The Rabbit Helmet
The helmet had rabbit ears attached to it. It was basically a Darth Vader helmet with bunny ears, but constantly saying that felt embarrassing, so let’s just call it the rabbit helmet. Anyway, despite its ridiculous appearance, this thing was incredibly useful.
When you injected psychic energy into it, it compressed into a flat bar shape that could be attached or detached from the back pocket of a full-body suit. It supported simple communications, came equipped with high-performance GPS, and even let you check your exact location plus the layout of nearby buildings through a small screen mounted in front of your pupils. It also had air purification and voice modulation functions. In other words, this single helmet could replace both a gas mask and a voice changer.
There was, however, one small flaw in the purification function. It perfectly cleaned air coming in from the outside, but it did absolutely nothing to control air going out from the inside. I asked why they’d design it that way when adding a purification function should logically handle both directions, and the answer was absurd.
“In emergency situations, bad breath attack is possible.”
“...Bad breath attack?”
“It can catch the opponent off guard.”
I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even respond. No matter how urgent the crisis, who the hell would use a bad breath attack? And if you wanted your breath to be bad enough to actually inconvenience an opponent in combat, what exactly would you have to eat? The whole idea was ridiculous.
Setting aside the absurd bad breath attack, the helmet was genuinely useful. But with a design like this, how could anyone wear it with confidence? I have a sense of shame too, you know.
The overall look was just a matter of taste, so I could overlook that, but those rabbit ears were definitely a problem. When I asked if they could at least remove the ears, the reply was ridiculous.
“Impossible.”
“Why not?”
“Those ears serve as antennas. Remove them and both the communication and GPS functions stop working.”
“...Ugh. Why the hell did you cram two of the most important functions into the rabbit ears?”
Apparently the two most critical features were built into those bunny ears. And since the old man had designed it while he was still alive, changing the design would also break the functions. In short, if I wanted to use this useful helmet, I had to accept the rabbit ears as part of the package.
“Ha, I can’t exactly not use it either...”
My personality leaned heavily toward efficiency, so there was no way I would reject such a top-tier item just because of its design. Still, the thought of walking around wearing it made my stomach twist in knots.
“Now that I think about it, I’ve felt this same way before...”
Equipment that was extremely useful but infuriating in the most pointless ways. I definitely remembered encountering similar gear in the past. That same itchy, irritating feeling... Yeah, it had felt exactly like this back then too.
“So... Professor G?”
Professor G was the one who had been kidnapped by Dr. Oh and forced into years of slave labor. After barely escaping and reporting him, Professor G joined the Superhuman Bureau’s research team once Dr. Oh was eliminated. And after she joined, the Special Task Force’s equipment advanced by at least one level across the board.
Even before Professor G, the Special Task Force had used only cutting-edge gear, but after she arrived, truly ridiculous over-technology items started pouring out. And the equipment Professor G created was exactly like this helmet—things so incredibly useful you couldn’t afford not to use them, yet so annoying they filled the user with deep frustration.
“Wait, could it really be? Now that I think about it, this kid was also captured by Dr. Oh. If I hadn’t been there and she hadn’t joined the debut team, then Yu Hana would have...”
Professor G, who had a large burn scar on her face, always wore a strange tube-like thing over her head to hide her body, along with a unique mask that covered her face. Her voice was also modulated. Even though I had met her several times, I never knew what she actually looked like, or even whether she was a man or a woman. Most information about Professor G, who had risen to become one of the Superhuman Bureau’s key figures, was classified anyway.
But seeing this rabbit helmet that reeked of old memories made the theory seem pretty plausible. After all, it would be strange for multiple people to have the ability to create such ridiculous items.
“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.”
If I were still running operations in the field with the Special Task Force it might be different, but since I was just going to work as an idol, whether Ji Seoeun was Professor G or not didn’t really affect me. The same went for that weird mask. It had startled me for a moment because it was so bizarre, but when I thought about it calmly, it wasn’t a big deal. Once today was over, I’d never have to wear the strange mask again.
It was ridiculous to get worked up over something I’d only use for a single day. So for now, I’d just be grateful and enjoy the stat boost from the item.
“Anyway, thanks. I’ll use it well.”
“Wishing you a fierce struggle. I will be watching.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Once I thought of it that way, my mind felt lighter and I could generously overlook the minor details. That’s right, it was just one day. I repeated that to myself several times as I carefully gathered the equipment Ji Seoeun had prepared for me.
-Yeriyeri~ Any issues~?
“All good. I’m in position.”
-Yep yep. Looks like Tasha is heading your way too.
“Phew... Got it.”
It was late at night. I was currently hiding in a corner of a back alley in Yeongdeungpo. Specifically, near the bathroom where Tasha transformed into Black Yaksha.
