If that happened, the Association would be able to locate the children. Of course, Uichan had planned to raise them together with his brothers from In the Hell after filing the birth registration, but if the babies ever got sick or needed Ability training, the government’s assistance would be unavoidable.And most of all—he had no idea how the Three Great Heroes would react once they learned they had biological children. Judging from Noa’s earlier response, he probably wouldn’t take it well. Blacktan might be indifferent, given his temperament. As for La Épée… he’d probably just laugh in disdain.…Still, they need a father right now.Realizing how his thoughts kept drifting into negativity, Uichan shook his head. First things first—he needed to go to the hospital. Maybe that would help clear his mind. With that, he started walking toward the building ahead.But strangely, he kept feeling eyes boring into his back. Limping slightly, Uichan stopped—and so did whoever was following him.Limp—Tap, tap, tap—When he moved again, the person followed. Uichan circled the building and slipped into a deserted back alley. At the dead end, surrounded by trash and plastered flyers, he picked up a discarded wooden beam.Then he turned toward the person who had been following him. The one who ran into the alley was an ordinary-looking man in a torn hoodie and jeans.“Why are you following me?”The man hesitated when their eyes met, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.“Ahaha… sorry. I thought you were someone I knew, but I guess I was wrong.”“If you knew them, you’d have called out to their back instead of tailing them like this.”Uichan adjusted his grip on the beam. The man quickly waved his hands, flustered.“No, really! I thought you were a friend of mine I saw a few days ago. Must’ve been a mistake.”Ironically, Uichan was wearing his appearance-concealing glasses at the moment. So there was no way this man had mistaken him for someone else. Once you passed by someone, you forgot them. To follow him this persistently meant the man had business with him—and not good business.“I’m telling the truth! He looked just like you, same build and everything. And your leg’s hurt, right? I saw you limping the {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} whole way… my friend hurt his left leg too, actually.”“……”“Hey, shouldn’t you see a doctor? You don’t even have a cast…”“Enough. If you’ve said your piece, get lost.”Uichan’s cold tone made the man laugh awkwardly, but he still didn’t leave.“S-sorry… but, uh, how did you hurt it? Should I help you to the hospital?”Step by step, the man kept approaching. His voice and gestures looked harmless, even friendly, but something about him felt wrong. A chill ran through Uichan’s body.Should I use an ability?Luckily, he still had Song Ojun’s ability left in his stolen-slot. Ojun was a strength-type user—he could convert the durability of anything he touched into physical power. Pretending to lean against the concrete wall, Uichan waited for an opening.“It’s funny, though. My friend got hurt the same way. You know how? Because he was stealing something!”The instant the man’s voice twisted, his demeanor changed completely.With eyes gleaming wildly, he lunged forward, arms snapping out to grab Uichan. But Uichan swung the beam, slamming it into the man’s knee, and activated Ojun’s power. The strength of solid concrete surged through his arm, and he drove his fist into the attacker.The man threw up his arms to shield his face, but the blow sent him flying nearly three meters before he stopped. His arms hung crookedly where the punch had landed, and his face was ashen. His eyes gleamed with a ghostly light.He looked like a goblin dragged up from the underworld.“…Under six feet tall, limping, lean build. That matches.”Each breath from the man carried a faint blue smoke. Cracking his neck side to side, he raked his eyes over Uichan from head to toe.“They said to capture a man with a similar build and an injured leg. So that means… it’s you!!”Roaring, the goblin-possessed man charged again, black claws sprouting from his fingertips like blades. Damn it. Whether he was possessed or an actual goblin, fighting head-on here would only make things worse.Uichan’s eyes darted around, searching for an escape route, but the creature was relentless.“Hey, brat. The item. Where’s the thing you stole?”Crash—!Their fists collided with a violent crack. The impact tremored through the pavement as if two boulders had smashed together. At this rate, someone would call the police—or a hero. The problem was whether Uichan could hold out that long.“What are you talking about? You attack out of nowhere and—ugh…”“Should I roast you until you talk? Or… maybe you’re not the one.”Cold sweat slid down Uichan’s back. That night—when Podo had stolen the item and he had run away with it—one of the goblins must have seen him. But apparently they didn’t know he was Under Doom yet.They were grabbing anyone who vaguely matched the body type they’d seen, dragging them off by force. And today, Uichan had the worst luck imaginable—he’d been spotted.“I’ll know once I take you back and boil you alive.”The goblin struck again, finding gaps like a ghost, pressing Uichan back. His injured leg made it impossible to hold his ground; his balance kept slipping.Bang!If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve copied Jekyll Jack’s ability instead. The difference in raw strength was ridiculous. If Uichan was concrete, this thing was reinforced steel. No wonder Jekyll Jack had struggled against them.I have to dodge… I can’t win this way.But the goblin gave him no space to retreat. Each block, each deflection drove Uichan closer to the corner. Then, just as he braced his leg again, something made his stomach drop. His eyes darted down.The pain’s… gone?The leg that had been throbbing moments ago felt nothing now. His hand, too. Quickly, he tore off his glove with his teeth and unwrapped the bandage.“…What the—”The skin beneath was smooth, new, as if it had never been burned. Not even a scar remained. For a moment, he thought he might have accidentally used his Regression ability—but that was impossible. His own ability didn’t work on himself. His wounds never healed through regression.Then why—how—“Should I break your leg? Or tear it off?”The goblin lunged again, and Uichan snapped his head up. His movements suddenly felt lighter; dodging became easier. The creature seemed to notice too—its eerie green eyes flickered with fire.“You… you’re carrying something strange, aren’t you?”Those slick eyes fixed on his lower abdomen, as if seeing straight through him. The goblin’s mouth split into a monstrous grin, baring every tooth. Its attacks shifted—now the black claws struck directly toward his belly.“You bastard—where are you aiming—!”“You’re curious, huh? I can tell you’re hiding something!”Uichan tried to back away but stepped on a crushed aluminum can, slipping and falling hard. The goblin’s claw slashed down, about to pierce his skull. Just as he grabbed the nearest object to throw—Whii—A sharp whistle cut through the air. In an instant, the scenery around them warped. A black shape leapt past, like a tiger snatching its prey, its jaws closing around the goblin’s neck.At the mouth of the filthy alley, an old paper sliding door materialized, closing in from all sides like a seal. Shadows flickered across it—one of a goblin, one of a panther locked in combat, moving like a puppet show on the shoji screen.Only one person could perform such a trick—Hyde.Slash—!Blood spattered violently across the paper door. By the time it happened, Uichan was already pulled into a hard, solid embrace from behind. But the arms around him didn’t belong to the person he expected.“…I was one step too late.”It was Blacktan. His voice was low, taut, and frighteningly calm. The leather glove pressing at the back of Uichan’s neck made his shoulders flinch. The faint smell of blood clung to him; his combat uniform was still stained with dirt and gore from the scene he had come from.

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