What Are You Thinking?

"Butcher, did you pick up anything useful?"

Hughie nervously asked the man on the other end of the phone.

"Do you remember where I told you to put the bug?"

The man's deep, rich voice over the phone sounded like a gloomy, irritable Beast questioning him.

"Under the conference room table of The Seven."

"Where did you put it?" he demanded unhappily.

"...Across from the conference room entrance."

Two cold chuckles came from the other end of the line, followed by silence.

"Two days ago, like you told me, I went to Vought to receive A-Train's apology. But Vought didn't arrange it in The Seven's conference room. They said some important person was using it and found another room instead."

Thinking back on what had happened two days ago, Hughie felt miserable and irritated as he explained.

Using the restroom as an excuse, he had wandered around outside the closed conference room. He found a steel relief of The Seven on the wall opposite the room, so he could only hide the bug in one of the gaps in the relief.

Conducting espionage at Vought International's headquarters, the company that had created more than two hundred superheroes, had left him terrified the entire time. He had already taken an enormous risk.

"What use is that? Do you think those bastards would discuss any private, shameful secrets in the conference room, or while standing in the hallway?"

Butcher, known as The Butcher, mercilessly mocked him from the other end of the call.

"So... does that mean there's no useful information?"

Hughie lowered his head in discouragement and disappointment.

"..."

"No, you lucky bastard."

After a long silence, the man on the other end sneered.

"I heard something. Don't know if it'll be useful."

"Who's it about?"

"A-Train."

The Butcher replied.

"It's him!"

Hearing A-Train's name, Hughie gritted his teeth, hatred surging across his face.

He would never forget how, more than ten days ago, he and his girlfriend had been walking down the street, happily discussing moving in together, when A-Train suddenly raced past and smashed his girlfriend into a pile of bloody flesh.

There had been no warning. In the blink of an eye, the girlfriend who had been smiling gently at him was gone, leaving only her severed hands in his own. Blood had splattered all over him.

He had lost his girlfriend. He had lost the beautiful life he had imagined.

"That shameless liar actually said on television that he was chasing a criminal, and Robin had been standing in the middle of the road, blocking his way and causing the accident.

Was he saying it was all Robin's fault?

He even mocked Robin afterward. I'll make him pay!"

They had clearly been standing beside the curb, not in the middle of the road. Vought International and his family had urged him to accept compensation and let the matter go, but he could not swallow it.

That was when The Butcher came to him, revealing Vought's darkness and taking him to a club only superheroes could enter.

In the surveillance footage, he saw A-Train discussing the incident with someone else. There was not a trace of remorse or guilt. He joked about his girlfriend's death, enraging Hughie even further.

"All right, I know how much you hate A-Train.

He killed your girlfriend.

And the information I got this time happens to concern A-Train's girlfriend."

The Butcher laughed nastily.

"He was making a call in the hallway to his girlfriend, someone the public doesn't know about—the washed-up superhero, The Mesmer.

They sounded quite close. She should know plenty of inside information."

"If you want, you can do whatever you like to his girlfriend."

"I'll help you. An eye for an eye. They're both a pair of super-bastards anyway."

After something happened to him eight years ago and he lost his beloved wife, he had come to believe that every superhuman deserved to die, without exception.

"Th-that's probably not a good idea."

Hearing the suggestion, Hughie hurriedly waved his hands and stammered.

"That wouldn't be right."

"Oh, you bastard, I meant torture and interrogation. What the hell were you thinking?"

The Butcher's voice came low and mocking from the other side of the phone, full of vicious amusement.

"That's what I was thinking too—torture and interrogation!"

His face flushed red with anger. He hurriedly hung up, deliberately emphasizing that torture and interrogation had been what he meant.

"Vigilante justice isn't allowed by law!"

Swish, swish, swish.

Early in the morning at Vought headquarters, Starlight brushed her teeth in front of a mirror. She had been with Ron last night and had not gone to sleep until very late, so she had come to the company's makeup room to wash up.

She was preparing to put on makeup before returning to her room and changing into her costume.

At some point, being a superhero had become a job. She felt rather helpless about it.

"Fuck, what are you doing, Starlight?!"

Suddenly, Ashley stormed in through the door, swearing as she rushed up with her phone.

She showed Starlight a video and demanded to know what it meant.

The contents of the video were very familiar. Starlight had gone home yesterday afternoon to see her mother. On her way back that night, she had run into two men harassing and molesting a girl. She had stepped in and saved the girl as she passed by.

"They had that girl pinned against a car and were about to do something. I couldn't just stand by."

Starlight defended herself. Was she not even allowed to fight crime?

"A girl? What girl?"

"The video online only shows you beating them up. There's no girl in it. Do you know the impact this has caused?

Those two men have no prior criminal record. They insist they were drinking in an alley when you knocked them unconscious for no reason."

Ashley flew into another rage, accusing Starlight of being stupid. Public opinion online was now extremely unfavorable toward Starlight and Vought. She asked whether Starlight knew the girl's name.

"I don't."

She froze for a moment and said that the girl had run away in a panic.

"Great. Based on past cases and experience, that girl won't come forward. And you've just joined the team, yet you're already dragging Vought into a public relations storm."

Drawing on previous cases, Ashley furiously unleashed a barrage of accusations at Starlight before finally informing and ordering her.

"I don't know what you had planned for this lovely day, but drop everything and go to President Madelyn's office at ten.

She's very dissatisfied with you. People from risk assessment, crisis management, and legal will all be waiting there to see how this can be resolved."

Then she turned and left, leaving behind a stunned and heartbroken Starlight.

"I was just trying to save someone."

In the private rest area Vought had arranged for The Seven, Starlight complained sadly to Ron.

She had stepped in to save someone and fight crime, only to end up being condemned online.

"Do you think they'll fire me?"

"Someone online says she went to the same high school as you."

With the phone in his hand playing the video of Starlight teaching those two men a lesson, Ron casually scrolled through the comments beneath it. He held out his hand and asked her,

"She claims you have anorexia?"

"Mild anorexia."

Seeing how calm Ron was, she took his hand and slipped into his arms. Her worried, anxious mood gradually settled as well.

The little details of life could move a person. Ron cared about her condition and her health. Out of all those comments, that was the one he had immediately noticed.

"You're thin enough already, and your mother can't control you anymore. Haven't you become an independent superhero?"

He thought Starlight would look gaunt if she got any thinner. Being too thin was neither attractive nor healthy, even for a superhuman.

"You don't need to restrict your diet anymore."

Starlight smiled and accepted Ron's concern. Then she thought of what had just happened, murmuring in confusion and dejection.

"I really don't understand. Until I'm proven guilty, shouldn't I be presumed innocent?"

Those two men had no evidence at all, yet online opinion had almost unanimously condemned her based solely on their word.