Chapter 110
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 110
Chapter Title: Chapter 8 - The Prison After the Riot
A bright, sunny day arrived after the rain cleared,
but not a single ray of sunlight made its way into the office where Orca remained.
She had turned off every light and sat alone in her chair, steeped in solitude. Guards occasionally came by, but Orca brushed them off with perfunctory excuses and refused to see them.
A disciplinary notice lay on Orca's desk. Of course, even that was little more than a formality.
The director had called her aside and said as much.
He'd couched it in roundabout phrasing, but the meaning was simple enough.
[...We need someone to take the fall, so you'll get disciplined. But there's no one to replace you, so we'll keep you on as Correctional Officer. Clean up the mess you made yourself. I wash my hands of it. Once it's all sorted, lay low until the fuss dies down...]
Of course, Orca had expected as much.
The true source of her melancholy
was that Crow was no longer inside the prison.
For a brief moment, a star from the night sky had rested in her grasping hand,
only to vanish forever into some distant place she'd never see again.
With things turning out this way, belated regrets came flooding in. Why did I do that?
If she'd taken Crow's side just a little from the start, maybe even now he'd have come to rely on her?
Even if she'd been disappointed in him back then, had there really been any need to be so harsh?
Lost in such thoughts, Orca felt herself sinking into endless gloom.
She lacked the will to bask in the sunlight.
Maybe huddling endlessly in this darkness suited her after all.
It had been nice while it lasted.
She'd enjoyed everything there was to enjoy, even if only briefly.
Yet this hollow feeling was strangely baffling.
Guilt? No, she'd only done what she had to.
It was Crow who'd been bad. No, wait—that wasn't right. Crow was innocent, so the one who'd framed him was the real villain.
I didn't do anything that wrong, did I?
As Correctional Officer, it was only natural to manage and supervise the villains.
Even in that situation, Crow kept causing trouble, so she'd had no choice but to step in and discipline him personally.
...And honestly, Crow had enjoyed it too.
No, men always liked that sort of thing anyway.
If anything, Crow ought to be grateful to her.
She was better than those filthy villains.
She wasn't unattractive,
and by any measure, she was pretty.
Besides, the real problem was how Crow kept rebelling against her every time. Even if he was innocent, once he was in prison, obeying the Correctional Officer was just—
"Haa..."
No.
What was she even thinking?
Self-justification now, after everything?
It was all over.
She knew that.
She just wanted to die.
Meeting Crow again would be difficult.
The superpowered prison, thrown into chaos by the riot, now had soldiers deployed to help restore order.
It would take months for everything to normalize, and until then, it was overtime, overtime, overtime every day...
She wasn't some world-famous figure like Justice, but she felt like people on the street were recognizing her,
and the guards seemed to be treating her with contempt.
Acting respectful to her face,
but gossiping behind her back that she was some man-obsessed slut?
Maybe she'd been too obvious with Crow. No, she probably had been. The fact that she was even thinking this meant she was wrong.
If only...
Really, if only
she'd gotten pregnant with Crow's child, things might have turned out differently.
She'd never imagined she'd get a diagnosis of infertility. Come to think of it, she'd never had much luck with men. Never even considered going to a gynecologist.
But marrying some random guy after missing her prime? She'd rather die. Honestly, men didn't seem all that great anyway.
Maybe...
it was just because he was Crow that she'd been drawn to him.
And yet, had she been too cruel?
"Hngh..."
Orca sniffled.
Not entirely from sorrow, of course.
Thinking about Crow after so long, and touching herself down there, it felt a little better.
Still,
compared to the times she'd embraced his real body and ravished him, this was nowhere near enough. Hollow. Pointless.
A short burst of pleasure followed by creeping loneliness.
Unable to bear the loneliness, she started touching again,
only for the loneliness to return before long.
"Haaa... Nngh...!"
No matter how deep she pushed her fingers, the empty void inside refused to be filled, leaving Orca feeling pathetic.
She couldn't reach climax without someone else's help.
Until now, it had been no issue—just teasing her protruding clit and slipping in a few fingers had been plenty.
Today, though, no amount of fingering satisfied her. She even considered trying the correctional baton propped slantwise against her desk.
Surprisingly, its girth wasn't far off from Crow's. She swallowed hard and pressed it to her entrance.
Still,
this just wouldn't do.
"Fuck...!"
Orca hurled the baton across the room and spat curses in frustration. Cold air leaked out unbidden.
She was furious. For the first time in ages, her ability felt like a curse. She shouldn't think like that, but...
Even as she shook her head, trying to calm herself,
the gloom in the dark office only amplified.
...
No. Wait.
This wasn't the time to wallow.
"..."
Sure, she'd been a bit harsh with Crow,
but all the other women were the same, weren't they?
The looks Scardi and Lily gave him weren't innocent either. Justice went without saying—she'd hate him with a passion.
And Creep? She'd tormented Crow mercilessly while ranting about getting pregnant...
...Was she the same? No, but she hadn't tormented him out of malice like Creep. Plus, Creep was a serial killer.
She'd even helped capture villains alongside him.
From that angle,
she wasn't that bad a person in Crow's eyes, right...?
Orca finally arrived at an absurd conclusion.
Sweat beading on her skin, her expression oddly contorted, she looked like a madwoman. No one would bat an eye if someone called the police right then.
"Wh-why didn't I think of this before? Yeah...?"
It surprisingly felt plausible.
No, with everyone else in a similar position, a little effort might just win Crow's attention, right?
A psychopathic serial killer bitch, a crime syndicate boss, a creepy incestuous sister eyeing her brother, a venomous hero chick obsessed with her tightrope act—
She was better than any of them.
Obviously.
"Hoo...!"
Orca rallied her spirits and yanked open the blackout curtains with a flourish. Sunlight flooded in, invigorating her further.
Her mind felt at ease.
After throwing herself into repairing the prison facilities and serving her suspension, she could go straight to see Crow.
The last she'd seen of him, he was like a wounded wolf. Crow needed a nest to heal his bitter wounds.
And no matter how she thought about it, the only one who could be that nest was her.
"Alright...!"
It was an incredibly positive mindset.
Orca saw this as another chance granted to her.
Yes,
since he'd come to the prison, she'd made a few mistakes,
but correcting those mistakes was love and devotion in itself, wasn't it?
Don't lovers go through such trials? Studies even showed that couples who endured near-breakups grew even closer.
"Ahem! Hm!"
Orca straightened her posture.
As Correctional Officer,
she had to expedite the repairs to get her suspension over with quickly.
"Ahh—this is an announcement to all guards."
With that, she switched on the mic and summoned her guards.
From today, Orca had rediscovered her drive to live a new life.
"Everyone not on urgent duty, report to my office. I repeat, everyone to my office."
She had to meet Crow as soon as possible.
How much he must be suffering.
If she went to him with sincere apologies and devoted care, he'd surely forgive her.
Weee-ooo-weee-ooo—
"...What the hell."
But then Orca heard an unexpected siren blare. Probably someone testing the emergency system, repaired after the riot damage.
"..."
Still,
no one had reported it to her.
[C-Correctional Officer!]
[Someone's broken in. Supervisor Park was found unconscious in the bathroom. Clothes and card key stolen...!]