Two Problem Children
Kid G's next warning notice arrived three days later.
Unusually, the target this time was not a corporation but a police station in Seoul.
The staff that protects corruption, rather than serving as the people's staff, will be broken by the hands of the people they themselves abandoned.
Unlike the homes of corporate executives he had cleaned out before, a police station had nothing particularly valuable to steal, and the notice never even claimed he would steal anything at all. With the government and the Hero Union unable to guess what Kid G was after, they decided to station forces there regardless and prepare for his theft.
Eun Seol and Kim Sejin were just as bewildered when they saw it.
"What is he even going to steal from a police station? It's not like there's a vault or anything..."
"He's Kid G, so he must have some plan! We just need to go and meet him!"
The gloom over having paid for a fake warning notice lasted only a moment. The second a real notice from Kid G appeared, Kim Sejin lit up with joy, thrilled at the prospect of meeting him.
"Heh heh heh... I'm going to get my revenge... So he thinks he can do something that cruel to me, huh... Kid G, this time I am absolutely not letting you walk away. I'm going to catch you for sure..."
"Wait, why are you trying to meet Kid G? You say you're a fan, so what's with the revenge?"
"There's a reason. Kid G hurt me so badly that my body and my heart are a total wreck right now. Even if I explained it for a hundred days, you still wouldn't get it."
"...I don't really want to know."
"But how are we supposed to meet Kid G alone? There'll definitely be police at the scene, and official Union heroes assigned to the operation will show up too."
"What? Didn't you already have a plan when you dragged me into this?"
"Nope?"
Faced with Kim Sejin's utterly shameless, irresponsible answer, Eun Seol pressed a hand to her forehead.
"Haa... Then what are we supposed to do? If we just barge into a Union operation out of nowhere, we'll only get in the way. At the very least, A-class or higher heroes are going to be there. What do you expect us to do?"
"In that case, there's only one way!"
Kim Sejin pulled a white mask from her bag — the kind of thing you'd wear to a masquerade ball — and held it up.
"And what exactly are we doing with a mask?"
"What do you mean, what? We're crashing the party! Just like that Cybers guy did last time!"
"Wasn't it you who crashed in last time, not Cybers?"
"Allow me to explain this mask! It automatically emits recognition-deterrent waves, and its performance is superior to most Recognition Deterrent Chips on the market! You remember I showed up wearing this when I fought Cybers last time, right? Nobody recognized me then. You can't even imagine how much I spent to get this—"
"No... when you crashed that day, every single person who knew you recognized you on the spot. Where did you buy another weird piece of junk from some scammer?"
"......Huh?"
"...I'll grab a Recognition Deterrent Chip from HQ for you, so just use that. Don't do anything stupid."
My warning that I would rob a police station kicked up quite a storm among the public.
It was a very different kind of target from the ones I'd hit so far.
Since I never write my notices by hand, handwriting analysis was impossible, so at first there was a lot of back-and-forth over whether some impostor was pretending to be me. In the end, though, the Union concluded from the timing of the notice and the method of delivery that it was genuinely mine.
With no one able to guess what I planned to steal from a police station, the news and debate panels kept spinning theories about what Kid G was after — or whether the entire notice was just a bluff.
Regardless of all that, right up until the day of the crime I was busy going over the plan with Eve.
"Eve, you've finished preparing the signal hijack and the broadcast, right?"
"What do you take me for? I am a super-capable and powerful superhuman. I can handle something like that with my eyes closed."
"Good. Keep the jamming signal up at all times, don't move first, and just watch from a safe place. Only support me when I call for it. You know you're absolutely not allowed to kill anyone, right?"
"Incomprehensible. Why show mercy to the enemy?"
"If I start killing everyone who gets in my way, the message I'm trying to deliver loses that much of its power. And if things go according to plan, those bastards will suffer a humiliation worse than death and be buried by society forever."
"Still incomprehensible. I cannot understand how being buried by society is worse than death."
"Mmm... just think of it as there being a lot of people like that."
Having never lived a proper life, Eve completely lacked social sense, and her comprehension in this area was painfully lacking.
As the time of the crime drew near, I gave Eve a hoodie that could thoroughly cover her face, and we left the house together.
In a deserted spot, Eve immediately shot into the sky at high speed. I took a taxi like any ordinary civilian, got out two kilometers from the police station I had named, and whiled away the time at a nearby café until the moment arrived.
I ordered a coffee and was watching the news about police and Union forces gathering around the station when Eve's voice came through the earpiece mic.
"You send me flying into the freezing sky while Master sits alone leisurely drinking coffee? Does Master have a conscience?"
