Prologue: Caught on Day One
On a dark night, a man and a woman faced each other across the rooftops of two high-rise buildings.
Around me — the man — several helicopters circled overhead, their searchlights working overtime to pin me in place, while footsteps pounded closer and closer up the emergency stairwell behind the rooftop access door.
The woman, drawing far less of the spotlight, glared at me with a savage expression, black hair whipping in the wind.
Valkyrie — the rising star hero of the organization of ability users on the side of good, the one everyone just called the Hero Union. A living textbook of righteous heroism, she thrust a finger at me and shouted.
"Kid G! You won't get away this time! Hand over what you stole and surrender quietly!"
I, on the other hand, was exactly what the white mask covering my eyes suggested at a glance — one of those ability users of evil the public simply called villains.
"Since when does a villain surrender just because someone tells him to? And besides…"
I pointed at Valkyrie and flashed a grin.
"You've never caught me once. Why would this time be any different?"
"You little—!"
"And what's a hero doing taking Chilseong Construction's side, anyway? You do know what kind of people they are, right? Or do you just fight for whoever pays you? At this rate, I'm starting to wonder who the real villain is here."
"Shut up! No matter who you're dealing with, if you're going to hand down punishment, you do it fair and square through the law! Stealing like you do just makes you another criminal!"
"Aigoo, talking to you is like talking to a brick wall. Completely impossible."
"Y-you—how dare you say that to me—!"
Furious, Valkyrie launched herself across the gap between the unprotected high-rises and came straight at me. Pure white angel wings unfurled from her back, and she closed a distance of well over ten meters in a single flight.
It was a scene that played out like clockwork every time we crossed paths — which, granted, hadn't been that many times. And the result was always the same.
Creeeak—
The moment Valkyrie charged, I pressed my hand to the rooftop floor of the building I was standing on. Instantly, a space just wide enough for a person to pass through opened in the concrete, as if a door had simply appeared. The second I slipped inside, the temporary doorway sealed shut behind me.
By the time Valkyrie made it down to the floor below, Kid G was long gone.
Left alone at the scene, she picked up a card lying on the floor and read the words written on it.
The precious collection of the Chilseong Construction chairman — the man who wrung bloody tears from the eyes of the powerless — has been claimed by the righteous villain, Kid G.
"Grrh… this…! He got away again…!"
Valkyrie crushed the card in her fist, then hurled both the crumpled card and her frustration onto the floor.
That's just how it goes with detectives and thieves.
Like Tom and Jerry — one side chases with everything they've got, and the one who ought to get caught never does. On top of that, the detective types always seem to have some kind of face blindness; they can stare straight at the thief's everyday self out in the open and never put two and two together.
In my case, I really was wearing a chip that broadcast recognition-dampening waves, but still.
Anyway, it's been the golden rule of every comic and cartoon since the dawn of time, and nothing about that has changed.
It shouldn't have changed…
"Huh?! You… you bastard — Kid G! Got you!"
Barely two days later, on the day of the university entrance ceremony, I was caught by Valkyrie — a fellow freshman.
……Wait, what?