7. Cheshire Cat
7. Cheshire Cat
The next day, the horrific night passed, and a peaceful morning dawned once again.
Ever since Mama Butcherer had visited, the gangs hadn't even dared to show their faces in the neighborhood, let alone near the laundry shop.
Even the Cassandra Family members, who were a common sight on the streets, had vanished completely.
"Did Mama Butcherer really kill them all...?"
The Cassandra Family was one of the largest mafia organizations in The City.
They had over two hundred direct subordinates, and if you counted their collaborators, the number would easily exceed five hundred.
To think that such a massive organization was completely slaughtered by Mama Butcherer in a single night—it was terrifying.
Well, fortunately, for the past few days, there had only been ordinary neighborhood residents coming to drop off or pick up their clothes.
I enjoyed the peaceful time, faithfully fulfilling my duties as a humble laundry shop owner.
It was a lazy afternoon; I had finished ironing, was sitting at the counter, browsing the hero community on my smartphone, and checking out articles like Blaze's interviews.
Ttal-lang-
The laundry shop door opened with a cheerful chime.
I greeted them mechanically without taking my eyes off the screen.
"Welcome. Is it for repairs or laundry?"
"Hmm, laundry. It's got a lot of smelly stains on it. Is this a place that can remove bloodstains and chemical marks too?"
"We do charge an extra fee, but we can handle just about anything..."
It was a woman's voice—light and playful, yet strangely metallic.
The moment I looked up to check the customer's face, hearing a voice that sounded somewhat familiar, I stopped breathing and froze solid.
'Fuck!'
The woman who had entered the shop had a gaunt frame and pathologically pale skin.
And in extreme contrast to that pale skin, her lips—bizarrely bright red, as if smeared with blood—shimmered.
Her hair was a messy, faded green bob, her red eyes were unfocused and dazed, and she wore smoky makeup around her eyes.
As for her clothes... she was wearing a dark purple coat that looked flashy but somehow seemed like it was missing a screw.
'Crazy, it's Cheshire.'
I screamed internally and reflexively took a step back.
Cheshire—one of the oldest villains in Imagine Comics.
Real name unknown. Age unknown. Past unknown.
The Queen of Crime, and a true psychopathic supervillain who boasts the most famous and overwhelming presence in the Imagine Comics universe.
She's been adapted into live-action six times, five of which were well-received, and she's such a popular villain that two of them even won Oscars.
Her physical abilities were just slightly above those of an average person; she couldn't be called a superhuman.
But there was a separate reason why she was imprinted as the most feared existence to comic book fans around the world, and to the countless villains and heroes in this universe.
'It's because she's a real, fucking batshit crazy bitch...!'
It was because of her murders that were as natural as breathing, her absolute unpredictability, and her blind madness that human reason could never comprehend.
Sometimes she was so crazy that you'd think she was normal, and other times she acted like a madwoman you'd want to stay far away from.
The types of crimes she committed were diverse. Sometimes she'd just steal a few bucks, or start with harmless pranks (like stealing a kid's test paper and running off, or turning tap water into jelly), or she'd pull lethal pranks, or even commit mass murder against unspecified targets.
She would torment one person until they were completely broken, or torment several people at once.
'Though she usually torments Nocturne...!'
Her relationship with the dark hero Nocturne, her antithesis and arch-nemesis, was famous for being the most vicious love-hate relationship in comic book history.
Nocturne was a billionaire vigilante who flew through The City at night, brutally suppressing crime, and Cheshire was the incarnation of evil who constantly plunged the city into chaos, as if to mock him.
The interesting thing is that Cheshire doesn't commit crimes simply because she hates Nocturne.
Rather, Cheshire considers Nocturne the only being who completes her and is terrifyingly obsessed with him. Cheshire's obsession with Nocturne was at a pathological level.
'In the episode where Nocturne died, Cheshire quit being a villain, and even when others tried to fill Nocturne's void, she acted as if she had no interest. Other villains feel a sense of rivalry toward Nocturne, but not to Cheshire's level...'
