If You Stay Quiet, You're Halfway There (1)
"Alright, so did that blonde punk actually use brainwashing powers or what?" Assistant Inspector An Seong-sil asked, crossing his arms with a disgruntled look. "Tell me quick so I can clock out on time. If he's a real brainwasher, we have to request backup from the Hero Association or headquarters."
"No, no. You've got it all wrong, sir. It was just a hunch, nothing certain. We don't have any evidence yet, do we?" Kang Jin-ho quickly denied it. He only had a faint, hazy memory of it, so it wasn't entirely a lie.
"Really? You're not just pretending to be clueless because I'm annoyed, even though you've already figured out who the culprit is?"
"I swear it's not! You know I'm not that kind of person!"
"...Well, that's true. I guess I went a bit too far." Leaving behind Assistant Inspector An Seong-sil, who was sheepishly apologizing, the boy, who had been pacing around anxiously, began his explanation again.
"So, my sister is a teller at Yonggi Bank. She's cute, she's sweet, and she is literally the best sister in the entire world."
According to the boy, his sister was normally quiet and diligent—an introverted homebody whose only hobbies were reading books and listening to music.
"When she gets off work, she comes straight home to cook dinner instead of our busy mom, and on weekends, she hangs out with me... I can count the number of times she's ever gotten mad on one hand."
"Hmm, you have a good sister."
"Yes! But then, last week, I saw her walking side-by-side with this sketchy-looking punk! He's exactly the type of guy she would never, ever associate with under normal circumstances!" the boy cried out, his voice thick with indignation.
"At first, I thought it was just a coincidence or some bad acquaintance. But the guy kept lingering around her, so I started tailing them."
"Wait, hold on." Assistant Inspector An Seong-sil interrupted, looking bewildered. "Did you just say you... tailed her? Your own sister?"
"Yes. Is there a problem?" The boy tilted his head and asked back. "It's family business. If it's necessary, of course I should tail her."
"...Right. Go on with your story."
"Yes. After tailing them for a few days... it looked like they were in that 'talking' stage right before dating. They ate meals together, went to escape rooms, watched movies..." The boy gripped his knees, trembling with rage.
"It makes absolutely no sense! There is no way my sister would ever fall for a guy like that." He looked back and forth between Kang Jin-ho and An Seong-sil with absolute conviction in his eyes. "My sister has saved up a lot of money in her savings account from working as a bank teller. It's obvious. He must have used brainwashing powers to target her money. You have to arrest him right now!"
"But you know," a voice suddenly cut in, throwing cold water on the boy's heated rant. "Isn't it possible your sister just likes him? Even if he's not her usual type, that's just how love works." Eun-young, who had been watching with a bored expression the entire time, spoke up, resting her chin on her hand.
"Do you have any idea how rare brainwashing abilities are? They're so scarce that you could count all the brainwashing-type heroes and villains active in Light City on one hand."
"...But still!"
"And even if there were an unregistered brainwasher out there, wouldn't they target someone much wealthier than a diligent bank teller with a modest savings account? There are plenty of rich people in Light City." Eun-young fired back without stopping.
"Kid, do you think the police have so little to do that we can afford to interfere in citizens' love lives? Sure, heroes might be the ones catching villains, but the police are the ones cleaning up after them. Got it?"
"..." The boy wanted to argue, but with nothing to say, he could only stand there, trembling in frustration.
"Senior, please don't be so harsh on him," Kang Jin-ho calmly intervened. Back when he had only known Light City through a game, he had once muttered, 'I don't even know why this city needs police.' Feeling a sudden pang of guilt from that memory, he had spoken up.
"Yonggi Bank happens to be near the superpower testing center, doesn't it? If we go and it turns out to be nothing, we can just clock out right there. If it is a case, we get to save a citizen. Wouldn't it be worth taking a look?"
"Hmm..." Eun-young wore a complicated expression, while Assistant Inspector An Seong-sil let out a deep sigh.
"Hey, Jin-ho. Honestly, responding to a report like this is ridiculous. The right move is to reject it and send him home... but do you really think there's something to this? If you do, we'll go."
Normally, responding to such a report would be out of the question. However, the higher-ups had specifically instructed them to accommodate Kang Jin-ho, and given the impressive results he had shown so far, Assistant Inspector An Seong-sil was willing to yield.
"Hmm..." Jin-ho pondered for a moment. "I think it would be best to go and investigate a bit more."
In truth, Jin-ho hadn't immediately recalled a specific incident like he usually did. However, something was nagging at the back of his mind, and he figured it would be better to see it with his own eyes before making a judgment.
