Villain Hero and Hero Villain

Gentle walked towards the Hero Public Safety Commission headquarters. He’d left La Brava behind at the agency building that Spartan was allowing them to stay at, ensuring that if something radical were to happen then she would be left out of the matter. At the same time, he knew the rather unethical implications of the account he was about to take. But from what he’d been told it was the most reasonable position to take. It was cause for concern alone that a number of Villains had escaped from Tartarus, many of them being high risk Villains at that. But it was an even greater concern that there was one Villain that escaped that frightened the Hero commission, one that they refused to tell Spartan about. That’s why he was going to find out who they were for him. “Gentle, didn’t you swing by earlier today?” One of the building’s security officers asked as he walked in.

“I did, but… Ah, forget it.” Halfway through his sentence he gave up on coming up with an excuse. “I’m here to see the commission board and the commission president, there are some questions that I need to ask.”

“You can’t just ask to see them suddenly, especially not when they’re busy. You need to put in the required paperwork.”

“It’s urgent,” his tone was serious, “Call them, tell them that Spartan knows about the Villain they tried to hide from him”

At first the guard hesitated, then he called it in. “…They said to come on up, I’ll escort you there.” They walked through the lobby, getting quite a few stares from the other staff members in the building. They must be incredibly afraid of this Villain if they were going to act this paranoid… The two of them stepped into the elevator and the guard inserted a keycard into a slot, then pushed the button. Apparently they were going to a different floor to meet the commission president rather than the one he usually saw. “You honestly shouldn’t have said that out loud in front of everyone,” the guard commented quietly in the elevator, “Everyone here is on edge.”

“Are things really that bad?”

“The board has been pulling security officers from the other branches around the country to fortify this place, they’ve also been keeping a number of nearby Heroes on short leash in case something happens.”

“But they don’t actually tell most of them what’s going on, even the Heroes that are supposed to protect them and the rest of society.”

“Yeah, only me and a few of the other guys in the building know what’s going on. Personally, I feel a lot safer if someone like Spartan knows the situation we’re in.”

Gentle raised an eyebrow, “Why do you say that?”

“To me, and really a lot of other people, he comes off as the type to be a lot more directly involved in things. Essentially every Hero goes around doing things like saving kids and smiling for the camera, but does that really do anything for the bigger picture? Sure, it makes people feel safe. But it doesn’t actually keep them safe. The Hero Public Safety Commission keeps tabs on all the people he goes after, even if he doesn’t submit the paperwork. I’ve seen the reports.”

“I suppose you are right.”

“Say, you’ve had a chance to work with him right? What is he like behind closed doors?”

“I’m not sure if I can give you a satisfying answer,” he stopped to think, “He does certainly act more personable on an individual level more than he does with any organization, though he always comes off as a little detached. It’s like he is always thinking about… Scenarios.”

“Scenarios?”

“Yes, scenarios. I think it should be rather obvious but he’s somewhat cynical, and from what I gathered I believe that he thinks that some major conflict is on the horizon.”

“You mean like a war between countries?”

“I’m not sure. Perhaps? I don’t entirely understand it myself. He pays attention to events here and overseas, though I don’t think I can see the same correlation that he does.”

“Well, as long as he knows then I think we’re in good hands.”

“Yes, as long as he knows…”

The elevator door opened, and the guard escorted Gentle through the hallway and towards the conference room. “Just a forewarning, the president has been freaking out ever since the prison break. You’re going to have to choose your words carefully or else she may just opt to hang you with whatever rope she can find.”

“I’m grateful for the warning.” There was the sound of a loud crack, “Was that-?”

“Gunshots!” The two of them rushed towards the origin of the sound. It wasn’t something he would normally do, but he was a Hero now. Any crisis that came his way he needed to face.

“Is it them?”

“It has to be, no one else would openly attack the commission like this. Not even the League of Villains.” The guard crept up to the conference room door, hovering one hand over the door handle and the other over his sidearm. He turned the door handle.

