That’s How They Became Villains

#24. Even Villains Need Someone to Watch Their Back -1-

[You have a new notification]

[Would you like to ch…]

Chae Yu-ha immediately clicked the X button to close the status window.

“Now, let’s begin the first regular meeting of the Evil Alliance.” “Woohoo~”

-Clap clap clap. The sound of applause rang out from all but one man.

“Why aren’t you clapping, mister?”

“Yeah, brother, clap with us.”

“……”

Clap, clap…clap.

“Heehee.”

Chae Yu-ha smiled as he reluctantly clapped when his sister asked.

Chae Yu-ha looked happily at the four people gathered and began speaking.

“First, we’ll have time for self-introductions. If anyone wants to go first, please raise your hand.”

“Me, me! I do!!”

Seolhwa, the most outgoing among them, raised her hand first and shouted.

“Then, shall we start with Seolhwa?”

“Yes! My name is Kim Seolhwa, I’m 18 years old and an enhanced human! I just recently received the procedure, so I’m not good at controlling the output when using my ability! My ability seems to be recovery? Or something similar! Actually, I don’t know much about my ability myself, but from the few experiments I’ve done, it seems I can’t heal things I don’t consider living! Thank you!”

“Great~ That was a wonderful introduction. Did everyone see? This is all you need to do. Now next is…”

“I’ll go.”

Surprisingly, the second to raise his hand was Kim Seok-ho, who harbored resentment toward Chae Yu-ha.

“Name, Kim Seok-ho. Kim Seolhwa’s brother here, age 33. An enhanced human, but I don’t have any abilities.”

“Why don’t you mention that you’re 33 and unemployed?”

“…….”

“I’m joking! I meant it would have been better if you had mentioned that you’ve worked in the food industry for over 10 years! Okay, next!”

Kim Seok-ho snorted and crossed his arms, as if suppressing his anger.

“Next, would Agio like to try?”

“Yes, ye…? I, I am…”

Agio bowed her head deeply and fidgeted with her hands as if checking Chae Yu-ha’s reaction.

“I’m…a 5th generation Vitaloid manufactured by Unhwa…My identification name is A.G.O…I was originally a household Vitaloid but was abandoned…Hehe. Since I’ve been doing nothing but browsing the internet all this time, I’m quite knowledgeable about that…”

Hearing this, Seolhwa jumped up from her seat.

“Agio! Are you talking about Agio who has three million subscribers on Arc?”

“Huh? Ah, yes…not anymore, but…”

“Wow! I’m a fan! Thanks to you, I was able to learn about how the world works while I was in the hospital!”

“Uhhh… R-really? Th-thank you…”

Seolhwa and Agio held hands and shook them up and down.

Of course, it wasn’t quite a handshake.

It was closer to Seolhwa unilaterally grabbing Agio’s hand and shaking it.

“What will you do, sister?”

“……”

Nazha looked at Chae Yu-ha with eyes that seemed to say she didn’t know how to respond.

From her perspective, it would be incomprehensible what purpose Chae Yu-ha had for doing this.

“Can’t do it? Then I’ll go first.”

Chae Yu-ha took a deep breath.

And just in case, she deployed her jamming ability at maximum power to check if there were any eavesdropping devices nearby.

‘…There’s none.’

Of course, not everyone was always plotting cowardly methods like Chae Yu-ha.

“My name is Chae Yu-ha, and it’s a pseudonym. I don’t have a real name. Nobody gave me one. My age is…sister, how old am I now?”

“…Twenty-two.”

“That’s right. Twenty-two. Wow, everyone! I just learned my age for the first time!”

As Chae Yu-ha joked, Seolhwa, who was listening carefully, tilted her head.

“Hmm? This introduction seems familiar, like I saw it on the internet recently.”

At that, Agio added:

“Uhh…It’s similar to…the introduction of a first-generation enhanced human named Last at the Supreme Court…”

Nazha looked at her with a complicated expression, as if she had caught on to Chae Yu-ha’s intention.

“Everyone is quite perceptive. It seems I do have an eye for people.”

Chae Yu-ha took another deep breath and continued speaking, making a special effort to maintain her smile.

“Shall we start over? My name is Chae Yu-ha, and I’m a first-generation enhanced human. My abilities are telekinesis and electrical signal control. I can control electrical signals flowing through the brain too, though it’s exhausting. Sometimes I see fragments of what will happen in the future, but I don’t think I can see them intentionally.”

“What?”

“Huh?”

“Uhh?”

“…….”

After Chae Yu-ha’s introduction, everyone present fell silent.

Seolhwa was the first to break the silence.

“Um…if you’re a first-generation enhanced human, that means you’re a survivor of the first enhanced human experiments, right?”

“I suppose so.”

