The Leap
"So you just walked out like that?"
"Yeah!" I answered Mari, cheeks puffed out with air. My body had undergone a complete transformation, which meant there were plenty of things that needed to be done. But everything still felt too premature for any real decisions. It seemed better to simply inform the busy people around me of the change and work out countermeasures together rather than keeping them in the dark. Of course, I might have stormed out because I couldn't control my emotions thanks to her teasing attitude.
"More importantly, are you really planning to keep working in that state?"
"Of course I am. Being a hero is my job and my title. Not doing it would be negligence and disqualification."
"Resting when you're hurt isn't negligence. It isn't disqualification either."
"Hurt? Me?" The person who could regrow severed limbs and become a district representative hero with nothing but Regeneration? I gave her a bewildered look and pointed at myself with a finger. But Mari spun around as if flustered—or angry—and shouted loudly. She was driving, but the light had turned red, so I didn't bother pointing it out.
"If that isn't pain, then what is it! Don't tell me you actually think that's your real appearance!?"
"That's... not it."
"How are you supposed to do hero work looking like that?"
"I've been the face of District 2 since I was fourteen—"
Mari glared at me like she wanted to devour me whole.
"...Fine. I can rest a bit, can't I?"
"Yes. Please rest this time..."
Her voice, which had been shouting so confidently moments ago, now crawled out weakly. Seeing her emotions so jumbled made me think it really was time to rest. One day should be enough, right? ... ...... ............
But had the association and my house always been this far apart? Time seemed to crawl because of the boredom, yet when I checked the navigation screen, we'd been driving for over thirty minutes—far past twenty. More importantly, why was the destination set to—
"Department store?"
"Oh. You saw it."
This felt ominous. Was the sense of foreboding growing because my senses had returned, or was this an entirely new kind of dread? "...Why?"
"Because your body is like that now, you don't have a single piece of fitting clothing. My clothes won't work either since I'm fairly tall myself."
"Clothes get ruined all the time, so does it really matter? People never cared even when I didn't wear any before."
"That's exactly why we need to do it today."
Ah.
"It's your day off, after all."
So that's why earlier—
"Don't tell me the face of the Hero Association would lie, would you?"
I'd been had!
***
The girl in the mirror covered her face with her hair in embarrassment. Her whole body twisted in shame, but the more she squirmed, the more her skirt fluttered.
"This is awful..."
"I think you meant 'adorable,' didn't you?"
"It's so adorable it's awful..."
I had no intention of denying that it was cute. With delicate features, nice hair, and a small frame, it would be strange not to find it cute. The strange part was that this was me. And what were these fluffy pom-poms or whatever they were stuck all over the skirt? What kind of material was this that it looked like it would tear if I touched it wrong?
"You usually wear things far more revealing than this, yet you're making such a fuss now."
"Ghh...!"
She was right. Because I treated my clothes so roughly, there had been plenty of times when they vanished after a fight, and sometimes I'd even wondered if I should arrest myself. Even measuring by absolute surface area of fabric rather than proportions, the outfit I was wearing now covered more than usual. Back then, at least my entire body had been covered in blood so nothing showed, and the situation had been unavoidable, so I hadn't felt embarrassed. But now? A man in an old man's body wearing this flimsy scrap of cloth that looked ready to tear at any moment while looking like a girl! It might have been an overreaction, but I felt like being completely naked would have been less embarrassing.
"...At least bring something without these scraps of cloth attached."
"Oh. So the skirt is fine, but you don't like the frills?"
"I don't like the skirt either!"
Mari disappeared the moment she heard me. She vanished so quickly that I worried she might not have caught my last shout about the skirt. Even if she had heard it, I just hoped she wouldn't bring back a dress.
"Depending on the shoulders this much is too..."
Mari really needed to hurry back with a change of clothes. Everything had happened so suddenly—the body change, Mari getting so excited, and now even the familiar things no longer feeling familiar. And then—
BOOM—!
CRASH—!!
"Everyone get lost! This is our territory now!"
In this unfamiliar situation, I had to do the familiar work of a hero. I grabbed the shoulder straps of the dress and crossed them over my neck in an X shape. The sound of engines echoed from afar. Mixed with explosions, it was hard to hear clearly, but I thought I'd heard tires screeching as a vehicle came to a sudden stop. If so, the incident was happening in the first-floor lobby—straight through the front entrance. The lobby's ceiling was open all the way to the ninth floor, so even from the sixth floor where I stood, I could see who had broken in.
