12. The Hero Next Door
12. The Hero Next Door
I never in my wildest dreams imagined I'd end up laying a bloodied hero down on the old sofa in my cramped studio apartment.
"Ugh, it stings......."
"Stop whining and hold still. I'm applying disinfectant."
I picked up a cotton ball with tweezers and carefully wiped around Sophia's torn eye area and split lips.
It was the kind of hit that would have caved in a normal person's face and sent them to the ER with a concussion, but a superhuman is a superhuman; Sophia ended up with nothing more than a few bruises on her face.
After finishing the simple first aid, I took my spare gray hoodie and loose sweatpants out of the closet and tossed them to her.
"Go to the bathroom and change into those first. Don't keep wearing that blood-stained suit."
Sophia nodded and stumbled toward the bathroom.
A moment later, the sound of water stopped, and the door opened.
Wearing my oversized hoodie, Sophia looked exactly like an ordinary, skinny college student.
In her hands, she held the suit I had painstakingly made for her, now torn to rags and soaked in blood.
Sophia held out the suit and spoke in a small, shrinking voice.
"Laundry oppa. I'm sorry. You put so much effort into making this, and I couldn't even wear it for a few days before tearing it all up like this."
Seeing her apologize without even being able to lift her head, I let out a light sigh.
"It's fine, give it here. I'll just repair it and fix it up like new."
I carefully examined the cross-section of the torn suit.
The fabric hadn't been sliced by a blade; it was evidence of being ripped apart by overwhelming impact and brute force.
"Who hit you?"
"...Nocturne."
"Haa... well, if it's him."
Nocturne's mindless brute strength felt chilling all over again.
If it were someone the size of Mama Butcherer, I could understand, but he's not that different from me in height and build—how is he so strong?
"Next time, I'll add thicker shock-absorbing gel pads and insulation inside the outer layer. That way, even if you get beaten up and rolled around one-sidedly like today, the impact on your body will be much less."
"......Thank you."
Sophia carefully sat on the edge of the sofa.
Her face was still horribly mangled with blue bruises and bloodstains.
"You can't go back to your dorm or home looking like that right now. It'd be hard to make up an excuse."
"Yeah. But I'm a superhuman, so I have a fast recovery rate. With wounds like this, the bruises and swelling should all go down in about two hours. So...... could I impose on you for a little while, just until the swelling goes down?"
"Go ahead."
"Then I'll impose on you just until midnight..."
Sophia, checking my reaction, took out her smartphone and sent a text to her family saying she'd be late.
I went to the kitchen without a word and put water on the stove.
I took out a chamomile tea bag that had been shoved in the corner of the cupboard, brewed some warm tea, and placed the mug in her hands.
"Drink."
"Thank you......."
Sophia held the mug tightly with both hands, blew on it, and sipped the tea.
As the warm heat spread through her body, did the suppressed sorrow come rushing back?
Tears welled up in her eyes, and soon, thick teardrops began to fall, accompanied by sniffling sounds.
"I, hic, even though I call myself a hero...... why am I so weak?"
Once she started crying, it didn't stop easily.
Sophia kept wiping her tears with her sleeves and poured out her upset heart.
"Whenever I see Ultra Girl, the strongest hero of humanity who protects the neighboring Skyscraper City all by herself, I think about it. How great would it be if I could become overwhelmingly strong like her."
Ultra Girl.
She was the representative hero of the original comics and one of the strongest in the universe, wielding invincible power by absorbing solar energy.
"If I were as strong as Ultra Girl, I would have been able to easily subdue bad villains without bending my non-lethal principles. I could have stopped Mama Butcherer from brutally slaughtering gangs, and I could have confidently stopped Nocturne from spreading terror by branding people's faces."
"I think you're doing well enough as it is."
"...That's not true. A few days ago I got shot and hurt, and today I got beaten up..."
The sense of helplessness she felt while being one-sidedly beaten by Nocturne today seemed to have dragged her self-esteem to the bottom.
I looked down at the sniffling Sophia and fell into thought for a moment.
As a die-hard fan who had dug into Imagine Comics for decades, I knew all too well what the true value of a street-level hero was.
"Sophia."
