on villain, same society—have you no honor?!"
I'm not the kind of villain you think. And don't lump me with trash like you to begin with. Because I—
With that, Dokkaebi vanished.
—am an 'executive' of the society.
Thwack—!!!
Like a phantom, Dokkaebi reappeared at Pepper Cutter's side, swinging the bat full-force into her flank.
"Guhek!!"
She slammed into the wall. The impact cracked the concrete in the shape of a body, and red blood poured from punctures where thorns pierced her latex suit.
Execution spares no gender. Only children can dodge this bat.
"You... you...!"
Don't play hurt. Your victims diced up by you suffered worse.
Thud.
Dokkaebi swung down again. This time on her leg, thorns glancing off, but the concrete shattered beneath.
You're headed to superpower prison. No need for the society to rehabilitate trash like you.
"Aaaagh...!!"
Dokkaebi seized her thorny whip and bound her body tight. The stems that had slashed countless men now roped her securely. He raised the bat high over the fallen villain.
Ever heard of a beatdown—
"Stop!!"
A shrill voice echoed from afar. Something streaked past Dokkaebi's mask.
"Next one's the back of your head! This is your only warning!!"
It was a bullet. The white orb embedded in the wall was a mana bullet conjured by superpower. Outside the alley stood a woman in a white uniform.
A hero, huh.
"That's right! I am—"
Still got work to do... but fine. Hero's here, so this passerby villain will take his leave.
Dokkaebi hooked the bat to his waist and pressed his mask firmly.
Bye.
Flash!
Golden dust sparkled around Dokkaebi, and he vanished like teleportation.
"Ah!"
The woman in white bit her lip, grinding her teeth, then rushed forward with her mana rifle aimed at where he'd stood.
"...This is Snow White. Reporting. Situation... terminated."
—What happened?!
"...[Villain Executioner]Dokkaebi 'executed' Pepper Cutter."
Snow White, the woman, gnashed her teeth at the whip-bound villain.
"One day, I'll catch you for sure...! Dokkaebi...!"
Nearby, in another alley.
"Tch, got dragged into bullshit just passing by."
The black-suited man with the Dokkaebi mask removed it. His body shimmered gold, and soon—
"Transformation released."
—he was naked.