I Don’t Want to Be a Heroic Spirit

In the shadowed alley where sunlight never reached, darkness lay entrenched, hard to dispel.

Even in one of the world's safest countries, crime existed. In a place like Japan, it thrived in hidden corners.

Bullying, catcalling, abductions, black-market deals… all too common in these unseen cracks.

Smack!

The sharp sound of a slap echoed in the dim alley as a black-haired schoolgirl fell to the ground, hitting a trash can. In summer, garbage rots quickly; as it spilled out, the stench spread immediately.

The slap was vicious. A red handprint bloomed visibly on her pale face, but her attacker showed no sign of stopping, delivering a brutal kick to her stomach.

"You bitch, didn't I tell you to stay away from my man?" sneered a delinquent girl with bleached hair and ear piercings, spitting on the ground as she pressed the heel of her shoe into the black-haired girl's side. Four other girls, all her age, stood nearby, following their leader's every move with equally malicious grins.

"I… I didn't…" The black-haired girl's face twisted in pain. "He came to me—I told him no, I told him over and over…"

"Oh? So you're saying my guy likes hanging around you, huh? What's so special about you that he'd notice you?"

More kicks and punches landed as the black-haired girl curled into a ball, trying to lessen the pain.

There was no one to call for help, no one to save her.

Experience had taught her that fighting back would only lead to worse, that crying for help would fuel their cruelty.

So, she endured, waiting for them to tire, to lose interest…

"Ugh, this is boring. She's like a corpse."

The delinquent girl sneered, giving her one last kick to the head before scowling at her lack of reaction. "Hey! Hand me the scissors."

The black-haired girl's pupils widened in terror as her hair was yanked up, and a pair of scissors glinted menacingly before her eyes.

"Is this face how you lured all those guys in, including my man? I'll cut it up—let's see how you flaunt it then."

"No… please, no…"

Her panic grew.

Anything but this…

But her terror only made her attackers more excited, and the scissors crept closer with a cold snip, snip.

"Yes! That's the look I wanted. Show me more of that scared face!"

Why do I have to go through this?!

Why me?!

What did I do to deserve this?!

The scissors, gleaming in the dim light, seemed to grow closer and closer. In despair, the black-haired girl squeezed her eyes shut.

Experience told her that calling for help was pointless, that no one would hear her screams, that no one would come.

No one before, no one now, no one ever.

It was useless, meaningless to scream...

"Someone help me—!!"

Silence…

No response met her call.

Yet she didn't feel the pain she expected.

Her head spun, and only then did she realize she'd forgotten to breathe.

As she took a shaky breath, she dared to crack her eyes open.

A flash of vibrant red filled her vision, etching itself permanently into her mind.

"Open your eyes. You're safe now."

The voice was cold, frigid as an iceberg, yet it filled her with an unprecedented peace.

Trembling, the black-haired girl slowly opened her eyes to an impossibly beautiful face.

A woman stood there, dressed in a crimson off-the-shoulder dress, her silky red hair adorned with a black hairpiece that looked like a crown. Tall and imposing, she left no room for resistance or resentment.

The five girls who had attacked her now stood motionless to the side, faces blank, expressions frozen, their eerie stillness blending seamlessly with the shadowed alley.

And yet, the black-haired girl felt no fear.

If anything, she realized she hadn't felt this kind of calm in a long, long time.

---

"Why do I always run into things like this?"

Baobhan Sith tossed the scissors into the air, and they shattered into fragments mid-flight without any visible force.

The black-haired girl had been sent on her way. Before leaving, she had tried to ask for Baobhan Sith's name, but Baobhan had refused to share it.

Instead, the black-haired girl cast one long, lingering look at her, as though trying to engrave her face in her memory forever.

After that first reassurance, Baobhan Sith had said nothing more, fearing that anything she added might come out as one of her spirit's barbed remarks.

"Congratulations, Master. Another maiden hopelessly captivated by you. Judging by her expression as she left, she's bound to remember you for life. You truly are a heartbreaker."

"Oh, spare me. As if she could turn my head with a look like that. Do you really think I'd fall for her?"

Since gaining her Heroic Spirit essence, Baobhan Sith's greatest confidence lay not in her strength, but her looks.

"Almost let you distract me, Da Vinci. I still have a mess to clean up here."

Turning, she regarded the five schoolgirls, frozen like puppets, their uniforms marking them as delinquents.

She had saved the girl on a whim, but letting these five walk away would only lead to a repeat.

Ignoring Da Vinci's bad suggestion to "seduce them all," Baobhan Sith raised a flawless, porcelain-like finger and tapped it gently on the forehead of the ringleader.

"Magic, so convenient yet so dangerous."

It wasn't mind control, nothing so inhumane. Just a subtle suggestion.

A simple nudge to ensure these five would never bear ill will toward that black-haired girl again.

"That's all I can do, really. I don't even know if what I did was right or wrong, good or evil."

To avoid wrongly punishing anyone, she had used hypnosis to hear them recount the whole story, and only then did she make her decision.

But that was the extent of her interference.

After all, she was just an outsider. Perhaps she had no right to impose this on them, even if they themselves had no right to bully others and were the ones at fault.

This suggestion could come back to haunt them, for all she knew. No one could predict the future.

Acts of kindness can lead to evil consequences; evil deeds can yield good outcomes.

So Baobhan Sith always reminded herself, not to mistake good or evil as her purpose, nor to use them as her excuse.

"I'm doing this purely out of selfish desire."

I let my own heart tell me what to do, what I believe is right.

Because her heart stayed clear and true, she had avoided being overtaken by her Heroic Spirit essence and could continue steadfastly down her chosen path.

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T/N: heh Da Vinci has the best ideas (clapping emoji) (what am i doing)