"Yes......"
"There are many types of heroes in the world. First, there are heroes like Ultra Girl or Blaze who are always on TV and protect people in cool ways. These people also act as influencers. They're good people, but it's hard to see them at the street level."
"......"
"And... dark heroes."
"Laundry oppa, do you think people like Nocturne or Mama Butcherer are heroes too?"
"A hero is a hero. A hero is, after all, someone who fights for innocent people while upholding their own beliefs."
"......"
"Still, they're scary, those people. If I can help it, I don't want to run into them. Unlike you."
At my words, Sophia stopped sniffling and looked up at me.
"Honestly, every time someone like Mama Butcherer opens the door to my laundry shop, my heart drops. I'm scared to death. No matter how much of a hero they are for beating up villains, that ruthless violence is just pure terror to ordinary people like me."
"...That's, true."
"But when you roam the night streets, I feel really at ease. People in our neighborhood don't fear you, either. In fact, when you appear, everyone feels relieved and greets you with a smile."
"......"
"You might need scary judges who make people tremble, but you also definitely need kind and friendly heroes who reach out a hand to help someone up when they fall. Having a neighborhood hero who protects our town is such a reassuring and wonderful thing. Mama Butcherer wouldn't help pick up a toppled hot dog stand, would she?"
After saying it, I realized my mistake.
'A neighborhood hero? Isn't this blatantly plagiarizing that... friend's catchphrase?'
But what does it matter? It's not like Disney's legal team is going to fly across dimensions to file a copyright lawsuit here.
With a "screw it" attitude, I shamelessly smiled.
Sophia's eyes wavered as she listened to me.
Holding the mug, she quietly rolled the words that came out of my mouth around in her mind.
"Neighborhood hero..."
And finally, a small but clear smile bloomed between her swollen red lips.
"Thanks for the good advice, oppa. Actually, I've been so stressed out lately that I've been skipping college classes, and I felt so skeptical about my hero life that I wanted to give it all up. But after hearing what you said...... my mind is finally clear now."
She finished the remaining tea in one go.
"Thank you."
Exactly two hours later.
Just as Sophia said, the blue bruises and swelling that had covered her face disappeared as if by magic. Having returned to her original fresh and pretty college student face, she picked up the torn mask pieces and stood up.
"I'm going now. I really imposed on you a lot today. I'll work a part-time job and pay you back for the suit repairs somehow!"
"You already paid last time. Not necessary."
"Th-then... for the tea! I'll at least pay for the tea! I'm going now!"
"Well... don't overdo it."
Sophia bowed to me, opened the window, and lightly launched herself into the night breeze, disappearing.
I looked around the empty living room once and stretched out long.
It had been a terrible day where I almost lost years off my life dealing with lunatics, but I felt at ease thinking I had done one good deed at the end.
I lay down on the bed and fell into a pleasant, deep sleep.
The next afternoon, in front of a lecture hall at a prestigious university located in the heart of The City.
Sophia, who hadn't been seen for a while due to skipping classes like it was her job, was walking down the hallway with a bright face, clutching her major textbooks for the first time in a while.
Her expression looked much lighter and more vibrant than yesterday.
And at the end of the hallway, a middle-aged professor wearing thick glasses was watching Sophia's retreating figure with bated breath.
The professor's gaze was unusual.
Licking his dry lips with his tongue, he was casting a sticky gaze toward Sophia's firm back, looking like he was about to drool.
'Ah, Sophia Rodriguez.......'
The professor's breathing became abnormally rough. He couldn't control the dark desire that boiled up every time he saw Sophia.
That shining talent, that overwhelming potential.
He wanted to kidnap her right now and lock her away forever in a dark, damp room where no one would know.
He wanted to possess everything about her entirely as his own, and roll her and squeeze her all night long to savor that sweet essence.
A sinister madness flashed vividly behind his glasses.
'That bouncy, working brain, that fresh stamina that wouldn't even budge after pulling an all-nighter....... How great would it be if I locked her in my lab...?'
The professor gripped his briefcase tightly with trembling hands.
'Just wait. I will make you my perfect graduate student no matter what it takes.'
It was a peaceful morning on campus.