Chapter 67: Blood-Thread Villain - Bitvine④

"See you again!" Bitvine waved both hands cheerfully as she saw me off.

Since she said that, I’ll come back to see her again. She claimed she wasn’t very smart, but that didn’t seem true at all. At the very least, she understood perfectly the meaning behind my words, "Let’s be friends just the way we are now."

I didn’t want Bitvine to break out of prison. I wanted her to come out the proper way, without resorting to force. I wanted to give her a path other than becoming part of Public Security. She probably didn’t want to be an assassin anyway. But finding another way might take more time.

Hopefully, by then, her restraints will have been removed—not by her own hand, but because Public Security decides she no longer needs them.

"Honestly, you’re kinda creeping me out, old man."

"The hell’s with that being the first thing out of your mouth?"

Waiting for me just outside the room was Haze Fog—Usui-chan. Bitvine had been confined in a room that looked like an interrogation chamber. A one-way mirror allowed people outside to watch from the other side.

He must have listened in on our whole conversation. Still, that’s no reason to say I’m creepy. If anyone should feel weird about eavesdropping, it should be me.

"When Ratlord brought Inori-chan, sure, I’m just some laid-back old guy, so I could play along. But there’s no way you can do that with every villain, right?"

"Exactly. I only helped because you weren’t The Villain. That doesn’t mean I’ll get all buddy-buddy with every villain from now on."

"Yeah, but now it just sounds fake."

Mio said the same thing. What the hell. At the very least, I meant it sincerely.

"Bitvine’s a straightforward, good kid, isn’t she? What, is Public Security full of nothing but mean-spirited, tongue-tied types?"

"Ha ha ha! You might be right about that!"

Usui-chan burst out laughing. Maybe he thought of himself that way? Nah, neither really fit… though wait, he’s not Public Security anymore, is he?

"So who’s running the double-dealing then? If they’ve managed to keep ability users hidden from the public this long, there’s gotta be someone good at it."

"They’re too busy with other covert operations. It’s not just domestic—it’s international stuff too."

"Sounds like Public Security’s running out of people. Probably ‘cause you keep killing off ability users one after another."

"That’s probably true."

Instead of pulling out a cigarette, Usui-chan took a lollipop from his pocket and unwrapped it. Trying to quit smoking, maybe? Wouldn’t that weaken his ability—no, I guess smoking wasn’t directly tied to how his ability worked. As I watched him stick the candy in his mouth, something hit me.

"…Wait! Why the hell are you walking into Public Security with that casual face? Weren’t you supposed to be doing the whole hero thing!?"

"Well, you see… I figured it’s not good to always rely on others. So I decided to take action myself—getting hero recognition."

"Oh, nice. About time you started living seriously."

"That stings, kid."

He crunched the lollipop slightly, making a sour face. If he’s gonna go at candy like chain-smoking, now I’m worried he’ll end up with diabetes.

"If you can really pull that off, that’d be a huge advantage for me. I might even cooperate with Public Security a bit more. There’s gotta be other villains besides Bitvine who you don’t know how to deal with."

"…There are, yeah. But are you seriously thinking of rehabilitating them into heroes? That’s gonna be tough."

"If it’s impossible, fine. But if it works, it’d move things forward. Like the whole hero system implementation."

"Well… yeah…"

Usui-chan hesitated, then crunched the candy to pieces. Maybe this sudden quitting-smoking thing came from Yura-chan’s advice. Honestly, he suits being henpecked.

"Let’s work together, Usui-chan. We’ve both got people we wanna protect."

"Inori-chan, you’re ridiculously levelheaded—like you’re more grown-up than the grown-ups."

In a way, we’re both father and daughter. Roles reversed, maybe, but some parts overlap. Well, I am male—at least publicly. But officially, I’m considered the daughter. Usui-chan bit down on the lollipop stick, smiling at me.

"To me, you’re one of the kids I wanna protect too, Inori-chan. Don’t push yourself too hard, alright?"

"…Wait, are you trying to make me your second wife?"