“Oh lord,” Gentle muttered under his breath, stumbling back a little. A bullet ripped through the wall next to the door, striking the guard in the head and killing him instantly. At first he wasn’t able to move his legs, much less think. A living breathing person, one that he’d just been speaking with and having a normal conversation… and his life was snuffed out in the blink of an eye. He slapped himself to snap out of it. This was a life or death situation, and if he didn’t pay attention then he would very much end up like that man. Quickly he applied elasticity to the wall he was leaning against, doing so just in time as another bullet bounced off the wall near where his head was. He ran up to the door and flung it open, charging in with open hands. He had less than a second to make as much elastic cover as possible before diving behind one side of the large conference table. “Ms. President, are you still alive?” He called out, not sure what to expect.

“Yes, I’m alive.” He got a response, “For how much longer, I’m not sure.”

“The person that’s attacking, are they the Villain the commission was afraid of?”

“She’s not just any Villain, she’s Lady Nagant.”

He recognized the name, “The Hero that killed another Hero in an argument? But why-?”

“Because that was just a cover story the commission made up,” a microphone somewhere in the room spoke. “I wanted to become a Hero, instead I ended up becoming a tool for the commission. The previous president used me to kill any Heroes or Villains that stepped out of line, then they had the incidents cleanly and quietly covered up. Despite being a Hero I spilled the blood of dozens of that people, and that blood stained my hands. When I wanted to leave the previous president refused, they even threatened to ruin my life if I didn't keep working for him. So I killed him. The current president was the previous president's VP."

“For someone that didn’t like the blood that stained their hands, you seem all too willing to kill someone who isn’t even related to your path of revenge.”

“There’s no cleaning my hands, so I won’t bother fooling myself with ideas of Heroism.” Several more shots rang out, each one seeming to probe the items around the room for which ones had become elastic and which way the bullets would bounce.

“She’s a liar,” the president said, “None of what she’s said is true. Lady Nagant was locked away because she killed a Hero in cold blood over a petty argument, now she wants revenge because we're the one who put her in prison.”

“Regardless of who is telling the truth, I cannot allow any further deaths!” Gentle raised a nearby chair, elasticizing it and running in the direction of the commission president’s voice. Several rapid fire shots bounced off of the chair and back towards the broken windows. Eventually he made it over to where the commission president was hiding, an armored panel at her section of the table. He quickly made it elastic, temporarily stalling any progress Lady Nagant had made at punching through the plate. Then he pulled out his phone. This wasn’t something he could do alone.

“Who are you calling?”

“Spartan.”

“You can’t! He can’t be allowed-“

“I’m afraid you’ll have to live with my decision.” Gentle used speed-dial to immediately put in Spartan’s phone number, and within a matter of seconds he picked up.

“Gentle, what is it?”

“Do you remember how you asked me to look into the matter of who the Hero commission was afraid of?”

“Did you find any information?”

“I have.”

“Good work, where are you right now?”

“Stuck inside the commission building, being shot at by the woman they were afraid of.”

There was a momentary pause across the phone. “Okay, hunker down and try to stay out of sight. I’ll get there as fast as I can, but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it there soon. I’ll try and have someone else get there ahead of me.“

“That may not be necessary, Lady Nagant doesn’t seem able to-“ His words were cut off as several more bullets flew by. They bounced off a nearby object, using the redirection to shoot the phone out of his hands and graze the edge of his hair. His phone landed a few feet away. “Actually, I take back what I said. Send whoever you can over here..”

“Got it, don’t die.” Spartan signed off the phone,

“Do you have a plan to get me out of here?” The president asked.

“Not really, I never planned ahead for a situation like this. Rest assured though, I will get us out of this alive.”

“Somehow I don’t find myself confident…” Despite the obvious insult intended, he could understand the reluctance. Not too long ago Gentle himself was a Villain, and not a particularly good one at that. But if there was anything that his years of failure and mediocrity as a Villain had taught him to do, it was how to make an exit. He looked up towards the ceiling, it was made of drop ceiling tiles. That meant they could be easily removed. Going up into the ceiling presented a serious risk, but it was a safer option than simply running out into the open towards the door.

