The Junior (1)

BOOM! KABOOM! CRASH!

A bank in Seoul — a place through which hundreds of millions of dollars flowed every single day — erupted without warning in a roar of explosions. Red flame punched a hole through the wall, and men in black ski masks poured in through the breach.

"Aaah!"

"R-robbers! It's villains!!!"

Panic seized the crowd in an instant. Some froze where they stood, stunned stiff. Others dropped to the floor and wrapped both arms around their heads.

"Shut up! Every last one of you, shut your mouths!!!!"

One of the masked robbers bellowed, thrusting his arm skyward. A black sphere bloomed in his palm. He hurled it at an empty stretch of wall, and it detonated in a bloom of crimson fire.

The man who had just blown a hole through the bank wall — that was his power. His villain name was Bomberman. True to the name, he was a villain who generated and deployed bombs.

"Open the vault! Now!"

"B-but… that's…"

"You wanna fucking die?!!"

The bank employee hesitated — until Bomberman's hand loomed right in front of his face. He scrambled to the vault and hauled the door open. The thick, circular slab swung wide, revealing an enormous mountain of bundled cash stacked inside.

"Heh heh. Perfect! Hey! You're up!"

"Kikik! Finally! Time I got a taste of some real money!!"

Another villain stepped forward from behind Bomberman. The man went by the ridiculous villain name of Sack Man, and he had earned it from his ability: anything he swallowed into his belly, he could store and retrieve at will.

"Aaaahmm!"

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!

With grotesque, wet sounds, he began stuffing the cash bundles into his mouth. Every time a bundle vanished, his belly swelled. By the time he'd swallowed half the pile, he no longer looked human — more like a leather sack stretched to bursting.

"Guuuh! That's it. Can't eat another bite."

"Tch. Only got half, but whatever."

Sack Man packed himself to the limit and stepped out of the vault. He had swallowed a staggering weight of cash, yet he moved without the slightest hint of strain. No matter how heavy or how much he ate, it never hindered his movement — a bizarre trait of his power.

"Alright, we're out of here!!"

They turned to flee — and in that instant, the ground convulsed as if in an earthquake. The earth around the bank surged upward and sealed off their escape.

"It's a hero!"

"Damn it! They're already here?!"

A hero had arrived. Outside the bank — more precisely, hovering in the sky and surveying the scene below — was a hero. It was Psycho Kino, who had only recently been newly ranked as an S-class hero. Using his telekinesis, he had lifted the earth itself to block the entrance.

Dressed in a yellow uniform, he exchanged communications through a small earpiece with the police surrounding the bank.

"I'll start subduing the villains now."

"But the villains have taken hostages. If you attack like this, the hostages could get hurt."

The moment Psycho Kino appeared, the villains had immediately seized bank employees and customers as hostages. The police clicked their tongues as they reported the situation.

"Hostages, huh. Can't be helped. Sacrifices are necessary if you want to catch villains."

Just as Psycho Kino was about to sacrifice the hostages—

"What do you mean, 'can't be helped'?"

A woman's voice came from behind him.

"White Rabbit."

"It's White Fang."

The speaker was White Rabbit. She wore a white uniform that left her alluring figure on full, unapologetic display.

"You're Psycho Kino, right? Looking forward to working with you. Fellow S-class heroes, protecting Korea together!"

"...Likewise."

White Rabbit approached him warmly. She remembered that he had said in an interview that he respected her. But for someone meeting a person he supposedly admired, Psycho Kino's expression was far from pleasant.

What a pain.

The truth was, his interview about respecting White Rabbit had been a lie. It was nothing more than image management for the public.

"So, how should we rescue the hostages? Let's move together on this."

"...I don't think we necessarily need to rescue them."

"What?"

White Rabbit asked, startled by Psycho Kino's words.

"Isn't this a good opportunity to show other villains that taking hostages is pointless? We just catch the villains and deal with them. Protecting the bank's money is more important."

"No. Absolutely not! How can you compare human lives to money?"

"If you convert those hostages' lives into money, how much would it come to? A hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? But those villains are going to walk away with hundreds of millions."

They glared at each other, arguing. But their values were too different for any decision to emerge, and in the end, Psycho Kino acted first.

"There's just no talking to you!"

He stretched a hand toward the bank.

RUMBLE. GROAN.

A massive vibration shook the building, and the bank's ceiling heaved — then peeled open like a lid being lifted off.

"What the fuuuck!! What the hell is going on!?"

The villains hiding inside the bank spat curses as the sky suddenly appeared above them. Bomberman thrust a hand toward the hostages and shouted.

"Get lost right now! Or I'll kill every last hostage!!"

"Pointless posturing. You're already dead men."

Psycho Kino lifted the bank's ceiling even higher. His plan was to hoist it high into the sky, then drop it — crushing villains and hostages alike in a single stroke.