"Wha—!? Don’t say stuff like that! That’s harassment!?"

He panicked harder than when Raiden or Ironclad showed up, or even during the subway rescue. For him, harassment was that terrifying. And I get it. Truth is, I was the one harassing just now. Damn, having a cute girl’s body makes me let my guard down.

"Just kidding, sorry."

"Cut it out with the heart-attack jokes. If I die, it’s gonna be lung cancer, and that’s final."

"Don’t say crap like that! You just tanked your likeability back to zero."

"Sorry, sorry, slipped out."

The way he apologized properly made it clear—my father’s cancer must be common knowledge within Public Security. Ugh, the way personal info leaks around here is unreal.

"Here, I’m giving this back."

When Usui-chan shoved his hand into his pocket, I thought he was about to pull out candy or a cigarette. Instead, what came out was a syringe.

I recognized it. It was the experimental treatment drug I’d handed over to him earlier.

Since I had no reason to refuse it, I took it back, but I asked him just to be sure.

"You sure? I gave it to you because I figured it wouldn’t hurt if you held onto it. It’s still in the trial stage, so I only wanted you using it as a last resort. Didn’t you go after Usuzumi just to get your hands on this stuff?"

"Sharp as always, Inori-chan."

So that hadn’t been Delta’s orders. Haze Fog had gone after my drug of his own accord. Delta had never targeted my medicine before.

"It’s fine, really. You just don’t want a repeat of what happened to your wife, right?"

"So you heard about that, huh."

Usui-chan exhaled with a long whoosh, smoke spilling from his mouth. But he wasn’t smoking—oh. Right. If he can turn his body into smoke, then it makes sense he can turn his breath into smoke too.

"Thing is, I’ve been rethinking things. Up until now, I’ve been way too reactive. I always prepared for the worst, planning out what to do if it came to that, but I never actually acted to prevent it from happening in the first place."

He snapped the lollipop stick clean in his palm as he spoke.

"I won’t let anyone lay a finger on Yura ever again."

The likeability score that had dipped back to zero tilted a little to the plus side again. People who have something they want to protect—that’s the kind of resolve I can respect.

"Is it okay if it’s just in her dreams?"

"…Wait, you really go visit her in there?"

Judging from that reaction, Yura-chan hadn’t told him. Just as she’d promised, she’d been meeting me in her dreams. I’d listened to her troubles here and there, but from the looks of it, the things she confided to me weren’t things she could tell her dad.

Keeping her secrets to myself, I gave Usui-chan some advice.

"Look, how much small talk you share is directly tied to how close you are as a family. What you just said makes for good determination as a hero, but as a dad? You’ve gotta put in more effort."

"…I’ll keep that in mind."

His voice came out like a sigh.

There are always things you can’t tell your parents—that’s normal. But the amount of unnecessary conversation you can have? That’s one way I measure closeness. No matter how boring the topic, stacking conversations is basically a declaration of wanting to be closer.

Well, maybe I was being a little too nosy, poking around in a family I barely knew.

"Have you thought about your signature yet?"

"Don’t you think you’re rushing things?"

…Should I not mention that Snowfox and Inferna both had signatures by the time I met them? Then again, they were already somewhat famous as heroes when I came across them.

"I know a fair bit about heroes, you know. If you get stuck, ask me."

"Can’t say that doesn’t sound reassuring."

Total meddling on my part, but… I get the feeling Haze Fog tries too hard to be perfect, to the point he can’t rely on anyone. Which in turn means nobody can rely on him. Despite giving off this air of being a laid-back old guy, he’s hopelessly rigid. For a guy made of smoke, he sure is inflexible. That’s probably how he’s lived his whole life.

"Wouldn’t mind if you leaned on me like before, though."

"If something like that kept happening, it’d shave years off this old man’s life."

"Then just rely on me for stuff that’s not life-or-death. Makes it easier on me too."

With a light laugh, Usui-chan asked me something out of the blue.

"So what are girls into these days?"

"Sorry. Really sorry. I have no idea. I’ll look it up."