“I’m afraid you’ll need to learn to have confidence in my abilities.” He put his hands on the ground. There would only be one chance to get up there, but that was all he needed. “You may also want to cover your head.”

“What are you-?“ The floor became elastic, causing the objects scattered around the room to begin bouncing. Nagant fired a volley of rounds into the room, but none were able to hit their marks due to the sheer chaotic bounciness that filled the area.

“We’re going up.” He grabbed the president, then bounded off of the floor and through the ceiling. The vinyl tiles easily broke into several pieces as they came crashing through, Gentle pulling himself onto one of the supporting beams with the president. “Crawl forward. The further we are into the building, the less likely that she will be able to hit her intended target.”

“No matter where you are, I will find you.” The voice from the microphone spoke again, slowly becoming distant as they crawled away. A hail of bullets rained into the room they were just in, bouncing off of the floor and into the ceiling. He could see tiny impacts of dust as they easily punched through the tiles, one even barely missing him and shearing the edge off of his mustache.

“With the extremes that she’s going to to try and kill you, I’m becoming more inclined to believe that what she said about her past was true.”

“If you want to continue on the path of a Hero, then you’ll forget everything that she said.”

“In a way you’ve confirmed it…” Getting such a response from someone who was supposed to keep Heroes honest, he felt less inclined to protect her. But he had no choice except to continue helping her. He did want to become a Hero after all, it was his original dream. And now that La Brava was a part of it he couldn’t give it up. “Is there any safe place for you to stay?”

“The building has a bunker on the sixth sublevel, but it’s one that she knew about while she worked with us. There’s no guarantee that she didn’t perform sabotage.”

“Then I suppose that means the only way to keep her from trying to kill you is by going directly after her.” Eventually they reached the wall that separated the conference room from the hallway. Elasticizing the beams, he distorted them to allow enough space for him and the president to crawl through. Once they were both through he dropped from the elastic beam and back into the hall, narrowly blocking several more bullets that were meant for them. “Would you happen to know anything that could help me against Lady Nagant?”

“There’s nothing that I can tell you without several serious breaches of security.”

“More secrets to hide? Then I suppose that I won’t pry any further.” He followed the layout of the hallway that he remembered running down, eventually making it back towards the elevator. “In that case, I need you to stay here as I attempt to apprehend Lady Nagant.” He broke through the drop ceiling beneath them, falling through with the president and surprising a pair of guards that had just come out of the elevator. Now he was free to pursue.

“She’s a stone cold killer, how can you possibly hope to go after and apprehend her?”

“Is it not part of the job?”

“You’re a damned fool.”

Without another word he quickly changed style of engagement. Now without a person to protect he could go all out. He elasticized several layers of air to bounce off of, quickly accelerating him down the hallway in the direction of the conference room, inside the room and then out the window. “If it’s a fool's game, then let this one play his part.” He grabbed one of the larger panes of glass that were still relatively intact, taking it with him as he flew out and elasticizing it. As he flew through the air a number of bullets went flying past him, narrowly missing him. He then raised the elastic glass, blocking a bullet that would shave gone straight into his chest.

“You shouldn’t have come here, not unless you planned to die today.” Nagant was able to shout at him and be heard now, meaning that she was much closer than he’d originally thought

“It certainly doesn’t seem that way.”

“Then allow me to clear up that misconception.” She fired another two times, and only one of the two shots missed. The bullet passed through his left thigh, hindering his immediate ability to control the way he moved. He tumbled through the air, landing face first onto a nearby rooftop where he quickly sought cover. “You know, you didn’t have to come after me. They won’t reward you for this, and if you die trying to capture me then they won’t mourn you either.”

“I don’t know much about you, so you shouldn’t make any assumptions about me either.” He grit his teeth in pain as he looked down at his left leg, it was bleeding pretty badly. He dropped the pane of glass to his side and let it shatter, having lost its elasticity. He then picked up one of the shards, using it to cut off a part of his cape in an attempt to create a makeshift tourniquet.

Stolen novel; please report.

