How the Hero Team Was Formed (2)
Iron Colossus sat in an ornate chair at the center of the studio and spoke in his usual blunt tone.
“...That’s why I’m a little late.”
This was the headquarters of Korean Hero Tribune, the most influential magazine specializing in hero coverage. This month’s feature was titled “How Are Hero Teams Formed?” Starting an interview with an apology made Iron Colossus feel deeply embarrassed.
“Oh, not at all! Sir Iron Colossus, we’re grateful you came at all, considering how hard you work for the public good!”
“Exactly! Who knows what might have happened to that civilian if you’d been even a few minutes later!”
“And you look absolutely stunning today, Lady Botal Rabbit!”
“Absolutely!”
The producer in charge sprinkled praise into every third sentence. It was practically industry standard. The rule was simple: When speaking with Botal Rabbit, compliment her relentlessly. It was basic etiquette when dealing with a proud S-class hero, and honestly, she was far easier to handle than the stoic Iron Colossus, whose thoughts were impossible to read.
“Bored listening to this stiff, right? Just ask me instead.”
“You tend to exaggerate.”
“How rude!”
Even a brief pause in conversation followed this pattern—Botal Rabbit chattering away while Iron Colossus quietly scolded her. At this rate, the interview would never progress. But the seasoned producer simply put on a professional smile and continued.
“As I mentioned earlier, today’s special corner is exactly that: How Are Hero Teams Formed! Of course, it’s a very famous story! The hero team HT is always listed among Korea’s most popular team-ups!”
“All thanks to me!” Botal Rabbit’s ears twitched excitedly. She shouted with an animated expression, “If it were just this dull, stupid, rock-headed guy, how would it ever have gotten popular!”
“One person alone cannot be classified as a ‘team.’”
“So you were popular during your solo days?”
“Not unpopular.”
“You were! You were unpopular! Kyahaha, look at this shameless guy!”
The producer barely managed to keep his expression neutral and cleared his throat.
“Ahem. That said! Because it’s so famous, all sorts of rumors have spread about the actual team-up process. After all, Sir Iron Colossus specialized in disaster relief while Lady Botal Rabbit specialized in villain extermination. So how exactly did two heroes from such different fields begin working together?”
“I’ll tell it! Me!” Botal Rabbit thrust her hand into the air and began. “He confessed to me!”
“...There are far too many omissions.”
“I only said the facts! He confessed!”
“That is correct. I confessed.”
The producer struggled to suppress the twitch at the corner of his mouth.
“Suddenly…?”
“Suddenly… yes, it was sudden. Botal Rabbit suddenly struck the back of my head.”
That night.
With those words, Iron Colossus quietly closed his eyes and began to reminisce.
Botal Rabbit was sprinting through the night streets, nose twitching. A villain she had struck had fled, but the scent had abruptly vanished nearby. Contrary to what most people believed, a rabbit’s sense of smell was superior to a dog’s. It was refined enough that simply catching the wind blowing down a mountainside allowed her to analyze every type of wild animal living across the entire slope.
Having trained that sense to the extreme, Botal Rabbit possessed the ability to never forget a scent once she had registered it. If she couldn’t find the trail… it meant the target was either dead, had used a chemical to mask their odor, or had hidden their body with a special ability.
“Then it’s dangerous!”
A villain with that kind of ability or chemical would be even more dangerous! Botal Rabbit hopped about, scanning her surroundings. The street where the villain raid alarm had sounded was quiet and dark. She chewed her lip anxiously while leaping along the top of a wall.
The honor of being one of fewer than ten S-class heroes in the country, the shame of losing a race, and a faintly flickering sense of crisis all combined to make her restless. Then, in the gap between alleys, a massive silhouette faintly appeared.
“There you are!!”
Another ability she had honed over many years—Herbivore Crisis Detection—began to sparkle brilliantly. It meant the being standing in that alley was at least A-class!
With a light tap-tap of nimble footsteps, Botal Rabbit instantly kicked off the wall, bounded across a windowsill, and shot forward like the wind. Before the man could even turn his head at the sound of her voice—
WHAM!
She struck with all her might.
“That hurts!! It hurts, you oversized oaf!”
But the sensation against her ankle felt strange. She spun mid-air and landed gracefully some distance away, posing like a picture.
“Who are you… huh?”
A massive man with ash-gray hair was staring down at her coldly. Backlit by the alley streetlamp, his long shadow made his gaze appear quite chilling. The crisis warning read A-class. At minimum, B-class. The impact she’d felt against her ankle suggested a physical reinforcement ability. That huge frame and the distinctive scar crossing his eye—
“Kek! You’re that loner weirdo from… the Borderland Golems rookie!! The guy Onyx keeps protecting!”
“Botal Rabbit?”
“Yeah, that’s me! Whew, I thought you were a villain!!”
“You thought he was a villain…?”
“Yes. She said it while chewing gum, then ran away immediately.”
“Wait, she ran? Lady Botal Rabbit?”
“She was probably embarrassed.”
“N-no I wasn’t! Embarrassed my ass! I was going after the villain I missed!”
“It was running. I chased you for quite a while.”
He gazed quietly at Botal Rabbit, who was desperately avoiding his eyes with a flushed face, and tried to continue. She suddenly shouted and snatched his microphone.
“From here on, I’ll speak! I’ll do it!”
“Yes, yes, of course, Lady Botal Rabbit.”
Twirling her jet-black hair, she spoke rapidly.
“Look, I… okay, fine. I’ll admit what I have to admit. I ran! Anyone could make that mistake! He suddenly tried to grab me after one hit! It was… it was… scary… well, not scary, but it felt bad! So I ran like hell.”
