This Doesn't Count Because I Wasn't Enjoying It!! (2)
In the middle of the day, walking through the city streets always brought with it a seasonal feeling.
The joyful summer afternoons spent at the beach with Colossus.
The romantic autumn days when they strolled through the park, leaves falling around them.
The warm cocoa they drank together while watching the snow fall outside the window in winter.
And in spring, the fluttering excitement of those early dates, back when they had just started going out.
“Haa…♡”
Park Yeon-ha walked along with a dazed, feverish mind, lost in all sorts of thoughts. The best way to calm her body was to picture Colossus’s blunt, expressionless face, but thinking of him now only brought back the cozy warmth of being held against his solid chest.
“I want to go home so bad…”
She would beat the crap out of that escaped villain, then slip back home without anyone noticing.
And when Colossus came home exhausted from work, ta-da! There would be a warm dinner waiting for him.
Soybean paste stew and some galbi ribs should do it, right? Yeon-ha walked on, trying hard to organize her complicated thoughts. Her destination wasn’t far. Even without using her hero powers, she was still quite fast.
“This is a restricted area for civilians. Stop right there!!”
Far ahead, she saw an alley blocked off with police tape. According to the news, this was exactly where ‘Killer Toad’ had escaped from prison.
He had apparently destroyed the transport vehicle while being transferred and made a run for it. Bold move.
But for him, it was an unfortunate choice. Of all places, the bastard had tried to escape right in the middle of the city.
“Oh? I need to go this way to get there faster… Understood! Thank you for your hard work!”
“Ah, y-yes, ma’am! You too!”
The police officer’s face flushed bright red as he returned her cheerful greeting. Yeon-ha clicked away in her heels, leaving the alley behind, then immediately pressed herself against the wall.
“Huuup…”
A deep breath. Countless scents of the city rode the wind, mixing together in a chaotic blend as they flooded into her nose.
Not this one.
This… was the smell of butter. Bread? Cookies? Hmm. Cookies. That sounds good. I’ll buy some on the way home.
Umm… nope, not this one either….
Yeon-ha kept her eyes tightly shut as she sorted through the smells. The city was a space where countless odors tangled together, but paradoxically, it was much easier to pick out familiar traces among them.
Part of it was because she had honed her abilities in urban environments, but fundamentally, city air tended to stagnate.
The building winds that swirled between structures usually circled the same spots. Those breezes wrapped around specific buildings and districts like islands, trapping the scents inside until a major weather change occurred.
On top of that, a rabbit’s sense of smell never forgot an odor once it had been registered. If she caught even the faintest thread, she could follow that line straight to her target.
“Found you.”
Her clear eyes sparkled. The fishy stench unique to amphibians, mixed with the rank odor of an adult male who hadn’t bathed in ages. And woven through it all was the distinct smell of cigarettes. An unforgettable combination.
“Just how long has he gone without washing? Ew.”
The impression had already grown faint in her memory, but even back when she arrested him at the bank, he hadn’t exactly looked clean.
Well, a prison for superhuman criminals was hardly going to be spotless… She supposed it couldn’t be helped.
Grumbling to herself, Yeon-ha followed the trail the scent indicated.
*
“Ugh.”
She had tracked the scent to its very end and dashed forward, only to find herself facing a completely empty dead-end alley.
“That can’t be right…?”
There was no way her ability had led her to the wrong smell. She ruffled her hair in frustration and looked around. The trail had abruptly cut off right here.
No… it was faint, but…
“Further down from here… down? N-no way…?”
With trembling eyes, she stared at the manhole cover in the corner of the alley.
“No way! It can’t be! Ahaha! Right? Tell me it’s not….”
Shaking like a leaf, she inched closer to the manhole. A foul sewer stench wafted up with a whoosh. Did she really have to go this far…? She fidgeted with her foot on the ground, lost in thought.
“Should I just go back…?”
“But the reason this guy crawled into the sewers… is probably… to avoid the CCTV.”
