Chapter 8: Blazing Hero – Inferna③

When Inferna, having lost her opponent, walked over toward me, I greeted her with applause.

"Good work out there~. You were amazing, Inferna."

When praised, Raiden tends to fidget bashfully, while Snowfox would reply crisply with thanks. I wondered how Inferna would react.

As I watched the flames where her face should’ve been, they gradually weakened.

From roaring high heat down to a simmer… until finally, they went out.

And a human woman’s face appeared.

Whoa, is this okay? If the monster-head fans find out, they’ll probably die from sheer “this isn’t my interpretation” shock.

Also, could you not just casually reveal your face like that? You’re a hero!

I was about to complain when I noticed tears sliding down her cheeks. I stiffened in surprise.

"I… I ruined a young girl’s life…"

"H-hey, it’s not worth crying over…"

That wording really gave the wrong impression.

It’s not that bad, okay? Just left a handprint on my arm.

But apparently Inferna was wracked with guilt over accidentally burning me.

Well, hurting someone without meaning to would shake anybody up.

It’s like the guilt of hitting someone with your car by accident, or bumping into them and knocking them over.

And given her heroic sense of justice, she probably agonizes over those things even more than most.

I could explain my special condition to her here, but… this is our first meeting. Not the kind of thing to share right away. Maybe next time.

So for now, I just offered some half-hearted comfort to the crying woman.

"Look, if you become a super-famous hero, that burn mark will be like an awesome autograph I can brag about, right? So work hard for that."

"S-snffhh… Y-you’re so kind, young lady…"

Her makeup was a complete mess from crying, her face a disaster.

Mascara or eyeliner—whatever it was—had smudged, leaving dark rings around her eyes like a panda.

I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket and handed it to Inferna.

"Want to talk? I can listen, if you’d like."

My attempt at comfort was half-baked as always, but her tears flowed harder.

If something this small made her break down, she must’ve really been at her limit. Makes me worry she’ll get tangled up with some bad guy someday.

Though, since I’m a girl now, maybe I’m safe. Guess I’ll just keep her company.

So I listened. But the story went on and on, long past when the police showed up. Eventually, Inferna scooped me up and carried me off to a family restaurant.

Her head wasn’t on fire anymore, and she had changed out of her hero costume in a public restroom, so now she looked like just an ordinary adult woman with ruined makeup.

She must’ve washed her face a little—her panda eyes weren’t as bad now.

She looked like a serious woman who suited her Boston-style glasses. Since she only put them on after changing into regular clothes, they didn’t seem to be some fireproof special model.

She introduced herself as Akasawa Hina.

Thirty years old. Former office worker. Quit her job, now unemployed.

Unlike Yukiya—Snowfox Seco—she looked surprisingly young. Even with ruined makeup, she had a baby face.

Honestly, heroes shouldn’t be revealing their private details so casually, but I didn’t want to risk making her cry again, so I held my tongue.

"I’ve always been like this. Clumsy, slow, too strong for my own good… nowhere near ladylike…"

Her story jumped all over the place—from struggles job-hunting, to embarrassing childhood memories.

I just listened without interrupting and tossed in the occasional “uh-huh” or “yeah.”

I’m basically an old man at heart, so I’m good at listening absentmindedly. I mean, nobody remembers old guys’ bar stories anyway.

"My real self is the one when I’m a hero. So, you see, the burning head is the normal me."

"So right now, this isn’t normal?"

"I’m forcing it, pretending to be human. If I depress myself enough, my head turns human."

"…That sounds rough."

So that’s why she looked gloomy ever since her face appeared—not just because I made her cry.

Still, that sounded exhausting.

If she has to constantly hold her emotions down to keep her head human, then where’s the fun in life?

Inferna gave a thin, dead-eyed smile.

"At home, I let it burn all I want."

"What about your glasses?"

"I don’t need them when I’m burning. It’s like I see without eyes, hear without ears, speak without a mouth… I can’t really explain it."

"Hoooh…"

"Living while pretending to be someone I’m not is just… draining."

Wearing the face of pure fatigue, the hero Inferna murmured:

"One day, I suddenly stopped caring about anything. I thought… maybe I should just destroy everything…"

"Yikes."

Wait—was I listening to a villain origin story right now?

"But when I tried, I got scared. I’m such a coward. I was about to go home when a villain started rampaging, and I thought—yes! Now I can beat something up with no guilt!"

Thank you, random villain, for being her punching bag.

Because of that, we were spared the birth of a truly terrifying villain.

If Inferna had gone evil, I’d probably have burned to death multiple times by now.

"And before I knew it, I’d ended up a hero. Since I was already half into the fight, I felt guilty backing out…"

"So you can become a hero by accident, huh?"

"I’m not cut out for this! I’m living off unemployment benefits right now! I can’t even save myself, how can I save anyone else?!"

"Hey, just admitting that much makes you pretty admirable. Work on taking better care of yourself first."

"S-snffhh… you’re an angel!"

Watching her flail like this, she clearly needed a proper counselor.

But then again, people with superhuman quirks are rare—that’s why they’re called superhuman.

There probably aren’t many therapists out there who can counsel someone with powers like hers.

"Don’t bottle it all up alone, okay? I’ll listen if you need, but try to find more people you can lean on."

"Waaaah…! If I had people like that, I wouldn’t have ended up like this…!"

"You’re really at rock bottom, huh."

Just then, the fire alarm went off, and the sprinklers kicked in.

The whole restaurant’s customers were suddenly soaked, some screaming, some cursing.

Inferna slumped over the table—maybe crying again.

I tucked my wet bangs behind my ears and made her a suggestion.

"Why not team up with a partner who can’t get burned?"

"As if someone like that would just conveniently exist…"

Well. Turns out, one does.