Jailbreak
It was still early dawn. When I opened my eyes, the sky hung somewhere between full dark and the first thin edge of morning.
Ding-dong—
The sudden chime dragged me upright in bed.
"...What?"
I'd only moved in two days ago. Almost no one knew I lived here, and there was even less chance of anyone coming by at an hour like this.
"Oh. Maybe the grocery delivery."
Right—I'd put in a grocery order yesterday, and those sometimes showed up before the sun. I let out a drowsy yawn and stepped into the living room with my gloves still on. The intercom showed nothing but an empty hallway. The driver, it seemed, had already gone.
I opened the front door anyway. There was nothing. No one waiting, and no grocery bags either—only the corridor, the whole of it drowned in pitch-black shadow.
"Huh. Did I imagine it?"
I scratched my head and let out a short laugh.
"—is what you thought I was gonna say?"
The shadow wavered, unnatural as heat haze. I didn't miss the instant it slipped in through the doorway. It was creeping along the wall when I drove my gloved hand into the space right beside it.
WHAM!
"Kaghk!?"
"Since when do shadows scream?"
The startled shadow heaved, then flinched, as if trying to see whether I'd noticed. Surely it didn't still think it hadn't been caught.
"Let's see. What was the bounty on jailbreakers these days..."
"W-wait! Hero Mister. Time-out!"
The shadow jolted and began, little by little, to take on a shape. Dark Shadow emerged and gave a small wave.
"It's me. It's me, I said. Ehehe."
She looked up at me with that smile, as if certain that the moment I recognized her I'd welcome her in with open arms.
"Hehehe... Kyauk!?"
I grabbed that expectant face and yanked.
"Ow, that hurts! Hero Mister!? My face is tearing oooff!"
Dark Shadow thrashed and squirmed in my grip. I ignored her and looked out at the sky beyond the window.
"Figures. The weather's been gloomy."
"Uwaaaaaah!?"
Watching the fine rain come down, I stretched Dark Shadow's cheek out even longer.
The Special Villain Prison, which held only villains of A-rank and above. The incident there had taken place a mere two days earlier.
"Dark Shadow. What number is this already? In and out, in and out—don't you ever get sick of it?"
The guard spoke like someone who'd had more than enough of this. Dark Shadow only grinned, sunny and shameless.
"Ehehe. That's why this time I'm planning to stay a while."
"Aigoo, you people really are going to be the death of me..."
She said it, but she didn't entirely dislike the girl. Most of the ones who ended up in a place like this were trash beyond any hope of saving. Watch them long enough and the taxes—and even the grains of rice—spent on these criminal bastards started to feel like a waste. For some reason, Dark Shadow was different. An A-rank villain, and yet she wasn't unpleasant to have nearby. Talk to her for a minute and the guard would catch herself laughing along before she knew it.
Why? Was it that small, cute face?
No. No chance.
The guard shook her head. She'd never once gone soft, not even for a villain handsome as a celebrity. She was hardly going to waver just because a girl—the same sex as her—happened to be a little pretty.
She ruffled Dark Shadow's hair without mercy.
"Awawawa?"
"Aigoo. You little problem child. What am I supposed to do with you."
Seen like this, she was cute, no two ways about it. The problem was simply that the kid broke out too often and got dragged back just as often. Even now she was waving warmly at the other guards and the lunch ladies, trading greetings all around. Honestly. As if she were a regular.
"Quit waving and get in there. Try behaving yourself this time before you go."
"Hehe. For how long?"
"A hundred years."
"...Huh?"
Dark Shadow blinked and went stiff. The guard snorted at her own joke and tossed her onto the bed inside the bars.
"Well, who told you to break out? The Power Sigil on your neck is set to maximum this time, so don't force your ability like before. Keep that up and you'll actually drop dead."
It was meant as a warning, but it came out closer to nagging. Use your ability while wearing that collar and the shock was set to hit hard enough to kill. And this idiot had already broken out three times with it on. For most people, failing to last even a second and collapsing where they stood was the normal outcome. Thanks to that, a sentence that had started out light had stretched to two years.
Feels like it's only the Hongdae villains who keep breaking out.
Was it just her imagination? Or did it only feel that way because so many villains from Hongdae came through here? To begin with, more than half of all villains were executed by heroes before they ever reached this place.
"Well. She'll stay put this time, at least."
The guard smiled faintly at the girl, already asleep on the bed. She'd told her the Power Sigil gauge was cranked to the maximum. Unless she was a complete fool, she wouldn't even dream of trying to escape.
That was what the guard had thought.
For one week.
"Here. I gave you extra today, special."
"Hehe. Thank youuu."
A week had passed since she'd arrived. Dark Shadow bowed to the lunch lady with an easy, friendly smile. A young woman turning up in a place like this was rare, and among the ajummas she was already as good as the darling of the kitchen.
"Yummy."
Munch, munch. She was chewing her rolled omelet with care when an A-rank villain sidled up beside her. The woman glanced around, then whispered so only Dark Shadow could hear.
"Back again, Dark Shadow?"
"Yeah. Long time no see, unni."
"So? How long are you planning to stay before you walk out this time?"
Slurp. Dark Shadow pulled her mouth off the juice straw. The villain waited with a sly smile, but the answer she'd been hoping for never came.
"No. I'm gonna stay a while this time before I go."
"What? What kind of bullsh— no, why?"
"Just because. I want to reflect for a while before I leave."
The villain let out a hollow laugh at the absurd answer. The bitch who'd set the all-time jailbreak record—what? Reflection? Staying a while?
Fuck. She's not planning to say all that and then bolt on her own, is she?