"I told you that's enough! We have to save the hostages!"

"God, you've been yapping since earlier!!"

When White Rabbit tried to stop him, Psycho Kino's face twisted. Then he extended the arm that wasn't holding up the bank ceiling. An invisible, crushing force locked around her body. It felt as though a colossal unseen hand had seized her from head to toe.

"Just stand there and watch. Watch me deal with these bank robbers!"

"Nngh! Stooop!!"

White Rabbit cried out — and Psycho Kino's eyes went wide.

W-what kind of strength is this?!

As mentioned, his claim of respecting White Rabbit had been a lie. Far from respect — he had looked down on her. Every S-class hero possessed power that could fairly be called a natural disaster. Psycho Kino himself could flip the ground or ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lift a building and hurl it whenever he pleased. Another S-class hero, Phoenix Guy, could become a firebird and turn everything around him into a sea of flame. Iceman could freeze even the ocean.

And she gets to be S-class just because she can fly and she's physically strong? Strength alone can't beat my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠telekinesis!

But now he knew he had been wrong. He had thought he had restrained her with a decent amount of force — yet she shredded his telekinesis as if it were nothing and came flying straight at him. Fist cocked and swinging!!

"Guh!"

He hastily threw up a telekinetic barrier. Five layers in total. But White Rabbit's fist tore through all five layers like paper and slammed into Psycho Kino's face.

CRACK!!

"Gaaah!"

He had been floating on telekinesis, but he couldn't withstand her power. He plummeted like a spike driven into the earth and cratered into the road.

"Kyaaaaah!!!"

"I-it's falling!!"

The moment Psycho Kino went down, the section of bank ceiling he had been holding aloft began to drop. White Rabbit shot toward it with terrifying speed. A curtain of air bloomed around her. She had reached the speed of sound.

KABOOOOOM!!

She slammed into the ceiling, and the structure of rebar and concrete shattered into fragments.

"H-hah! Wh-what the hell is even happening?! Let's just get out of here!!"

Bomberman, watching this, paled in horror and started running. He didn't forget to hurl bombs in every direction to buy time.

"I-I'm coming too!!"

Sack Man and the underlings ran after him. They sprinted to the entrance — and that was when Bomberman noticed something wrong.

"Why aren't the bombs going off?"

The explosions that should have detonated a beat ago never came.

"Looking for these??"

White Rabbit's voice, right behind him. He whirled around in shock to find her standing there, her face ice-cold. Her finger pointed at the sky ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— and there, Bomberman's bombs were streaking into empty air with terrifying force. She had recovered every bomb he had thrown at the hostages, at a speed exceeding the sound barrier, and flung them into empty sky where they could do no harm.

"Y-you m-monster!"

"Monsters are what we call people like you — the ones who hurt others!"

She reached out. Not a fist — just her finger, curled into a circle. The classic flick to the forehead. Bomberman tilted his head at the finger flying toward his brow.

CRAAACK!!!

And then he lost consciousness.

Having restrained Bomberman and Sack Man without killing them, White Rabbit approached Psycho Kino, whose face was thoroughly crumpled. The face she had given him was swollen as if he had been stung by a swarm of bees.

"Why'd you stop me? I could've dealt with the villains a lot more easily."

He was so heated even his speech had dropped from formal to casual.

"Because this way, we can catch villains without a single casualty."

"Do we really need to care about people like that?"

"Excuse me?"

"We're the chosen ones. We don't need to sacrifice ourselves for those bottom-feeders crawling around down there."

"...That's a worldview I never would have expected."

White Rabbit was left speechless by Psycho Kino's way of thinking — that those who had awakened abilities were the chosen, and ordinary people were the underclass. She tried to talk him around, but he shook his head, unmoved.

"There's just no getting through to you. Well, whatever. The Association's going to sanction you for this one."

Their conversation had gone out over the radio to the police on scene, so it was now widely known that Psycho Kino had intended to kill every last hostage.

"Hah. Fuck. Unbelievable."

In the end, Psycho Kino spat a curse and left.

"Haa. I was looking forward to a new S-class hero… No. If I just persuade him properly as his senior, he'll listen to me!"

White Rabbit refused to give up on Psycho Kino's values. She resolved to tear them apart and rebuild them.

"Haa. That fucking bitch. Look what she did to my face!"

Psycho Kino checked his ruined face in the mirror, cursing White Rabbit.

"I'm going to kill that bitch. No — killing her isn't enough. I'll pin her under me and treat her like a bitch in heat!"

He pulled out his phone and placed a call. A moment later, a man with a low, thick voice answered.

At the man's apology, Psycho Kino let out a long breath and cooled his temper. Then he went on.

With that, Psycho Kino hung up.

Psycho Kino. He was an S-class hero — and a thoroughly rotten one, who took money from certain villains in exchange for covering their tracks.