"If that's the case... get moving," Assistant Inspector An Seong-sil said, nodding.
"Fine, alright. We have to go get tested anyway, so let's go together." Eun-young grabbed her coat and put it on.
In truth, Eun-young hadn't intended to be so harsh, but she had been annoyed that her plans to go get tested with Jin-ho had been interrupted.
Outside Yonggi Bank.
The closing hour had passed, and several women in bank teller uniforms walked out of the building. One of them spotted the boy and her eyes widened in surprise. She was clearly his older sister.
"Hold on a second, my family is here... Yes, go on ahead!" Stepping away from her colleagues, the sister approached her brother and asked, "What are you doing here? And the people next to you... are they police officers?"
"So, here's what happened..." Highly agitated, the boy began to explain the whole story. He told her about how he had been tailing her for a week, how he had gone to the police station to file a report, and how the officers had come to verify his claims.
"Noona, wake up! That punk brainwashed you to get his hands on your savings!" The moment he finished his explanation, the boy began to throw a wild tantrum.
But his sister only offered an awkward smile and took his hand. "Haha, oh stop it. Why would you go as far as tailing me? It's not brainwashing. We're just... carefully getting to know each other."
"Getting to know each other, my foot! He's the exact opposite of your type!"
Is she really not going to get mad at him for tailing her? Jin-ho thought to himself, though he kept his eyes fixed on the siblings' conversation. No matter how much he thought about it, the situation felt incredibly familiar, but his memory remained fuzzy.
"I thought he was awful at first too, okay? We met when he came in as a customer, and his hair was so loud... and he dressed like a total slacker..." The sister's cheeks flushed slightly as she continued.
"But once we actually started talking... for some reason, my heart just started pounding."
"That's exactly what brainwashing is!"
"I told you, it's not. Every time he came to the bank, my face would heat up and my heart would race... I couldn't stop thinking about him. Then he was the one who asked me out first, so I decided to give it a shot." Feeling the gaze of the police officers, the sister suddenly looked embarrassed.
"Ahem. Anyway, as I got to know him, he turned out to be a really sweet and decent guy. So now, I'm seriously considering dating him."
"N-Noona? Are you out of your mind? Officers, what are you doing?! You're living off our tax dollars, so do something!" The boy's eyes shook wildly as if he were suffering from nystagmus.
"Our bank's security is incredibly tight. If anyone tried to use a superpower in there, the alarms would go off instantly. There's no way. Ah, officers. It seems my brother has made a huge misunderstanding... I'm so sorry. He's always been a bit dramatic." The sister bowed deeply, apologizing to the two police officers.
It was natural for family members to care for each other, but she had never expected him to go this far and drag the police into it.
"...How boring. Should we just head out? We need to go get your power test done." Eun-young suppressed a yawn and nudged Jin-ho's ribs repeatedly. "Wait a moment," Jin-ho said, still lost in thought.
The memory... it's right on the tip of my tongue.
Obtaining a massive amount of Karma had brought about many changes for Jin-ho, the most prominent of which was the drastic improvement in his physical abilities. Recently, after clocking out of work, he had conducted various experiments to test exactly how much and in what ways his body had improved.
And through those experiments, he had discovered that gaining Karma didn't just enhance his physical body—it also boosted his cognitive functions to some degree.
I can vividly recall the events I saw in the game.
Thanks to this, he could remember the game's major and minor events with relative clarity. In the absence of any sort of system wiki ability, this served as a massive advantage.
Since even Jin-ho's enhanced brain could only conjure a vague recollection, this was undoubtedly a minor incident. Still, he was able to piece together a few similar cases from his memory.
"Hmm..." After pondering for a moment, Jin-ho looked at the sister and asked cautiously, "Miss. If... just hypothetically speaking."
"Yes? Go ahead."
"If that man really did... use some kind of superpower on you, what would you do?"
"What???" The sister gasped in shock, while the brother's eyes lit up.
Jin-ho stroked his chin and continued, "It's not certain. I'm not saying he definitely used a superpower. However, I know a way to test whether he did or not... What do you think? Would you like to try it?"
"...Hold on." While the sister hesitated, processing Jin-ho's words.
"Brother!!!" The boy, who had been cursing the police just moments ago, suddenly grabbed both of Jin-ho's hands. His eyes were already brimming with tears of deep emotion.
"I knew I was right! Lock that bastard up... No, you can just shoot him! I'll take the fall and go to prison for you...!"
"P-Please, calm down."
"Please, I beg of you, lock that son of a bitch up!" Any trace of doubt had vanished from his eyes; the boy was already looking at Jin-ho as if he were the greatest police officer of this generation!