“I don’t need to know who you are to know what you want. You’re just like all the other aspiring Heroes out there, you don’t care about the people that are at risk or the lives you stand to save. You only care about fame and riches.

“I won’t lie by saying that my initial aspirations for being a Hero were noble, because I know they weren’t. But I realized that after I fought someone, I had sought to make an impact for the wrong reasons.” He took the shard of glass and extended it out of cover, and almost as soon as he did a bullet ripped through the shard and shattered it into even smaller pieces. He’d just narrowly avoided losing his fingers. But now he knew where she was

“So what, you got your butt kicked and now you’re good? Do you honestly expect me or anyone else to believe that you’ve actually changed?”

“I don’t expect anyone to simply take me at my word. Instead, I intend to prove the change to them”

“Then show me.”

Both of them knew where each other were, there was only one last chance to try and get an attack in. There was no turning back. He was going to stop this Villain or he would die trying. First he took a deep breath, steeling himself for what he was about to do. Then he stepped out of cover, and three bullets were fired in his direction. “Gentle Shield!” His timing was off. The first bullet managed to get through before he’d formed the shield, striking him in the abdomen. The second bullet was caught in between the layers, vigorously bouncing back and forth between them before reaching such an angle that it was sent straight into the ground. And the third…

“Damnit!” The third bullet had bounced back perfectly, just as he hoped, and struck the sniper. He didn’t know where it had hit them, but he didn’t need to know. Having landed a blow was enough for him. He fell to his knees, then slumped over onto the ground with blood pouring out of his jacket. He’d done his part.

----------------------------------------

“Damnit… It wasn’t supposed to go this way.” Kaina ducked into cover and clutched at the wound, one of her bullets was flung back at her and lodged itself into her lower abdomen. She was lucky that it hadn’t been one of her hollowpoints, otherwise she would be in a lot more trouble.

She quickly stood back up, if she was going to kill the commission president then she had to move in now and fast. “I took my time to respond because the call came from him, but it looks like that was just my pride causing me to be stubborn. I won’t make any more mistakes like that.”

Kaina took a deep breath, she knew that stoic voice well enough. “You shouldn’t have come here Enji, my fight isn’t with you.”

“You don’t have the right to speak my name. Not after what you did before, not after your escape from Tartarus and not after today either.”

“Can’t you see that what I’ve done is for good reason? You’re at the top, you’ve been at the top for years now. Someone like you should know just how much corruption has taken hold of the system of Hero, and how much it has been fostered by the Hero Public Safety Commission.”

“No matter what the state of Heroes or the system is, it does not justify the wanton level of violence and destruction you’ve committed.”

“Then put me down.” She popped her arm out of cover and leveled her rifle, Endeavor was squarely in her sights.

“You’ve completely lost touch with what a Hero is supposed to be!” Kaina rapid fired a hail bullets, Endeavor used his flames to maneuver himself to the side and avoid them. At this range he would be able to avoid her bullets, but only for a time. She sprinted out of cover and ran towards the edge of the rooftop, wincing from the pain and jumping across to the next rooftop. Her problem was that it was nearly impossible to avoid his flames or get away from him entirely. So if she was going to get out of here, then she needed to get him into a corner and force him to back off. But how?

“That’s not as bad of a thing as you think it is.” Endeavor came flying up from the side of the building this time, letting loose with his fires.

“It is!” As the flames blasted forward she rolled to the side, avoiding most of it but leaving her left side with burns on her skin and clothes. Endeavor was holding back, but only by a little. “The only way to cause effective change is from the inside, gradually. Trying to cause change through drastic measures won’t work.”

“That’s easy for you to say, someone who ignores the problems in front of him.” She dove behind a wall near the edge of the rooftop as another wave of flames came rolling. Endeavor was attacking purposefully, making sure that his fire was hot enough to burn her but not strong enough to cause collateral damage. She would have to abuse that. The moment the flames died down she quickly retrieved a rope and anchor, swinging off of the rooftop and through a window two levels down the building. There was a cacophony of screams as she burst through, the office workers startled by her sudden appearance.