"Hey, you said you don't even need to eat or drink. If we're going to nitpick, you're the one without a conscience — you don't need food or water to survive, yet you still force down three full meals a day. My food expenses have doubled."
"There is no problem with survival, but when I see Master eating something while I eat nothing, I get angry, irritated, and my stomach hurts. Therefore I must eat as well. Please buy me coffee too. No — I dislike coffee, so I want an iced cookies-and-cream blended with whipped cream and chocolate syrup..."
"You're deliberately going for the expensive stuff! You only pick menus like that on purpose, don't you?!"
"Of course. Unlike Master, who is suited to iced americano, I am a super-capable and powerful superhuman, so I require a menu that matches."
"Haa... Fine, I'll buy it, so just do your job properly today."
"You promised. You must not break it, Master."
When the sun set and the sky grew dark, I made my move. I walked the two kilometers and surveyed the situation around the police station from a distance.
The area near the station was packed with police officers and people who looked like they were from the Union.
Quite a ways from the station, citizens curious about what I intended to steal had gathered, craning their necks for a look. Police and Union personnel had set up a police line in that direction and were keeping people from getting any closer.
Eve was floating high in the sky above, invisible to the eye. Because she was pouring out a powerful jamming signal of her own, no one could pinpoint her position even though she was directly over the station.
"Eve, any identified heroes among the people who've gathered?"
"Analyzing... Scan results confirm A-class hero Jumper and A-class hero Iron Fist."
"Tsk. They sent two of them this time."
On top of Iron Fist, who had been toyed with and then lost me last time, they'd added another A-class hero. After watching A-class heroes get steamrolled one after another, they must have decided to boost their forces entirely.
"How many people inside the station?"
"The jamming signal is too strong for an accurate scan... Approximately ten personnel appear to be waiting on the first floor, but precise identification is difficult, and I cannot confirm personnel elsewhere."
"That's enough. I'm starting soon, so get ready to support."
"Confirmed."
The moment the appointed time arrived, I used Eve's help to move to the rooftop of a nearby high-rise. From high in the sky, Eve shone a light on me with her glowing eyes like a spotlight.
When a sudden light appeared on the high-rise rooftop, people and cameras all swung in that direction at once. Wearing a white hat, a cape, and a white mask, I spread my arms wide like an actor on stage and called out in a ringing voice.
"What an honor to have so many spectators come to see me! And two A-class heroes, no less — I feel as though I've earned a little recognition. Truly an honor!"
"Kid G, you bastard! You had a fine time toying with me last time!"
"Ah, you're Iron Fist, I see? But I think there's some misunderstanding. Me, toying with you? Don't delude yourself. Play is something you do with opponents of matching caliber. Against you... yes, it would be more accurate to say I simply brushed you aside and paid you no further attention."
"W-what did you just say?!"
"Think you can say the same thing to me, Kid G?!"
In that instant, Jumper kicked off the ground, ricocheting between buildings for momentum, and in a blink leaped all the way up to the high-rise where I stood.
Piyung—
"W-what is this... Guhk!"
But the moment he nearly reached me, a laser streaked in from the distant night sky like a satellite beam and struck him. Caught completely off guard by the ambush, Jumper plummeted straight to the ground.
"I'm sorry, but I have neither the intention nor the time to play with the likes of you. I only play with opponents of matching caliber. Many of you have been wondering what I'll steal from this police station tonight — so open your eyes wide and watch! It's going to be a very entertaining night!"
"You'll have to get past us first!"
In that moment, a familiar voice rose from below.
A woman in a white mask similar to mine broke through the police line, shook off the guards trying to stop her, and came running. She pointed a finger straight at the building I was standing on and shouted.
"Kid G! I've been waiting for this day until my neck stretched out of my collar! I have a huge, huge grudge against you! There's a great deal I need to say to you, so before you steal anything, you're going to have to get past me first!"
And right behind her, another woman hurried in as well. Unlike the first, who was full of swagger, she looked so embarrassed she barely knew what to do with herself as she spoke.
"I-I'm the same...! I-I'm absolutely not... letting you go...!"
At the unexpected intrusion of the two-woman team, the police, the Union personnel, the gathered reporters and cameramen, and the citizens all stood dumbfounded.
"Who are those two?"
"Union people?"
"If they were, they'd have been inside from the start. What, third parties?"
Han Juyeon, operating from Union HQ, went pale with shock.
"W-wait a second... I-isn't that Seol and Sejin?! What are those two doing out there in masks?!"
And I was just as stunned.
"What the hell... Why is that Black Friend over there doing that again? And why is Valkyrie doing the exact same stupid thing with her?"
It seemed that, for the people watching, tonight was going to be an even more entertaining night than expected.