“…You suppose?”

“Yes, I don’t remember anything from when I was young.”

Chae Yu-ha tapped her head with her finger as she spoke.

“I don’t remember anything about what happened there, who was there, nothing at all.”

“…Sigh, the more I hear, the less sense it makes.”

Kim Seok-ho interrupted, shouting:

“Then what exactly do you want? What are you trying to do by making us participate in your ridiculous villain game?”

“Ah, that hurts a bit…”

“We’re here because you gathered us! Be serious!”

The table shook with a ‘thud.’ It wasn’t a real slam. If it had been, the table would have already broken.

“Seriousness…”

Chae Yu-ha’s actions paused momentarily at Kim Seok-ho’s scolding.

She always thought of herself as a serious person. From the moment she fell into this world, she had never been anything but serious. Yet, to be told to be serious. That could, in a way, be a stabbing remark. “Do I seem like I’m joking to you?” And the only one who noticed this inner change in Chae Yu-ha was Nazha.

At that moment, the city lights seeped in through the window.

Then the expressions of the companions, which had been hard to see in the darkness, began to appear more clearly.

Different emotions were emanating from their expressions.

Fear, dread, anger, suspicion…

At this, Chae Yu-ha temporarily set aside the false smile that had been protecting her since she first came to this world.

And with half-sincerity, she said:

“You know, I want power. Power so great that no one can control me.

We have always lived lives that were controlled by something.

Even being born wasn’t my will, and what came after was even less so.

I was raised with the name ‘first generation’ for the beliefs of someone I didn’t even know.

But those beliefs were also shattered by someone else’s beliefs, and we lost the meaning of our existence.

I opened my eyes in a place where there was nothing.

My memories of why I was there were blurry. There was only garbage all around.

Thinking I had to survive somehow, I walked toward a place where light was shining.

There, everyone was busy looking for a being called a first-generation enhanced human.

The fact that I was the first generation they were talking about was really easy to figure out.

I was scared. I thought I couldn’t avoid their eyes forever.

If I had just one person I knew around, I would have felt reassured, but I don’t know how many times I clutched my chest alone.”

“…….”

Silence fell. The expressions of everyone present had grown heavy. At this, Chae Yu-ha once again smiled broadly, clapped her hands—clap, clap—and shook off the heavy atmosphere.

“Shall we go back to the original topic? I want power. Power so great that no one in the city can control me. The form of power doesn’t matter. If I can only reunite with my lost family with a smiling face, that is.”

I pointed to the Kim Seok-ho and Kim Seolhwa siblings.

“What about you? Have you also, like me, experienced losing something precious due to the flow of great power?”

“…….”

“Dad and Mom…”

Kim Seok-ho remained silent, and Kim Seolhwa mumbled, sniffling.

“Living in this rough city, of course there is, right? Then, is there any guarantee that the same thing won’t happen again in the future?”

“There…isn’t. Before, I wasn’t deployed for ground exploration because I was the only one to support my sick sister, but now that we’re both enhanced humans…there’s no excuse to avoid conscription.”

“Then, let me ask you one last thing.”

Chae Yu-ha took out an empty cup and five different colored toothbrushes that she had prepared in advance. Then she held them out to Seok-ho and Seolhwa.

“Can you all become my family? Can you be someone I can trust and rely on without any worries when times are tough and painful? It’s a metaphor, so don’t get any strange ideas.”

“…Heh.”

Seolhwa laughed. Then she wiped away the tears in her eyes and picked up a pink toothbrush and put it in the empty cup.

Seeing this, Kim Seok-ho clenched and unclenched his hands as if contemplating.

“…I still don’t completely trust you.”

Reluctantly, he picked up a blue toothbrush and put it in the cup.

“Now, sister. It’s your turn.”

Chae Yu-ha, looking as if her mood had greatly improved, turned her gaze to Nazha, who hadn’t said anything for a while.

When their eyes met, Nazha looked at her with an expression that seemed like she might cry at any moment.

“…Nazha Herald Funk, 24 years old.”

She picked up a gray toothbrush and put it in the cup.

“I’m also a first-generation enhanced human, and my ability, well, it’s a bit hard to define precisely. If I had to say, all the strange machines I handle are byproducts of my ability.”

“Uhh… Two first-generation… I feel like I’ve gotten caught up in something absurd…”

Agio trembled, curling up as if frightened.

At this, Chae Yu-ha personally took the cup and toothbrush, approached Agio, and said:

“Will you become family?”

“…Y-yes, yes yes yes!! I will be!! No, please let me be!!!”

Agio hurriedly picked up a yellow toothbrush and put it in the cup. And finally.

As Chae Yu-ha put the last remaining teal toothbrush into the cup, she smiled more brightly than any smile she had shown so far.