“Don’t involve them!” Endeavor quickly flew down from above, flying into the room.

She grabbed the officer worker nearest to her, retrieving a knife from her jacket and putting it to the man’s throat. Then she leveled her rifle at Endeavor. “Each and every one of them has been involved, whether they like it or not. They support corrupt Heroes, manipulative organizations! They’re the reason this gilded age has gone on for as long as it has, so they should know who it is that’s fighting for them!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I don’t know what’s going on! Please just let me go!” Her captive pled with her, but she refused to budge.

Endeavor grimaced, toning down his flames. “Let him go.”

She turned and began to walk backwards, towards the window she’d broken through. “Sure, I’ll let him go. But you’d have to let me leave.”

“That I can’t allow.”

“Then you‘ll just have to live with the consequences.” She pulled the knife away from the man’s throat and then threw him at Endeavor, opening fire with her rifle. As she fired off a burst of three rounds Endeavor blasted forward, taking two bullets to the shoulder and sending all three of them flying out of the window. He grabbed the hostage, tempering his flames as the two of them fell towards the sidewalk while leaving Kaina to fall. But that wouldn’t be enough to get rid of her. She extended her rifle and used it to catch the edge of the floor at the last moment, dragging it just long enough to slow herself and give her time to reposition herself. She then swung down, going one floor down and busting through another window with her burnt left arm.

Once on her feet she quickly began to run towards the other side of the room, making her way over towards another window where her line of sight was better. Then she shattered the window, lined up her rifle and prepared herself “Nagant! You can’t-“

“Spare me the lecture and don’t come any closer,” she turned around, her rifle still aimed at her target. “Across from this building is a small park, one where a lot of families come to visit with their kids. Right now I have my rifle trained on one such familyy. Before you could rush me down I can let loose enough bullets to kill at least one of them.”

“You’re bluffing, you wouldn’t-“

“You’ve got wool over your eyes.” Her voice was resolute, and she made her intentions come across as genuine.

“You don’t gain anything from killing them.”

“You’re right, I don’t. But I won’t lose anything either. Meanwhile you’ll have to live with the weight of more lost lives on your head.” Endeavor went silent, “What is it going to be?”

Endeavor grit his teeth in silence, staring her down. “Get out of here Nagant, I don’t ever want to see you here again.”

On the Flipside

Spartan entered the room, “Gentle is going to be fine, the bullet didn’t do much damage and the doctors have already extracted it. The only thing he’ll have is some minor pain for the next week, but everyone has that with their first bullet wound.”

All Might let out a sigh, “You make even being shot sound trivial.”

“When you’ve been shot at for the majority of your life, and taken as many bullets as I have, being shot loses its flare.”

“Mr. Aurdel,” Midoriya spoke up, “Since when were you working with Gentle?”

He folded his arms, “Despite butting heads constantly, the commission asked me to help with his and La Brava’s rehabilitation as Heroes. Not sure what the word on that will be after today though. Regardless,” he rubbed the back of his head, “All Might, Midoriya triggered another quirk.”

“Seriously?!” He was caught off guard, “Which quirk was it?”

“Well… I floated.”

All Might let out a sigh of relief, “That would mean you got my master’s quirk, which shouldn’t be as tough for you to control. How did it trigger?”

“It was another emotional trigger. I told him about the truth behind the Nomus, and what had happened to Eraserhead and Present Mic’s friend.”

“That information was supposed to be-“

Spartan cut him off, “Whether you like it or not, Midoriya is connected to the investigation against All For One by virtue of being your successor and having your quirk. If he wants to know something then we don’t really have the right to deny him. Either way, there are more pressing matters,” he pointed a finger at All Might, “You need to hurry up with that research on the previous holders of One For All. If he encounters something that he can’t control, we’ll have more than one problem on our hands.”

“I understand the urgency, but it’s not easy for me to come up with and compile all this information,” All Might said, a little exasperated, “The chaotic early years of the emergence of quirks meant that a lot of the standardized official recordkeeping for quirks hasn’t yet existed. On top of that, many of the records relating to previous One For All holders have either been lost to time or deliberately destroyed to maintain secrecy. Even the official records of my master have many glaring open holes.”