“If more time passes and he completely settles into the sewer system, will we even be able to catch him?”
Even in villain arrests, there was a golden time. You had to catch them before they fully rooted themselves in the local community and began their mimicry.
As Botal Rabbit, a veteran with years of experience apprehending villains, she simply couldn’t give up.
If she abandoned the arrest just because it felt gross and dirty, how could she call herself a hero?
“Ughhh… Seriously. I’m really going to beat the living hell out of you. You’d better be ready.”
She grit her teeth hard, flung open the manhole cover, and jumped straight down.
As if being sucked into the deep darkness.
*
“Where are you? Are you there? No? Then where aaaaare you~?”
She trudged through the sewer, shining her smartphone’s flashlight around.
The stench was so overpowering it made her head spin, but she couldn’t cover her nose.
Rabbits weren’t known for exceptional eyesight. Therefore, her vision didn’t stray far from human limits, which meant her sense of smell was practically her only means of tracking criminals.
“I’m going to have to throw all these clothes away, and I’m billing you for them~.”
She hummed as if nothing was wrong, forcing herself to sound cheerful as she walked through the narrow passage.
Drip.
“Hyaht♡!!”
A cold drop of water landed on the back of her neck. She let out a piercing scream and shuddered violently.
This is the worst. The absolute worst!!
She bit her lip hard and took another step. The smell was growing thicker. So foul it made her head reel.
“Found— you!!”
“Huk?! Who…? Th-this voice!! Botal Rabbit?!!”
She dashed toward the source of the stench and thrust her flashlight up. The sudden burst of light revealed a man shielding his eyes.
He was wearing what looked like rags that had been torn to the point of being shorts, his upper body completely bare.
The dark green, glistening patches on his skin were clearly some kind of mutation. Whether due to the environment or not, they looked even darker than last time, making his silhouette faint in the darkness.
His torso was disproportionately bloated compared to his limbs. Every time he breathed, his belly bulged and contracted like a toad’s.
Park Yeon-ha—Botal Rabbit—narrowed her eyes sharply and clenched both fists tight. He really is disgustingly ugly…!!
“Did you really think I wouldn’t find you just because you hid in a place like this?! The stink and the pathetic look suit you perfectly!!”
“What the hell did I even do wrong!!”
“You robbed a bank, you shameless bastard!!”
“Yeah!! But that’s not a reason to get chased by an S-class hero!! I… I’m only E-class!!”
“Don’t underestimate your own worth based on rank!!”
“What the hell does that even mean!!”
-Tap!
Yeon-ha swiftly leaped forward and delivered a sharp kick to the man’s protruding belly. She held back just enough not to kill him.
But the moment her heel slammed into his stomach—
““Gweeeeeeeeeeek!!””
His belly skin contracted in an instant, and a massive noise exploded, echoing throughout the sewer!!
“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!!”
Yeon-ha instinctively staggered backward, clamping her hands over her ears. Her head rang and her vision went completely black for a moment.
A rabbit’s exceptional hearing, put another way, meant it was extremely vulnerable to auditory stimuli.
To make matters worse, the environment was terrible. The sewer’s rounded walls endlessly reflected sound, completely throwing off her sense of balance.
As she stumbled back, the man’s buzzing voice reached her from far away.
“Kuh! Cough!! Kkgh!! Uweeeeegh!! F-fuck, that hurts like hell!!!”
“Ah… ugh…. Aaaaa…”
“Hey…? Heyy? Y-you okay?”
Her phone had flown far away in her struggle against the noise and was now casting a faint light.
In the gloomy sewer tunnel, a staggering shadow approached, swaying in the dim beam.
His limping form didn’t look too steady, but neither did hers.
The disorientation from the noise still hadn’t faded. Her head spun, her feet kept missing their mark, and she was barely managing to stay upright.
Her vision blurred and her heart pounded violently. [Herbivore’s Crisis Sense]. The most powerful ability she had honed her entire life was screaming a massive warning.
Danger.
Danger.
