The curtains were already drawn shut when the woman entered the dark office. She closed the door as silently as possible before turning her attention to the man in a corner. He was dressed in a neatly ironed suit and standing inconspicuously in the corner of the room, despite two bright red wings that jutted out from his back.
“Jelly Girl, report.”
The woman’s throat tightened. Although she already had a good three years of hero experience under her belt, she’d never gotten used to liaising directly with the chief of the Hero Public Safety Commission. It wasn’t about ranking or hierarchy or anything like that. The man himself had an air of unnerving mystery around him, as though his true intentions were veiled by layers upon layers of deception.
She took a deep breath. It’s just a job.
“Yes, Hawks— Sir,” Jelly Girl stuttered before composing herself. “I’ve been doing as you asked, and I think I may finally have a promising lead.”
If Hawks was surprised or even satisfied, his face did not show it. Instead, he kept his silence, using it as a cue for her to continue.
“It’s as you’ve said, Mister Takami. All these villain attacks have been extremely coordinated thus far, but I’ve managed to find a weak link. The tracker you gave me is on one of the villains right now. If all goes well, he’ll lead us straight to…”
Her voice trailed away as her throat tightened again. She closed her eyes, forcefully shutting out the memories of her ordeal with that villainous man.
“— To our target,” she finished her sentence after a hard gulp.
“Were you exposed, Kanna?”
It took the woman a while to notice Hawks’ hand on her shoulder. She looked up, meeting his eyes. Intense attention was etched onto his golden-brown irises, but she could also see the concern and worry behind them.
Kanna Shimizu shook her head, plucking up her courage. “No, I’m quite positive he didn’t spot me. If this works, I won’t have to pretend to play on both sides anymore.”
“Yamato Gouma is extremely smart. Be careful,” Hawks said. “It’s the reason why we still can’t gather enough evidence to nail all his crimes. If I could, I’d arrest that damn Yakuza head right away. But if I did, they’d just be even more on guard, and it’s going to be impossible to nail them by then.”
Kanna pursed her lips as well. Unlike most pro heroes basking in the spotlight, she shared none of the glory but all of the burden. And after a few poor life decisions, she soon found herself struggling to make ends meet as a single mother with two children to raise. That was when Mister Yamato Gouma walked into her life.
Immediately dropping his charade as a simple businessman, the head of the Yakuza offered her a loan in exchange for a much more lucrative task.
As such, Kanna grudgingly agreed to work undercover in the hero world, gathering information and sabotaging certain vital hero operations for the benefit of the Yakuza. It was a risky and dishonourable job, but being a public hero was the only thing she knew. She’d rather swallow the disgrace than be discharged for her crimes and have her children starve through no fault of their own.
However, she soon found out about the absurd interest rate of the loan. The services quickly turned into blackmail as Yamato threatened to expose her deeds to the Hero Public Safety Commission.
Kanna remembered her whole world crashing down around her that day. That man had her on a leash, and that damn thing was full of spikes.
But the blackmail did not last long. For better or for worse, the chief of the HPSC, Hawks, quickly found out about Kanna’s situation after a few slip-ups on her part. And so he confronted her personally.
After a series of dramatic breakdowns and tearful confessions, Hawks saw an opportunity to twist her disadvantageous position to her advantage instead. This time, he instructed her to stay in her position and counterspy on the Yakuza.
Whether that decision was borne of aggressive opportunism or genuine faith in her, Kanna was too beaten down to care anymore. All that mattered to her was that she was at least playing on the good side now.
“Keep me posted about the tracker’s location,” Hawks instructed after a brief pause. “This job gets more dangerous by the day. Trust me, I’ve been through it as well. I’d like to end this as quickly as possible.”
“Will do. What should I tell Gouma?”
Hawks put his hands behind his back, looking absentmindedly into the distance. “Just tell him Eraserhead is taking a break for personal reasons, so he won’t be patrolling the streets for the next few weeks. Might serve us well to lower Gouma’s guard even further. Besides, it’s not false intel either; he shouldn’t suspect a thing.”
Kanna nodded stoically. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll be reporting to the Yakuza now.”
“Jelly Girl.”
The hero turned back.
“The end is near. So play it safe, will you? Stay alive for your family’s sake. I’ll make sure your family is better off once all this is over.”
The door closed.
Hawks trudged back to his desk and turned the computer monitor on again. Light flashed on his grim expression as he observed a traffic camera footage of the CEO of Cooper Inc. speaking with a young vigilante.
“Miles Cooper…” the chief muttered to himself, deep in thought.
“I hope I won’t have to rely on you.”
~ ~ ~
Night had fallen, and the Red Light District rose from its slumber. Music and movement sprang to life as the streets woke up quicker than a wide-eyed kid on his first day of school. It was a warm, wet night. In other words, playtime for the beautiful and dangerous.
Taxis pulled up beside a group of beckoning girls, vomiting a handful of riotous-looking men right in front of their hungry eyes. The sloppily dressed men laughed over some apparently hilarious joke before strutting into the hostess club, brand new girlfriends for the night in tow.
None of them so much as cast a careless glance behind, and so the woman took her chance to follow them in.
After a few more minutes of slithering on the floor, Kanna Shimizu reformed herself in the female toilet. Her nose wrinkled in disgust as she flicked the wetness off her hands. She could be as runny as water in her jelly-liquid form, but it did not mean that dirt would not still stick to her skin. She was quite literally moving her body on the floor, after all.