“All I’m saying is that the sooner you get your hands on that information, the easier it’ll be to train Midoriya to handle those quirks. Do you at least have information on the two quirks he’s triggered so far?”

“I do.” All Might reached into his desk, retrieving the first notebook he’d filled out. “Here, this contains all the information I could gather on the three holders that came before me.”

Spartan took the notebook, quickly thumbing through the pages. Then he closed it. “Alright. Midoriya, I’m going to try and come up with something based on the information in here. But you should go and get back to class, we can talk once the school day is over.”

“Can I have a look?” Midoriya tried to sneak a peek, but Spartan moved the notebook away.

“Not now. I know that if you take a look now you’ll spend the rest of your classes preoccupied with what you saw, and the last thing I need you to do is flunk a test because you got curious.” Midoriya, a little disappointed, left the room. “I also need to talk with Bakugo and Todoroki as soon as I get a chance.”

“Concerned after their run-in with Stain?”

“The last time UA students encountered Stain, he was arrested and the League of Villains got a popularity boost. The last thing I need to happen is have them become targets because they were some of the last people to fight Stain before he was put back in prison.”

“Wouldn’t you be more of a target than them?”

“I can more than defend myself against a bunch of rabid sycophants, it’s also in my character. I’m more concerned about them.” After that, Spartan left.

All Might let out a sigh. When he’d been made to retire, a part of him had really hoped that things would get better with All For One locked away in Tartarus. But with every day that passes he can’t help but feel that things are only getting more complicated.

“A phone call is-!” His cellphone suddenly rang.

Forgetting to ever check the number, he answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Hey All Might, it’s been a while.”

“Oh, Cassie. I didn’t know you were calling.”

“Jeez, you sound really beat.”

All Might laid down on the couch in the individual conference room, “Sorry, it’s been a bit of a rough day so far.”

“I’m sure. I actually heard what happened, so I wanted to see how you were doing. It’s been a while since I called anyways.”

“Did the news really spread that fast?”

“To the US? Of course! It’s been a long time since you were a Hero here, but people still haven’t forgotten. They still keep up with all your news.”

Hearing that managed to put a little life back into him. “That’s nice to hear.”

“But how have things been? I know you’ve been relatively busy with teaching at that school.”

“Yes… It’s been a wild few months for sure. I don’t think anything I intended has actually gone to plan,” he rubbed the back of his head, “But I think in some ways that’s a good thing. Life wouldn’t be nearly as fun if everything went the way they were supposed to be.”

“That’s for sure. Any curveballs that come my way? I face them head on.”

“Right,” he had a slight smile on, “But what about you? How are things in the states?”

“Over here? Things aren’t bad, but it’s certainly a little more tense.”

“Villains?”

“No, politics. Elections were this year, so everyone was bound to get riled up. But it’s been especially bad this year. You heard about that quirk liberation party on the west coast, right?”

“Only vaguely.”

“They're fairly new, but they managed to get a lot of votes. Not enough to win but enough to split the presidential vote, and a lot of people are calling foul play.”

“But they don’t actually pose any threat, do they?”

“Not as far as I know, but I have my suspicions. Besides that people are worked up about what’s going on in Europe and the Middle East, some are saying that a war might start.”

“Sometimes I forget about how big of a world we live in,” he coughed. “But we shouldn’t talk about politics, at least not this soon. Especially not this close to the holidays. How’s your family?

“They’re doing well. My parents are getting old, but they’re still managing to stay strong in spite of it. And my sister is getting married soon, they’re going to hold the ceremony in February.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and now that she’s getting married she won’t stop telling me about how I have to get married too. That, ‘Soon it’ll be too late to find the person that’s right for me.’”

He gave a small chuckle, “It’s nice for her to be concerned, but I don’t think you’d have any trouble finding a partner.”

“What about you? I can imagine now that you’re retired as a Hero, a lot of people have been trying to get you to find someone too.”

