Mercy or Contempt
Naturally, I wanted to force myself out of bed and get discharged no matter what.
"Hey—hey…! They told you to rest!"
"I can rest at the base. I'll be fine in two or three days anyway."
"What the hell do you think you're going to do in that condition? You just woke up after three days! Just stay in the hospital and get treated!"
"There's a lot I need to check. The defensive magic is finished, so I have to look that over, and I need to analyze the last fight too."
"Ugh, you absolute lunatic. Do that stuff when you're not half-dead!"
"Where's the motorcycle? Now that I think about it, I didn't bring it with me."
"…You're just ignoring me, aren't you?"
"Well, nothing I can do about it. Guess I'll take a taxi."
"Urgh…! Fine, fine! I get it! Just follow me slowly!"
Fortunately, Hope had already secured the motorcycle. Aside from a few extra scrapes, it was in decent shape.
—Vrooom——!
I climbed on behind Hope as she took the handlebars, and we headed straight back to the base.
"…Haa."
Once I was inside, leaning on my crutches as I looked around, it was clear something had changed.
…Looks like it's working properly.
I went to the spot I'd given Eclipse. A violet magic circle was drawn across the floor there.
—Wuummm….
A low vibration hummed through the air now and then, as if announcing that it was up and running.
"We're gonna need some soundproofing for this. That mage didn't think about the little details, huh?"
"…Well, I'm the one who gave her the space, so it's not really her fault."
…Of course, it would probably get noisy when I was trying to sleep, but that was a problem for later.
"Fix my gear first. I might have to deploy tomorrow."
"…Did you hit your head first when you got wrecked? Deploy? What deploy? You need to sleep."
"You never know."
"…Sigh. Fine. Whatever."
After handing off the equipment inspection, I hobbled on my crutches again toward the conference room—if you could call a place with a single desk and a single chair a conference room—and settled in.
—Click.
I turned on the TV installed there and flipped to the news.
"PAX Corporation's hero, Jun. Just who was he before all this? According to information released by PAX—"
"PAX stock has begun climbing once again. And no one can deny that one of the major reasons is the hero known as 'Jun'—"
…No matter which channel I switched to, it was all about this incident. And my name sat at the center of every single story.
"You got some kind of narcissism thing going on? That into watching your own news?"
"Hardly. I'm reviewing. It's useful for thinking about what I did and what I still need to do."
I answered Hope casually as she needled me with a sly grin.
"For example—one thing's certain. This incident raised my standing by a lot."
"…Well, yeah, that's true."
"Which means PAX has no choice but to make even more use of me."
"Hmm. Fair point."
PAX couldn't afford to leave this incident as a failure. Their official venue had been hit by a terrorist attack, every one of their systems had been seized by the Director, and countless civilians had been forced to evacuate. That track record alone was more than enough to drag PAX's stock into the dirt.
But thanks to the well-timed performances from me, Great America, and Napalm, we'd managed to pull off zero fatalities and a live capture of the perpetrator.
Which was exactly why—
—Vendor had sent a message like that.
I was willing to bet Vendor didn't actually want to use me. Why? Because I was a double-edged sword. I was already stirring up trouble inside PAX, and now the outside world liked me too? And at a glance, I looked like I could make them a lot of money?
Swallowing a poison you fully recognized—that was true gold-worshipping capitalism.
Which meant all the more reason.
I need to seize the initiative for good through legacy media.
I had to work hard.
Having reaffirmed my goal and steeled my resolve, I felt the fatigue still clinging to me from every angle.
…I should get some more sleep soon.
"…Think I'll turn in."
So I grabbed my crutches again and headed for the couch—only for Hope to catch my shoulder and speak up.
"Use my bed. Don't sleep on this couch."
"Nah, I'm fine. This is good enough."
"Stop being stubborn and just sleep over th—"
"—See you tomorrow, then. Well, it's not like I can't see you from here once I'm up anyway."
"…Haa."
I brushed off Hope's insistence and was about to kill the TV with the remote when—
"…Hm?"
"What is it?"
The ticker along the bottom of the screen had changed.
"…What?"
By who? Why?
The Villain Alliance hadn't even appeared yet.
I grabbed my coat in a hurry, ready to head out—
"W-wait, Jun. Look at that."
"After completing the initial investigation and emergency treatment following the incident, the Director was being transferred to a superpowered containment facility today when—"
"—some of the police officers were subdued, though none are in critical condition, and medical personnel are confirmed unharmed. The Director himself survived; however, according to medical staff, he is showing symptoms of full-body paralysis."
"…."
Even more shocking news hit our ears and eyes.
"The individual believed to be the perpetrator identified herself as 'Seraph.' Her face was obscured by a black veil or mask, making identification difficult, but she is described as a woman wearing a white dress—"
And then that name—one I'd heard before. Seraph.
That name was definitely still in my memory. I'd crossed paths with her at least once in my previous life.
But she had appeared much later than this.
…Roughly speaking, it was not long after Napalm had died and Eclipse had turned villain.
That was around when Seraph showed up.
The truly strange part was that almost no one died in her wake. Most people who crossed her path simply ended up half-paralyzed. She operated without a hero license, closer to a vigilante than anything else. She hadn't committed any particularly major crimes, and she only ever went after the worst kind of scum, so there had been a quiet consensus to look the other way….
