Chapter 104
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Smoke
Chaos erupts inside the Hero Association building.
The already frantic agents realize the gunshot echoing from the Director's office is anything but ordinary and rush to respond, but...
"What...?"
No signs of life can be felt from within. It's so suspiciously quiet that the agents feel a creeping dread instead.
The reason is simple.
In this clearly empty room,
the Director's terminal is sparking and screeching like a banshee.
"Damn it, don't let anyone out! It might be Crow!"
A familiar face.
Agent J, who had interrogated Crow last time, has taken command of headquarters in the current Director's absence.
"What the hell did he do before leaving?"
She approaches slowly, finger on the trigger, and examines the desk.
A clear bullet hole remains there.
Thinking this must be a clue to track Crow, Agent J inspects it closely—only to suddenly come face-to-face with something odd visible through the gap.
A small hole and a red timer placed just below it.
Beep- beep-
The distinct beeping sound, previously drowned out by the sparking.
"...Fuck! Everyone out of the room!"
She's pretty sharp.
A little late, perhaps, but the agents all manage to evacuate the Director's office and seal the door before anything blows.
"Down!"
Ssssss-
But an unexpected, ambiguous hissing follows.
Having braced for a massive explosion and the shockwave to come, the agents exchange confused glances.
"...W-What is it?"
J shows a similar reaction.
It sounds just like a smoke grenade.
So they cautiously crack the door open again.
"Ugh! Damn, this is...?"
By now, the Director's office is thick with acrid smoke. It billows rapidly through the open door, starting to fill the hallway.
"Everyone form up! Smoke instead of a bomb means the intruder's still inside. Grenades would take us out too."
J figures she'll lob a grenade herself to clear the room. The office will be trashed, but nothing beats a grenade for purging a smoke-choked space.
Crack-
"Gyaaah! Aaaah!"
But soon, chilling screams erupt from behind. Accompanied by the snap of joints or bones breaking, one agent thrashes wildly.
"What!?"
Before she can even assess the situation, someone grabs Agent J's forearm from within the smoke.
"Damn...!"
She attempts close-quarters combat to shake free, but unfortunately, her arm shatters first.
Crunch-!
An excruciatingly alien pain surges through her body. Something razor-sharp slams down from above like a pile driver, nearly cleaving her forearm in two.
"Ugh! Uuugh...!"
Even so, she fully intends to cling to her foe.
A broken arm won't stop her from grappling to restrict movement. She still has two legs and one good arm.
But in an instant, her body launches into the air.
"What...?"
And at the same moment, the intruder—
no, Crow—
kicks off the ceiling and plummets to the floor, slamming J—who's latched onto him—straight down.
"Gahk-!"
There's no reliable way to repel this lunatic rampaging freely through the smoke.
"Everyone out of the smoke!"
Only one man could orchestrate a mess like this.
"It's Crow! Fall back first, regroup, and request backup...!"
The agents obey the new orders, groaning in agony as they retreat beyond the smoke.
A few more minutes, and the smoke will dissipate entirely. They just need to keep their heads and hold the line until then.
"Kek- ugh..."
Crow seizes the fallen J by her hair and drags her back into the Director's office. With J hostage, the other agents can't risk even a single grenade.
"Crow, looks like you've got a grudge against me, but I've got no personal beef! I was just doing my job. You get it, right? The Association locks up anyone tagged as a villain...!"
J attempts to stall him with conversation, buying even a little time. The smoke won't last forever. Three minutes at most...
"You planning to kill all your old colleagues and slip out of the building? Wow, what a grand villain."
But the face she meets in the smoke
holds not a shred of mercy.
"Shh."
He has no plans to kill J.
Memories of her interrogation surface, but he feels no need to invest more time in such an insignificant woman.
With that judgment, Crow drives a fist straight into the center of J's face. His drug-enhanced body deploys its muscles with ruthless efficiency and explosive power.
Thwack-
One clean shot, and J loses consciousness.
Crow has zero intention of indulging her blatant time-wasting ploy.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Crow! Surrender right now! The Director and heroes are already en route. Whatever you try is pointless. The building's fully sealed—no one leaves until this ends!"
The agents lined up in the white hallway outside the Director's office raise a clamor. More are arriving, reforming their ranks.
"No need for this. Right? No need to fight the Association this hard. If you knew how much it pains us to take you down, you'd stop..."
Their words are mere formalities. They've already briefed Justice, who strides across the hallway toward them.
Crow, still inside the Director's office, has no idea Justice has arrived.
"...It's been about two minutes thirty since the smoke went off. In thirty seconds, we should see enough with the naked eye."
"Got it. I'll head in myself. Call the medical team too. No telling J's condition."
Justice pushes through the thinning smoke. With each step crushing into the plush red carpet, beads of tension sweat form on her brow.
Crow must be captured here, the matter concluded internally. If word leaks outside, it'll be a nightmare.
Yet the Director's office—filled with the zap of the sparking terminal and ragged breaths—feels strangely serene.
A nagging sense that things have gone awry. Amid it, Justice belatedly darts behind her desk to trace the source of the breathing, but...
"Jay!"
There lies Agent J, sprawled in her underwear, unconscious and moaning.
Hit so viciously in the face that even the silicone from her prettily sculpted nose has popped out.
"...One step too late."
Even stranger: her once-neat straight hair has been hacked off in a total mess.
"Crow escaped. Seal the perimeter and check the CCTV."
"Pardon?"
Justice immediately directs her subordinates and the heroes to hunt down the fugitive Crow.
"What...? Aren't the building entrances sealed?"
"Escaped disguised as a woman. The checkpoint guards probably took him for J or some other female agent."
Last time, strict Association protocols had nabbed him at the gate.
But with no binding rules holding him now, mere standard procedures can't contain him.
Before the smoke even fully cleared, Crow had borrowed Agent J's clothes, slipped through their midst, and escaped. Deeming himself in a safe zone, he sheds the disguise.
Dressed only in a pitch-black hoodie, he weaves naturally through the alleys.
Occasional punks smoking cigarettes,
giggling obnoxiously,
but no one picks a fight.
"Whoa, that dude's face is seriously fucked."
Instead, he draws attention in the weirdest way.
"Hey, hold up! Sis, you in college?"
They should be heading to school.
Early dismissal or total skip?
Smoking brazenly in their school uniforms, they look utterly free and bold.
Lives worlds apart from the suffocating unfreedom and violence Crow endured for months.
Young souls.
"No, I've never done this kinda thing, but your face is totally my type..."
"Bull~shit. Pfft! Yo, you'll get sued for that? Mess with the wrong girl and you're done."
Crow starts to ignore them and walk on,
but his eyes lock onto their cigarettes, halting his steps.
"Uh, but do you work out...? Kinda ripped..."
Tough luck.
"Hoo-"
Cigarette smoke trails up the building's outer wall.
Pouring rain outside,
but barely a drop enters the alley.
Only after chain-smoking every last cigarette does Crow reluctantly move on. Ordinary smokes no longer even register on his body.
In the butt-littered depths of the alley,
four male high schoolers lie sprawled on the ground, foaming at the mouth and groaning.
With their index and middle fingers forcibly snapped, smoking will be a ordeal from now on, no doubt.
"Don't smoke, kids. It's bad for you."
Yet no one comes to their aid.
Drowned out by the patter of rain,
the screams from the alley fade quietly into silence.