“I think that’d be an understatement. People kept pushing me towards it when I was a Hero, but now it’s almost tenfold. Even Nighteye was pressuring me to try dating.”

“I’m not surprised, from what I heard he always was the type to be overly concerned about you.”

“Yes… But I don’t think it’s something I should pursue, at least not now. Right now I want to make sure that my students get the best education I can possibly give them.”

“That makes sense, but…” She paused.

“Cassie?”

She let out a sigh, “All Might, ever since you saved me and my family back in Santa Monica I’ve trusted your judgment on almost everything. But that man you’re teaching with, Spartan. I don’t think he can be trusted.”

“I know that he’s a rather unknown figure, but…”

“It’s not just that. The way he operates, the way he deals with criminals, is completely different from what you used to do. Something like that isn’t a good influence on young minds, especially since what he does seems to go completely unchecked.” She continued, “What worries me even more is that, at least from the metrics I see, he’s gained a worrying amount of support for his brutal methods in a short period of time. Normally I’m willing to support a Hero of the people, but the way he acts is more like a populist feeding off of the uncertainty from your retirement. And the last thing we need is some Hero spearheading a national takeover.”

He gave a nervous chuckle, “I think you’re overstating it, he’s not the kind of person to do something like that. But I’ll keep an eye on him if you think I should.”

“Thanks, I knew I could count on you.”

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Two days had passed since Kaina's attempted assassination of the Hero Public Safety Commission president. To the public it seemed like the attempt was stopped by the timely intervention of two Heroes, one completely unheard of and the other resting at the number one spot of the leaderboard. Because of that the two were praised, with the former beginning a breakout on the Hero scene. But this would only be overshadowed by other events. Hours later, the public thought that she had struck again. While being transported to another location inside of an armored ambulance, a sniper had fired a single round and killed the commission president. The death of a public official shocked the public, sending waves across Japan and even to other countries around the globe. To everyone, it looked like even public officials were no longer safe from the wrath of a Villain. But Kaina hadn’t been the one to kill the president. She’d been too busy trying to escape from the police.

“I was expecting you earlier, Nagant.”

“Getting here wasn’t easy. Security presence across the city has increased dramatically, and law enforcement is kicking into next gear to try and find me after what I did. The fact that I’ve managed to elude them so far is a complete miracle.”

“But now that you’re here, I want to tell you something.” The man whipped out his arm, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her into the air. “The job I gave you was to kill the Hero Public Safety Commission president, and to give Gentle a moment to prove himself in front of the public. Instead you killed a number of unrelated people, sent Gentle to the hospital and didn’t even succeed in killing the president. Instead, I had to finish the job. The proper way.” He brushed his hand across her left side.

She grappled with the powerful hand across her neck, “We… Had a deal!”

“One that you didn’t bother to uphold, even when I wrote out all the details for you on paper. For something like that I could kill you and leave your body for the police to find.” He paused, letting go of her neck and dropping her onto the cold rooftop. She wheezed as she tried to catch her breath, looking up towards him. The first snow of winter was beginning to fall, snowflakes glittering in the air. “But I won’t, it's not a good enough reason to.”

She coughed, looking down at herself. Then she finally caught her breath. “My wounds… How did you heal them?

“Nagant, I don’t want to see you anywhere near here anytime soon. Target whoever you want in your crusade against corrupt Heroism, I’ll stay out of the way for the most part. Just know this: if I come face to face with you again, I will kill you where you stand.”

Kaina stood up, unsure. She couldn’t tell if this guy was bluffing or not. “Before I leave, I want just one answer. Who the hell are you?” She rubbed her sore throat. “Regardless of what would have happened to me, I was always planning to attack the commission. But then out of nowhere you contacted me and made it a job, one where it would no longer be a suicide mission. I failed. And now, after failing and no longer being of any use, you’re just going to let me walk away? With no repercussions?”

“Senseless killing is for psychopaths, and backstabbing is for narcissists. I don’t believe in practicing either of the two.”

She paused. “You told me that you’re not a Hero. What are you then? A Villain?”

“A soldier.”