Leaning against the slippery wall, she trembled as she forced her eyes wide open and shouted at the approaching man.
“Don’t come any closer!!”
“Theeeeere… you look like you’re in a looot of paaain…?”
The echo made the man’s voice sound distant. Or maybe he was deliberately dragging out his words to mock her.
Sometimes the distance looked close enough to reach with a single step, other times it seemed impossibly far.
Her spatial awareness was completely tangled, leaving her with no confidence she could land a hit. And if she missed even once, the momentum would probably send her sprawling across the floor.
And this smell…. It was so foul… so dizzying….
“Botaal Raaaabbit…?”
“Don’t come….”
Danger.
Danger.
-Thump!!
In the sudden crisis, her heart pounded violently.
Adrenaline surged through her veins like a flood.
-Thud. Slide.
She staggered, leaning her body against the sewer wall, then slowly slid down until she was sitting.
Her accelerated blood flow caused oxygen deprivation, making her breathing ragged.
The sudden increase in blood flow also raised her body temperature.
In a crisis, the adrenaline rush stimulated the mind….
And there was one more thing.
“Did it work? Did it? Botal Rabbit. Can you hear me?”
This smell coming from the approaching man.
“Look, whew! I really thought I was gonna die!! You’re way tougher than I expected! The guards all passed out from a single drop, you know? Huh? I sprinkled some around just in case someone came after me, but I thought you hadn’t gotten hit by even one drop on your way here!!”
A scent that somehow dulled the mind.
“You know toads have poison, right? Hmm? It comes from glands on their back and in their bodily fluids. What was it called again? That… bufotoxin! Yeah! It causes paralysis and hallucinations… It’s not exactly a deadly poison, but, how should I put it…”
That smell. Now right in front of her. So thick.
“According to the prison doctor, the main effect of bufotoxin hallucinations is… euphoria, apparently?”
So thick…♡
-Rustle, squelch, squelch.
The man standing right in front of her—Killer Toad—busily moved both hands, sweeping across his neck, belly, and under his armpits to collect his secretions.
Yeon-ha trembled weakly, biting down hard as she shook her head.
“Just die already… you son of a bitch…♡”
“Hehe, your voice is all shaky, huh? Hup. Whew. Good thing I kept collecting it just in case! Here we go. Since I don’t know how strong an S-class physical hero’s resistance is.”
-Squelch.
“I’ll slather it on generously. Every little inch. Bottoms up! It’ll taste great, I promise?”
A yellowish-brown clump of mucus splattered across her face.
Even in that moment, she clung to her sanity and barely held her breath, but she couldn’t keep it up for long…
“Ah… eh… hek♡.”
Her slender chin trembled, her mouth fell open, and then—
Truly. Without even realizing it. In a daze.
-Gulp♡.
She swallowed a mouthful.
“Huuuaaaaah!!! Finallyyyyy!!! Hahahahahaha!!”
The man’s maniacal laughter grew distant as Yeon-ha’s head lolled forward with a soft thud.
*
-Slide, slide.
Inside the dark sewer tunnel, the sound of something heavy being dragged echoed.
Only a single phone with its flashlight still on lay abandoned on the floor, faintly illuminating the surroundings.
Deeper into the tunnel’s darkness. A man gripped one of a pair of pale, supple legs tightly and dragged someone along, disappearing from view.
A moment of silence passed.
And then.
-Squelch, squelch… smack. Slurp♡
Wet, sticky friction mixed with the sound of a beast greedily licking and sucking on its prey.
From beyond the darkness. For a very long time. Without pause.
Then the messages stopped.
Sewer sludge that had splattered across the floor clung thickly to the smartphone screen, smeared and sticky.
On the phone’s home screen wallpaper, over the couple’s photo—
-Slurp, lick, slurp, suuuuck♡
-Squelch, squelch! Thwack! Thump♡ Squelch, squish♡
Even after the screen went dark, the sticky sounds from beyond the darkness did not stop.
For a long, long time.
Without end.