I immediately ran to the railing and looked down. A villain wearing a rat mask and holding a gun, plus a vehicle that had crashed through the entrance. Four other people were visible too, though their masks weren't visible from this angle. Normally I wouldn't have even noticed them, but today of all days they had to cause trouble. And normally I would have charged in without a second thought to subdue them, but today was different. My body wasn't whole. I was uneasy. Nothing was certain.
"Shut up! If anyone reports this, you're all dead!"
More people poured out of the vehicle and took the surrounding civilians hostage. I couldn't tell whether they'd already reported it or not, but the villains seemed to have a plan for how to kill them—they emerged carrying armfuls of gas canisters. No matter how desperate they were for money, it couldn't be worth more than their lives. That meant these people were superpowered individuals who could survive an explosion. So now I had to face five superpowered villains in this condition?
People were in danger. The shortest path was right in front of my eyes, so I couldn't ignore them. My body wasn't whole. I was uneasy. Nothing was certain. None of that was a reason for me to stay still.
"Someone stop that kid!"
"Hey, it's dangerous!"
I grabbed the railing and pulled myself over it. My limbs were short, so it was difficult—would be difficult—but...
'I just have to try my hardest, even if it kills me.'
I threw myself from the sixth floor toward the first. At five floors up, I tucked my knees. At four floors up, I raised my arms above my head to keep balance. At three floors up, I confirmed their positions and my landing point. At two floors up, I saw the terrified expressions of the citizens. At one floor up, I fell toward one of the villains' heads and landed.
CRACK—!
The sound of breaking bone. Fortunately, it came from my knees, not the villain's head. He had simply passed out.
"Guh—!"
"W-what the hell is that!?"
"Combat positions!"
The damage was worse than I'd expected, so I couldn't move right away. I naturally collapsed and lay sprawled on the floor. I shouldn't have stomped down with my knees. I'd known my body itself had weakened, but I hadn't expected both knees to give out at once. Maybe I should have taken all the damage in one spot and regenerated while fighting? But it wasn't all bad. The villain beneath me was now out of commission, leaving four.
Thud—!
One of them approached my prone body and stabbed a knife into my torso. Coming to confirm the kill—more thorough than I'd expected. Plus, the blade felt like plastic rather than metal, probably prepared for this exact scenario. They'd come prepared after all. I instantly curled up and grabbed the embedded knife with both hands, driving it even deeper.
"What the..."
By raw strength alone he shouldn't have been able to pull it out, but whether from panic or something else, I managed to yank it free easily. The feeling of the dagger sinking so deep despite my smaller body startled me too, but unlike him, I didn't stop or loosen my grip. Flustered by the sight, the villain kicked me away.
"Khh—!"
If I'd held on a little longer, I might have taken the weapon or at least rendered it unusable, but his judgment had been faster than expected.
'No, maybe I've just gotten that much slower.'
"That brat's a superpowered individual! Ability is regeneration and pain-nullification type!"
Damn. The remaining villains were now taking combat stances. Their movements had a slight stiffness to them—if they had experience, it wasn't much. It would have been nice to detonate the gas now and catch them in the blast, but the citizens, instead of feeling worried or scared, were treating this like an interesting spectacle. They hadn't evacuated and were instead surrounding us, filming with their phones. Some villain must have been moving the canisters too, because the pile that had looked like less than ten was now clearly over fifty. If the citizens had evacuated even a little, it would have been worth detonating, but they showed no intention of leaving.
"Hraaah!"
Maintaining formation from the very back, one villain suddenly charged at me with a changed expression, thrusting his knife forward.
Whoosh—
I blocked it with my palm, but the force and speed hadn't decreased enough to matter. The blade that pierced my small palm was still long.
Thud—
I blocked with my other hand next, but it only barely slowed. This time I crossed my arms inward to create space and prevent it from reaching my stomach. If the knife had been even two centimeters longer, it would have touched, but it wasn't. I extended my nails and drove them into the hand gripping the knife. No blood came out, but it was enough to pin it in place. I lifted my feet off the ground as if falling backward and shifted my center of gravity rearward so he would fall forward. Now all he had to do was pitch toward me and stab my stomach with the knife.
Come on.
Bring it.