“I see…”
“I ran for a long time, caught my breath, and suddenly he appears behind me!! This giant stalker!”
“He caught up even though you were running at full speed? How?”
“His line of work makes him good at tracking.”
“So unlucky! I’m good at tracking too!”
Ah, right. Iron Colossus was a disaster support hero. Only then did the producer understand. No matter how fast the slow-moving giant Iron Colossus ran, he shouldn’t have been able to keep up with Botal Rabbit. But disaster support heroes excelled at what was called “trace reading.” Because they operated on the front lines of complex and destructive disasters to rescue civilians, they could determine a target’s movement radius and direction from even the smallest traces.
But that sounded exactly like…
“The race between the hare and the tortoise…?”
“Ugh, yes. That’s where our team name comes from. HT (Hare and Tortoise)….”
“And then? Did you two start fighting the moment he appeared?”
“Do I look like a child to you? Why would I use violence first in a situation that can be resolved through conversation?”
“Why feet! The usual expression uses hands! Do I look like a child to you?!”
“About half.”
After watching the two bicker for a moment, Botal Rabbit pouted and turned back toward the producer.
“So… he suddenly spoke to me. I was startled, and then in that low voice he kept muttering…”
A hero should not do that.
“He said stuff like that!”
“Oh…”
“Why you must not use violence. What would have happened if he had been a civilian. And when you make a mistake, you must apologize. That is what it means to be an adult, and showing dignity even in one’s own faults is what makes a hero… things like that…”
All delivered in that old-fashioned, blunt, and awkward voice, without end.
“Ah, stop! Stop it! I feel like I’m going insane!! What do you want from me!”
“An apology and reflection.”
“You chased me across the whole street just to hear one apology? Are you that free? If I had that much time, I could have beaten up three more villains!”
“This is more important than that.”
“Why!”
When Botal Rabbit yelled, Iron Colossus fell silent for a moment. It didn’t seem like he was organizing his thoughts so much as he himself didn’t understand why he felt this was more important. After a brief silence, he finally spoke.
“I didn’t want you to become a villain.”
“Suddenly? What are you talking about?”
“If you hit a civilian with that much force, the person dies.”
“I know that much!”
“Even heroes or villains would suffer serious injuries. If you wield violence so recklessly, you will eventually become a villain.”
He fumbled for words, closed his mouth, and organized his thoughts.
“I didn’t want you to become a villain.”
“So why! Do you even know me?”
“I do, Botal Rabbit. S-class hero. Ace of the hero team Thunderstorm Strike Squad.”
“…Are you a stalker?”
“I became a hero because I admired you.”
“And then he just confessed like that. No shame at all!”
“Because it’s true.”
“Y-you idiot!”
Her face flushed bright red. She pounded on Iron Colossus’s chest, then hung her head. The producer took the opportunity to sneak a glance at the pale skin visible between the straps of her high-leg costume before quickly looking away.
“What a wonderfully romantic confession! So that’s how you ended up teaming up?”
“Yes… that’s right. He’s strong and can take hits. While I run around drawing attention, he grabs the villains tight and crushes them.”
“And any villains I can’t catch, Botal Rabbit chases down and captures.”
“Yeah. Honestly, our synergy is pretty good. Even if his talking is stuffy… he’s honest, and kind of… cool. And handsome.”
The rest of what happened that night was something they could never fully reveal to the producer.
“You’ve mastered the art of driving people insane with your words, haven’t you?”
“It was not intentional.”
“You’re embarrassed right now!”
“A little.”
Iron Colossus nodded with a completely expressionless face. Seeing that, Botal Rabbit burst into laughter and pinched his cheek.
“You’re kind of cute!”
And beneath the streetlamp, their two shadows overlapped for a moment.
When they came to their senses after the kiss, they were in Botal Rabbit’s hero base, the Rabbit Hole Penthouse.
“Haa, ngh… you, you… why are you so good at kissing?”
When they came to their senses again, two hours had passed.
“S-stooop♡!! Haaang! Hngh! Stop poking there♡♡!!!”
When she briefly lost consciousness and came to again, twelve hours had passed…
“I was wrong…♡ I w-wasss wrong♡♡ Sorry for hitting you♡ Please forgive me now…♡♡”
Watching her legs convulse on the bed, Iron Colossus rose without a word and fetched some wet wipes.
Schlurp.
“Hyaa♡ I told you to stop…♡”
“I’m cleaning you.”
The wet wipe moved gently, gliding slowly up her sweat-drenched leg before sliding across her pretty pussy, which was messily smeared with semen and love juices. At the cold yet soft sensation, Botal Rabbit twitched and convulsed, whimpering in a melted voice.
“Hey… want to form a team with me?”
“A team?”
“A hero team… not with those loners… with me…”
“The Borderland Golems are not loners.”
“They are total loner weirdos. They even talk like you. Haaang♡! Gentler… The team, the team name will be…”
Hare and Tortoise. No matter how fast the hare runs, no matter what distractions or incidents occur along the way, the tortoise will eventually walk steadily, catch up, and capture her.
I can never say we formed the team like that!
Botal Rabbit fanned her burning red face and shook her head vigorously.
“So! Anyway. We complement each other well, I liked the way he talks, and he’s kind! So this great S-class hero decided to take him in! In other words… in other words, he’s my sidekick!”
“Hmm.”
“Shut up, idiot!”
Thump thump!
When Botal Rabbit roughly pounded Iron Colossus’s chest, he nodded expressionlessly.
“That is how it happened. Are there more questions?”
“Ah… no. We just need a few photo shots and we’re done. Thank you for your hard work!”
“You worked hard.”