Tonight, the villain group ‘Storm’ that controlled the Yeongdeungpo district had lured Tasha out under the pretense of a deal, planning to trap her. Tasha probably hadn’t even considered that the trade request itself might be a trap. Or maybe she had thought that if it was a trap, she could just smash the trap itself. That was usually how people like her thought. Anyone with deeper thoughts wouldn’t have put on something as weird as a yaksha mask and started stirring up the back alleys before even properly adjusting to life in Korea.
The meeting place between Tasha and ‘Storm’ was estimated to be a nearby construction site. According to Yu Hana’s information, construction had been forcibly halted despite a tight schedule, which made the intel fairly reliable. If Tasha went in there, she would fall into the enemy’s trap. I didn’t know exactly what they had prepared, but since Tasha was one and the opponents were many, if they dug a trap with her in mind, even she wouldn’t be able to escape easily.
That was why I planned to intercept Tasha right after she transformed into Black Yaksha, crush her will, and send her back to the dorm.
I hadn’t decided on any detailed plans beyond that. I’d been too busy putting out the immediate fire to think that far ahead.
“‘Storm’ is one thing, but the real problem is the security force. I have no idea what to do about them. It would be nice if Tasha changed her mind completely, but that seems unlikely.”
-Yeriyeri. Tasha has stopped~ At that same spot from before.
“Oh, really? She’s transforming in the bathroom, huh. Got it.”
While I was briefly lost in thought, Tasha had reached her destination. Once she finished transforming, she would head into this alley. Since the only path from that bathroom to the construction site was through here, if her destination was the construction site, she couldn’t avoid this route. So all I had to do was block the path and wait for Tasha—no, for Black Yaksha.
“...Who are you?”
After waiting a short while, the masked weirdo wearing a yaksha mask—Black Yaksha—appeared in the alley. It felt a bit rich for me to say this while wearing a rabbit helmet, but that yaksha mask was just as ridiculous. The fact that she chose to wear something like that and wander around made me think Tasha had a bit of an attention-seeker streak too. She really did have the makings of a top idol. I just wished she would focus on being an idol instead of getting worked up over pointless things.
“Just a passing traveler.”
“What a strange guy.”
“‘Storm’ has set a trap and is waiting for you. So how about you just go back today?”
“Interesting. But if it’s a trap, I can just smash it to pieces.”
Exactly the reaction I expected. Well, I had already predicted that words wouldn’t work anyway.
“Then I’ll have to stop you. Don’t make this any bigger than it needs to be and go back quietly.”
“I don’t listen to those weaker than me.”
She finally said it—the legendary line. Once the legendary line came out, conversation became meaningless. From now on, only strength would speak.
“Hah!”
Starting with the legendary line, Tasha’s attack began. It was a boxing style that used overwhelming physical ability to crush the opponent. Her fists and feet flew at me from all directions. I deflected her first punch with the back of my hand, dodged the high kick, then immediately closed in and aimed for her abdomen. Tasha pushed my fist away with her waiting left hand and countered with a knee kick. We traded blows back and forth until we ended up in an extremely close-range grapple, each trying to lock joints and use grappling techniques.
This kind of dogfight wasn’t really my taste. But for someone with shorter reach like me, this situation was actually better.
“For someone wearing such a weird helmet, your movements are pretty good.”
“You’re no slouch either.”
Stuck close together, we checked each other’s hands and feet and entered a brief lull. Tasha let out an impressed comment, and when I gave an appropriate reply, her mood became strangely subtle.
“Don’t tell me you’re... Hah, this is... I don’t know what to make of this.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Never mind. That’s not important right now. I’m going to get serious.”
Tasha’s movements started becoming more aggressive. Now that she knew I wasn’t an easy opponent, it seemed she was finally going to fight properly. But the same went for me. I was focusing every ounce of my mind on landing a fatal blow at her opening.
“Taat!”
With Tasha’s shout, her body split into two. She had summoned a clone in the middle of battle. If I hadn’t known about it, I would have been quite shocked, but since I had predicted it to some degree, I was able to respond immediately. I simply used repulsion to shove the clone far away.
Depending on talent and proficiency, the results varied wildly, but clones were generally a very difficult superpower to control. Even growing one extra arm felt awkward to a human, so having an entire extra body was on another level. That was why clones usually fell far short of the main body’s abilities. On top of that, in an urgent battle like this, there was no time to properly control the clone, so its movements were extremely simplistic. Therefore, if you could tell which one was the clone, excluding it like this was entirely possible.
“No way?!”
The clone disappeared pathetically the moment it appeared, and even Tasha looked slightly flustered. I took that opening and immediately dove into her embrace. Tasha reacted instantly and raised her guard, but I gently pushed both arms outward with attractive force to break through it, then slammed a punch into her abdomen.
It was a weakness created because I knew about Tasha’s clone ability, while Tasha had no idea that my powers were attractive and repulsive forces.
“Damn it. Was it shallow?”
Tasha, who had taken my punch and been sent flying into the wall. But the impact didn’t feel clean. At the most critical moment, she had twisted her body and avoided the finishing blow. I had wanted to end this with a swift decisive strike, but it ended up a little disappointing.