A Perfect Deception? The "Enemy" Who Never Left!

Endeavor did not pursue the "enemy" into the sewer. Instead, he first glanced back at Uraraka Shige, who was still standing a short distance away, then unhurriedly returned to the alley he had emerged from earlier, gradually disappearing from sight.

Endeavor's intimidating glance also snapped Shige out of his thoughts and the deeper fear brought on by his excessive speculation.

"Huh? Is it... over already?"

Shige looked around but saw none of the damage to the surroundings that there had been last time, nor any signs of a fierce battle. He had been lost in his own world earlier and had no idea what had happened between the "enemy" and Endeavor, so he now looked somewhat dazed.

He did not remain dazed for long. Soon, two police officers, a man and a woman, came from the direction Genga and Ochaco had left in. Each held one of their hands as they approached Shige.

"Shige, are you all right? Are you hurt?" "Yes, my lord knight, and your pants..."

Ochaco and Terumi Genga were the first to speak.

Ochaco looked at Shige with concern as she asked after him, but since he seemed to be fine apart from looking a little disheveled, she did not become overly emotional. After Ochaco spoke, Genga nodded in agreement and noticed the holes in the pants on the insides of Shige's thighs, leaving Shige a little embarrassed.

"Ah... it's nothing. Let's just say some pretty harrowing things happened... I almost lost my junk... but luckily, I wasn't hurt."

Shige gave them a vague explanation for the holes in his pants, then assured them in earnest that he was safe, putting Ochaco and Genga considerably more at ease.

Of course, he kept his private complaints to himself about the inexplicable attack that had grazed his crotch and burned two symmetrical holes in his pants.

"Really... that's wonderful! My lord knight..."

Genga was delighted that Shige had not been hurt in the "enemy's" attack, and he was sincerely happy for him.

Ochaco, who had spent more time with Shige, was not as easily fooled as Genga—or rather, she did not believe him quite as wholeheartedly as Genga did. Although she trusted him just as unreservedly, she was his older sister, after all, and was very familiar with his little habits and gestures, and even the ways he spoke when deliberately changing the subject.

So Ochaco was not put off by Shige's vague, evasive words. While relieved that he really did seem unharmed, she began questioning him.

"Then you said you'd explain earlier, didn't you, Shige?"

When Ochaco finished speaking, Genga also seemed to remember the instructions Shige had given the two of them when the "enemy" suddenly appeared, and added a question of his own.

"That's right, my lord knight. You did say something about a 'moth caught in the net' earlier, and you said you'd explain..."

But as Genga spoke, his voice suddenly took on a slight sob, and tears began gathering in his clear, lovely eyes. A sense of grievance began to brew in them, as though he had been betrayed by an unfaithful lover.

"My lord knight, are you hiding something from us? QAQ"

The sight gave Shige a headache, and a thought flashed through his mind: I shouldn't have said that back then... Now I can't talk my way out of it!

Still, Shige could understand how Genga felt.

After all, during the more than a year they had known each other, almost every moment he spent with Genga had shown him that Genga's trust in the person he called his "lord knight" was absolute and heartfelt. He had never harbored any thoughts or feelings of distrust.

Even though, in truth, neither of them could claim to know absolutely everything about the other in detail, over the past year and a half, they had not kept any major secrets from each other... And there was even less need to mention Ochaco, his sister.

"Phew... all right, actually..."

Shige therefore intended to give Ochaco and Genga a reasonable explanation right there, telling them the whole story of the "enemy" and the bait plan.

But the two police officers interrupted him.

"The 'enemy' has escaped. Although he left a very obvious trail, we haven't found the target yet. Judging from this 'enemy's' past behavior, he probably won't return anytime soon, but for your safety, we hope you'll go home as soon as possible and not linger outside. The two of us will be responsible for protecting you along the way."

Hearing the officers say this, Shige looked at Ochaco and Genga, who were staring intently at him, apparently determined to get a proper explanation. He reached out and took one of them by each hand, and the three set off for home with the two officers protecting them, one in front and one behind. Along the way, he began explaining the bait plan from beginning to end.

The matter seemed to have come to an end, and the "enemy's" revenge had achieved nothing at all.

But just after Shige finished recounting the bait plan from beginning to end-

"I see... In other words, those 'heroes' deliberately leaked the information about you being bait to me..."

The words came from a spot just on the other side of a residential wall. The speaker seemed to be forcing himself to sound like a gentleman, but it only made his accent terribly awkward. The two officers and Shige's group of three all tensed up.

"Who's there? Don't move!"

The male officer drew the police pistol at his waist and aimed it in the direction of the voice. But the instant the words left his mouth, he suddenly clutched his chest and collapsed, a faint, unpleasant burnt smell rising from him.

"That isn't important. What matters is that the question troubling me has been answered. So now, it's goodbye forever... brat."

A filthy, thoroughly disheveled figure appeared atop the low outer courtyard wall of the residence, with some sickening bloodstains on his body. He slowly moved a finger away from the fallen officer and aimed it at Shige's chest. With a twisted expression and a playful tone, he bid Shige farewell.

It was the "enemy" who had escaped!