The woman had shed her hero pelt now and was dressed in a cute-looking miniskirt accompanied by a sleeveless low-cut top that revealed her figure generously. Everything felt uncomfortable and strange. But if it meant avoiding questions from some sharp-eyed hostesses, she’d gladly endure wearing this provocative outfit for the whole night.
She opened the toilet door and headed for the highest floor.
A few scantily clad women giggled as they walked down the stairs beside her. They looked completely at home prancing around in what was pretty much just their underwear, unlike the female hero, who was constantly trying to pull her skirt lower. Hell, they were probably laughing at how she was blushing the entire time.
“It’s just a job,” Kanna reminded herself as the humiliating catwalk mercifully ended. She found herself in front of a rosewood door.
The undercover hero took a deep breath to calm her emotions. Her quirk allowed her to change her form from solid to liquid, including anything between these states. The only drawback was that it worked in response to her emotions. She’d be royally screwed if her legs jellified at the wrong moment and betrayed how nervous she was.
Kanna pushed the door open.
“Well, well. Dressed for the occasion now, are we?”
The woman could almost feel his eyes probing and scanning through her body. She clenched her jaw silently. That man definitely chose this meeting location on purpose, knowing that she had to blend in before she could even enter the premises.
To make things worse, he had chosen the highest floor to meet. It was extremely difficult for her to climb the stairs in her liquid form, which meant that she had no choice but to walk up wearing her skimpy disguise in full view of everyone.
Lecherous bastard.
“Mister Gouma.” She nodded grudgingly at the man seated on a red velvet couch across from her. He was dressed in a very classy business suit, a huge contrast to his tacky-looking surroundings. A masked bodyguard stood almost discreetly beside him.
Kanna eyed her apprehensively.
The female assassin had metal plates for armour and padded steel knuckles, along with the obvious outline of weapons poorly concealed in a black overcoat that draped her upper body. She remained completely still, almost like a robot awaiting its next order to terminate yet another loose end in the Yakuza.
‘Kusanagi’ was that bodyguard’s villain name, as the undercover hero had learnt from the lower ranks of the Yakuza members. Named after the sword that the sun goddess Amaterasu gave to her grandson Ninigi when he descended to earth to become the ruler of Japan, the ever so ‘humble’ Yamato Gouma had chosen Kusanagi to represent his divine authority in the Yakuza as well.
Straddling the line between light and dark, the cunning Yakuza head had perfectly covered up his illegal dealings by masquerading as a parliament member of the Constitution of Japan. And like a warped version of the celestial myths, he likened himself to a god, discharging his ‘heavenly duties’ whilst dwelling in the mortal realm.
“So, what do you have for me this time?” Yamato swirled his wine glass with a neutral expression.
“Eraserhead will be on private leave soon, so he won’t be patrolling the streets for a while.”
“Is that so?” The Yakuza boss was still examining his glass. “Anything else you’d like to tell me?”
“Sorry, Mister Gouma. I don’t have any more intel.” Kanna bowed her head hesitantly.
Meetings with Yamato usually included further questions about her information, especially since he needed to garner public opinion for his recent political pursuits as well. Why was he so disinterested now?
“Not even about the tracker you placed on Watanabe?”
Alarm bells screamed in her mind as her body immediately tensed up. When did I slip up? Nobody was supposed to know about that! Oh no… No, no, no…
“You really are ravishing, hero.” Yamato stood up slowly, downing the rest of his alcohol. “Pity how time erodes gratitude more quickly than it does beauty.”
Kanna shuffled back as the man continued walking forward, his eyes fixated on her cleavage this time. Every fibre of her body screamed at her to cover herself up, but she could not find the will to move. All her mind could do was replay Yamato’s threats on her family over and over again.
The woman flinched as his coarse palm met her cheek, expecting a slap. But he only caressed it gently and slowly traced his fingers down to her bare shoulder. Goosebumps ran through her body; she had never felt so naked before.
“You’re shivering. Feeling cold?” Yamato’s voice dripped with venom. “A tad too late to cover up now, isn’t it?”
Kanna was now frozen like a deer in headlights.
“When you were down on your luck, I came to you offering a place to stay,” the man said. “When you spread your legs for the wrong man, I came to you offering money to fix your mistakes. All I asked in return was your loyalty to the Yakuza, but you couldn’t even do that. What a useless, stupid bitch. After everything I’ve done for you, you treat me like a chump. You forget your place, woman.”
Memories of her school days flashed before Kanna’s eyes. Her optimism to change the world for the better, no matter how small her part was; her classmates who supported her in their tough training; her promise to her teachers that she would be an unwavering hero.
Tears welled up in her eyes. What have I become…?
“I… am a hero, and you… You are a villain.” Kanna stood up taller. “No matter how far I have fallen, I will never stop being a hero. My mistakes are not yours to fix, Yamato Gouma. I’ll do things the right way, and I’m not afraid to die trying!”
Yamato gave her a confused stare for a brief moment, before smirking again. He turned away, walking back to his seat.
“How do you know? You’ve never tried death before.” He fished out his phone, scrolling through something. “You picked the wrong day to grow a spine, Jelly Girl.”
Yamato stood up and turned away, tapping his bodyguard’s shoulder. Kusanagi nodded knowingly.
“Don’t make a mess."
ns216.73.217.69da2
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