"What is this? Ah, one of PAX's little dogs, I see."
The first time I ran into her in the field, I'd been genuinely speechless.
"Well, you're not a sinner, so I won't lay a hand on you. Be on your way."
"…Let that guy go. The one you're about to stab. I'm handing him over to the police."
"I'm afraid I can't do that. You see… I have a 'punishment' to deliver to these people."
She said that, drove a needle straight into a villain's spine and crippled him on the spot, then escaped the scene.
That kind of behavior continued right up until I died… no, until I suddenly vanished.
A merciless private enforcer. That was the Seraph I remembered.
And now that same woman had appeared roughly two years earlier than in my previous life.
"You know that name?"
Hope asked carefully, watching me.
"I know of her, yeah."
"Who is she?"
"I don't know exactly. Just that she shows criminals no mercy."
"So she's a hero?"
"Too ambiguous to call a hero, and too ambiguous to call a villain."
"Why? You just said she shows criminals no mercy."
"She's a lawbreaker. Someone who doesn't follow the law—who moves solely by her own convictions and will."
"…."
"I don't think the law is always right, but even so, you have to hold a minimum line. Because that tiny crack can spiral into something much worse."
And then, from the news interviews playing on the screen—
"According to officers at the scene, she said, 'Be grateful for Hero Jun's mercy.'"
"…Hey. That bitch knows you?"
"…."
My mind spun through the possibilities in a flash.
The reason her appearance had accelerated… was almost certainly me.
As for why I had caused her to show up earlier… I didn't know for sure.
So.
"Hope."
"What."
"Gather everything you can on Seraph."
I spoke while staring at the TV.
In my previous life, Seraph had always operated alone. Whether it was a twisted sense of justice or some kind of hero complex, I couldn't say for certain. But if she was moving under my name and my justification, that was something I absolutely needed to control.
"…I'll give it a shot. But honestly, this is the first I've heard of her, so I don't know if anything useful will turn up."
"Looking is what matters. I'm counting on you. I'll dig around as much as I can too."
"Haa… Fine. Well, it should be entertaining at least. Hunting down a psycho like that."
I left it with Hope.
Did I feel sorry for what had happened to the Director?
No. Of course not.
If someone asked whether I found his fate satisfying, I'd nod without hesitation.
But… I hadn't spared the Director out of any sense of mercy.
I'd held that line—and because I had, Great America had been able to stop as well.
And now someone was calling that "mercy."
…If you're going to throw my name around, you could at least ask permission first.
With that thought, I switched off the TV and stretched out on the couch.
As expected… home beat the hospital any day.
The next morning.
"…Should I go in? Is it okay to go in right now?"
Eclipse stood a block away from the base, staring toward it.
"Ugh…. This feels kind of awkward."
Her official reason was, of course, to inspect the defensive magic.
…The truth was, she'd been so busy setting up the barrier that she hadn't been able to visit him in the hospital—and she wanted to make up for that now. But.
…N-no, I just met him. What hospital visit? I'm just here for work. Really. Just work.
She kept denying it to herself, pacing in front of the place for several dozen minutes.
…Ugh, maybe I shouldn't have bought apples. Would bananas have been better?
In her hands was a fruit basket she'd picked up that morning on the way over. Even that was enough to make her second-guess every step she took.
—Fwoosh.
"…?"
Then a wave of heat bloomed beside her. She turned to look—
"…Huh?"
"Wh-what the hell?!"
—and found a far-too-familiar red-haired woman descending from the sky.
"Shorty. What are you doing here?"
"Sh-short…! Ahem—sorry, but I think I should be asking you that…?! I came here for a perfectly legitimate reason…!"
"What? You've never even been on a mission with Jun. What connection do you have that brings you here?"
"G-give me a break…! He asked me to set up the defensive magic here, so I'm officially one of Jun's collaborators!"
"…?"
For a moment, the colors reflected in Eclipse's eyes wavered hard. From within the constant, seething red that always filled Napalm, a streak of violet began to bleed through.
Jealousy—or something very close to it.
It was starting to show in Napalm.
…Oh-ho.
Watching her, Eclipse recovered her composure and her leisure, and smiled softly as she spoke.
"A-and as far as I know, you shouldn't even know about this place either? Jun manages information about this location very carefully, you know?"
"That engineer gave me the address while Jun was in the hospital."
But Napalm didn't back down an inch under that pressure, firing back immediately.
"…Huh?"
"Apparently she even got permission from PAX. She told me if I wanted to bring a get-well gift, I should come by the base later—so here I am, you bitch."
Napalm answered like she was laying down a warning, clearly trying to keep Eclipse in check.
"…Okay, but from 'shorty' to 'you bitch'—did this crazy woman stuff a rag in her mouth or what."
"…Oh-ho?"
—Goooo——!
Eclipse began drawing up her mana, refusing to lose the staring contest—when.
—Tap. Tap.
"…Napalm. And Eclipse. What are the two of you doing out here?"
On crutches, dressed in a black hoodie and sweatpants, Jun walked past them carrying a plastic bag from the convenience store.
And the moment the two of them saw him—
"Uh, uhh…!"
"I-I was just checking the defensive m-magic…!"
—they short-circuited, just a little.