Cheshire rarely got involved with heroes other than Nocturne, and even if she did, it was usually to torment Nocturne; she didn't target the heroes themselves.
If Nocturne was in danger of being defeated by a villain other than herself, Cheshire would step in first and brutally tear that villain to shreds.
Because of that, her relationship with other villains, who usually didn't infringe on each other's territory, was terrible.
Among the spin-off issues dealing with the comic's parallel universes, there were many that pushed their twisted relationship to even more extreme lengths.
There was an episode where Nocturne was assimilated into Cheshire's madness and fell in love for real, and in an adult-rated issue, there was even a shocking lesbian narrative where Cheshire subdued a trapped Nocturne and forcibly raped her, turning the fandom upside down.
"Shopkeeper? Are you listening?"
When my thoughts reached that point, Cheshire in front of the counter tilted her head and called me.
"Ah, yes. You said it's for laundry."
I barely managed to steady my trembling voice and answered.
Every time my gaze met her glazed pupils, cold sweat ran down my spine.
Cheshire yawned with a tired face and tossed the large black plastic bag she was holding onto the counter.
"Please wash this. The smell is terrible, so be careful, and make sure it doesn't touch your hands. If it touches you, you'll get hurt badly, okay?"
"......"
"Just so you don't get surprised, I'm a villain. A bad person. Don't bother reporting me to the police; it'll just make things tiring for both of us, right?"
I frowned at the smell that wafted out as the bag opened.
It was a disgusting stench, a mix of a pungent metallic smell of blood, gunpowder, and some unknown chemical.
Inside the bag, a purple suit jacket and blouse were crumpled up, caked with bright red blood and dark red stains.
How many people would you have to kill for clothes to end up like that?
I swallowed my nausea and tried to maintain a professional attitude.
"The bloodstains and chemical marks are severe. I'll have to use a special detergent, so the laundry fee is 19 dollars."
"19 dollars? I thought it would be over 100 dollars, but it's way cheaper than I thought here."
"Honest business is our family motto."
"Did you inherit this shop from your parents?"
"...Yes, that's right."
"Ah, I see... Asian people are diligent. I don't mean that in a racist way, it's a compliment. Here, take this."
Cheshire rummaged through her pocket, pulled out two crumpled 10-dollar bills, and placed them on the counter.
"Keep the change, it's a tip. Anyway, how long do you think it will take?"
"It might take a while depending on what the chemical is, but it should be ready by tomorrow morning."
"Hmm, that fast? You must be skilled, Shopkeeper. Then, I'll come pick it up tomorrow evening. What time do you close here?"
"I close around 9 PM. Sometimes I stay open until 10."
"Hmm, is that so? Then I'll come by before you close. See you tomorrow!"
Seeing her grin and turn to leave the shop, I let out a deep sigh inside.
'I survived.'
Well, even though Cheshire does all sorts of crazy shit in the original work, it seems she surprisingly didn't harm people who helped her.
I stood there without even making a sound, desperately hoping she would open the door and leave safely.
But suddenly, her footsteps came to a dead halt.
"......Huh?"
Cheshire tilted her head slightly and began to sniff the air, like a beast that had discovered its prey.
Sniff, sniff-sniff.
Sniffing the air, she slowly turned her head back toward me.
Her dazed pupils constricted in an instant and flashed bizarrely.
In an instant, she approached without a single sound of footsteps and thrust her face over the counter.
The distance between her and me was less than a hand's span.
Her bright red lips curved into a long arc, as if they would tear all the way to her ears.
"Shopkeeper."
"......"
"Shopkeepershopkeepershopkeepershopkeepershopkeepe~r."
Her metallic voice rang creepily in my ears.
"You know what? I was about to leave, but I caught a scent by accident. In this small, pretty laundry shop... the disgusting smell of a hero is just reeking, you see..."
Cheshire's eyes shimmered with interest and madness as she stared straight into mine.
"A hero came by, didn't they?"
"......"
"Right?"