Breaking out of here by raw strength alone was impossible. This was the villain prison where even S-ranks failed. What you needed was a special ability, and the outright insane will to endure the electric shock. To escape this place, Dark Shadow's cooperation—she who had both—was essential.
The villain leaned in again, anxious.
"Hey, hey. Don't be like that. Just be honest with me. Who knows, we might even be able to help."
"We?"
Oh. Did she take the bait?
"Yeah, we! Truth is, I barely managed to scrape a breakout crew together. If you'd just cooperate, we could bust out as soon as today—"
"Guard! This unni says she's gonna break out."
"Wha— You fucking bitch."
Dark Shadow shot her hand up and snitched to the guards without a second thought. Whether the villain stared in disbelief or not, she even moved seats, drawing a hard line.
"Don't come over here. People might think we're on the same side."
"Dark Shadow! You, you motherf—"
"—Stay right where you are!"
Crash, clatter—the guards had the villain pinned in an instant. While she was dragged off to solitary, Dark Shadow went to get another rolled omelet.
And that night.
At the hour when everyone else was asleep, Dark Shadow lay in bed with the blanket pulled over her head. Except she was taking out the phone she'd hidden in her shadow.
Bzzt—
She thrashed under the shock, but she never let it become a scream.
"Uwaah... They really did max out the collar. I am not used to this."
It was pain like nails being hammered into every joint. Better to die than endure something like this.
"Haa. For a while, I shouldn't even dream of breaking out."
But there was no resisting her phone before bed.
Grinning to herself, she searched the name Hardline on a portal site. Photos spilled up in a rush. Just looking at them seemed to melt the whole day's fatigue clean away.
"Teehee. Teeheehee."
Laughter leaked out from under the blanket now and then. The guards posted in front of the bars sighed, as if to say, here she goes again.
"Why does she pull the blanket over her head and do that every single night? Sometimes she scares me."
"There's just no understanding how villains think. And it's already eerie enough, this close to dawn."
By day she was such a cute, friendly kid. The moment night fell, it was this nonsense.
Then, at some point, the laughter cut off clean.
Why? Normally she would have gone on for another two hours.
In that moment, a small, trembling voice leaked out from under the blanket.
"...Re...tired?"
The guards turned, wondering if something had happened—and in that same instant:
"Huh?"
WHAM!
The shadow hauled a guard in and slammed her head straight into the bars.
"Y-you!?"
"Sorry. Unnis."
The guard beside her reached for her radio, but the shadow was a step faster.
CLANG—
Another dull ring of metal. Dark Shadow looked down at the two unconscious guards and drew a deep breath.
"Hup. Well then, shall we go?"
BZZZZT!
The moment she activated her ability, the shock crashed over her whole body again. She swallowed the scream she wanted to let out, turned to shadow, and slipped through the bars.
The instant she was out, she collapsed where she stood.
"Haa. Haa... The people here are insane. Who on earth made something this horrible!?"
Dark Shadow, blaming everyone else for a disaster of her own making. Even so, she dutifully helped herself to a guard's uniform.
"Mkay. I'll give it back next time I see you."
Just as she was about to use her ability again, her eyes met the villain in the solitary cell across the way.
"Oh? It's unni."
The villain who had proposed they break out together stared blankly at Dark Shadow in the middle of her escape. Dark Shadow decided not to hide it.
"Yeah. As you can see, this happened."
"Wha— You fucking bitch!"
CRACK!
Before the villain could finish shouting, Dark Shadow knocked her out with a shadow and stretched, electricity still prickling through her.
"Ooooh. The stars are pretty."
The sky she'd glanced up at was glittering fiercely.
"Ah. I see."
Clap, clap. Ahn Taeyoung had heard the whole heroic saga through to the end, and he applauded without a shred of feeling.
"Ahem."
Dark Shadow threw her chest out, immensely pleased with herself. Ahn Taeyoung offered a vague, obliging hum in return.
Then, phone in hand, he moved to call the Hero Association that very instant—
"Wait a second!? Uwaaaah! Who are you trying to call right now!? Stop! Please stoppp!!"
Instead of making the call, he caught her mid-lunge, stretched both cheeks long, and sank into thought.
"Ow, that hurts!? Hiiing. I was wroooong!"
Don't tell me there are more of them besides this one...
A bad feeling settled over him, and Ahn Taeyoung pulled her cheeks a little farther.
The underground fight club in Sangsu-dong.
There, the villain Crusher hammered a sandbag as if he meant to beat his anger to death.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
And with every blow, a groan close to a scream rose from somewhere inside it.
At Crusher's order, his men lowered the sandbag and unzipped it.
"Gh— ghhuk..."
A man twitched inside, soaked in blood. Crusher crouched and looked down at him.
"Well? Starting to feel like talking?"
"Y-yes. I'll tell you everything. So please— please just let me live..."
He was an Association employee, and a close aide to Park Jincheol, the Hongdae branch chief. Rubbing his hands together in desperate plea, he spilled everything he knew.
"So."
Crusher let out a stream of cigarette smoke.
"You're telling me that bastard got demoted from S-rank because he wouldn't kill villains?"
"Th-that was—! Disobeying a kill order, with the other heroes' complaints piled on top of it...!"
"...Ha."
When he'd heard all of it, Crusher dropped his head with an empty laugh.
"These Association bastards..."
He rose, slow. Dozens of subordinates waited at his back for the order, and his fist, by then, was sheathed in flame.
"Everybody, grab your tools."
"Yes, Boss."
Crusher took the lead up the stairs. The men, tools in hand, fell in behind him in a line.