Chapter 66: Blood-Thread Villain - Bitvine③
Bitvine pouted, making her displeasure toward Public Safety obvious.
"The way they do things is the complete opposite. All they want is to keep hiding. Pretend this country’s full of nothing but ordinary people—come on, that excuse expired ages ago. They’re too slow to adapt. Totally outdated."
"Yeah, right? I think the same thing."
"Inoritch, you get it~"
That much, I could agree with right away.
Their skill in keeping Ability Users hidden up until now was honestly impressive. Questionable methods, sure—but the results spoke for themselves.
But the moment Villain Delta showed up, the tide shifted.
No matter how tightly they clung to their old glory, the Japan they wanted wasn’t coming back.
It was long past time to change strategies. With Delta converting Public Safety officers into villains one after another, they were already behind.
"You ever met Delta?"
"Yeah. Seemed like someone you could talk to, but not really, y’know?"
"Gyahaha!"
Damn. I couldn’t help laughing, but honestly, I was impressed.
Delta’s speeches had swayed countless people, dragging them onto the path of villainy, yet they hadn’t swayed Bitvine at all.
Her choice to become a villain was her own—Delta had nothing to do with it.
"You interested in heroes?"
"Huh? Totally! My biggest regret about becoming a villain is like—ugh, I should’ve gone wild as a hero instead!"
"Gyahaha, right?"
I figured Bitvine had the makings of a hero. She’d just taken a wrong turn, rushed too fast, panicked too much. She deserved a shot at redemption.
"But being a hero’s tough, y’know. You’ve gotta manage your popularity."
"What’s that supposed to mean?"
"Basically, just solving cases isn’t enough. You’ve gotta be liked by the public. Which means you can’t do stuff they hate. Even if it’s inefficient, you protect lives and property first. And you can’t flaunt abilities that creep people out. Your blood-control power would probably freak folks, so you’d be heavily restricted."
"What—! That’s discrimination!"
"Exactly. But we’re not at the stage yet where anyone’s trying to fix it. Right now, if you don’t do what the government says, the default is ‘just kill ’em and be done with it.’"
"Ughhh, this world sucks~"
"Right? Totally sucks~"
Talk to a gal long enough and you start sounding like one. Same deal as picking up Kansai dialect.
Right now, since I looked like a pretty girl, it wasn’t too weird—but if some middle-aged guy started going, That’s hilarious~, it’d just be creepy. Gotta watch myself.
Bitvine had been rattling on like water on a board, but at last she stopped.
She licked her lips nervously, lowered her gaze, then peeked up at me from under her lashes.
A taller girl giving me puppy eyes… dangerous. Stuff like that could warp a man’s tastes.
"…So, um, you don’t hate me?"
"Why?"
"’Cause, like, you’ve been acting so normal around me that I totally missed my chance to apologize, but… I did something really awful, didn’t I?"
"Unfortunately, I haven’t had the kind of smooth life where what you did even registers as ‘awful.’"
I was about to add so there’s no need to apologize, when the words stuck in my throat.
The warm atmosphere from before had vanished. Bitvine narrowed her eyes, sharp and serious.
"You mean you’ve had things done to you worse than getting sliced clean in half?"
Bitvine’s specialty was weaving threads of her own blood into traps. She combined that with enhanced physical ability through blood-flow control to fight.
She’d stretch out blood-threads like barricades, keeping people at bay before striking.
Her main targets were politicians, her methods were protests, her rival was Raiden.
Among villains, she was on the relatively reasonable side.
She didn’t hurt people for fun, and she’d even managed to talk things out with Raiden.
So when Ratlord said she was about as incomprehensible as D.E.T.O.N.A.T.E., I didn’t get it.
Or maybe it was backwards—like saying, Hey, D.E.T.O.N.A.T.E. can actually be reasoned with, surprisingly. Was that supposed to be the compliment?
I once got caught in Bitvine’s blood-threads and ended up sliced clean in half.
To be precise, my ankle snagged, my right leg was blown off, then I fell wrong and—slash—my torso split too.
I remember vividly how shocked Bitvine herself had looked, like she never expected it to go that far.
Raiden took advantage of that hesitation and brought her down—but honestly, maybe I should be the one apologizing. It felt like I’d lured her into a trap by rattling her.
Though, to be fair, Raiden was just as shaken when he saw me split in two. Hesitation versus hesitation—maybe it was even in a weird way.
Since the cut was so clean, my body ended up reattaching itself. Even if the lower half had been completely gone, I feel like it would’ve regrown. I’ve already got a track record of growing a leg back, after all.
Bitvine lowered her gaze, her long lashes casting a shadow.
"Y’know… I’m a perpetrator too. But when the victim acts like it’s normal, it seriously pisses me off. Inoritch, want me to go punch the people who did worse to you instead?"
…Yeah, Bitvine’s a good one.
She was angry on my behalf, angry that I’d accepted being hurt as something natural.
Someone who can get angry for others—that’s kindness.
"Thanks. I don’t have the energy left to be angry myself, so it’s nice knowing there’s someone who’ll do it for me."
Bitvine stared at me for a moment, then flashed a grin, showing her canines.
She casually snapped the chain binding her to the wall, then stood. I wasn’t surprised.
Slapping her right fist into her left palm, she declared with fiery enthusiasm,
"Then let’s go beat those guys up right now! You can punch me at the end, and then we’ll be friends!"
"Gyahaha! You’re awesome, always trying to act right away! But nah, I’m good. I’ve got it handled."
I already knew the ridiculous strength Bitvine could muster when she got serious. Unless some secret tech was in play, restraints like these wouldn’t hold her long.
Sure enough, the moment she broke free, alarms started blaring. Footsteps pounded frantically up and down the hall outside.
That’s why Bitvine was one of the more decent villains. She’d willingly let herself be captured. Public Safety just didn’t realize it.
"Friendship’s not just give-and-take, y’know? Even if you do all this for me, I don’t have anything to give back. I might not be able to see us as equals if I’m just in your debt. So let’s be friends as we are now."
"Sounds good!"
Bitvine crushed the cuffs still hanging from her wrists with a squeeze, then held her hand out to me.
For a second, it looked way too threatening for just a handshake—like she was about to crush my hand instead. But she clearly had no idea it came off that way.
And I knew she wouldn’t actually do it.
So I laughed, and took her hand.
Comments (0)
Please login or sign up to post a comment.