"Targeting Alice?"
The young girl, who had been looking perplexed, didn't show any sign of disappointment upon hearing this. She simply tilted her head and continued, "Why would you target Alice?"
"Exactly. What is the meaning of all this?"
Genos stood up from his chair. Beside him, Saitama remained seated, though the look on his face had shifted from his usual blank, egg-like expression.
Knowing that Metal Knight wasn't the type to answer his questions, and taking into account Alice's social circle and her own accounts, Genos turned his gaze toward Tatsumaki, who was sitting at the head of the table.
However, Tatsumaki simply turned her back to them, remaining characteristically silent. It was clear she had no intention of involving herself in this affair.
"Let me explain..."
Bang, sitting opposite Tatsumaki, spoke up.
Metal Knight did not attempt to interrupt.
Tatsumaki's stance was already quite obvious; if even Silver Fang and Atomic Samurai were unwilling to participate in this plan, the chances of the operation failing would be nearly 100%.
Though he personally felt that this sort of naive sense of justice would only ruin everything, he had no other choice now.
Seeing that no one objected, Bang turned his gaze toward the puzzled Alice.
"I am truly sorry that something like this had to happen during your first S-Class meeting." He scratched the back of his head, his tone not exactly intimate, yet possessing his usual gentleness and composure.
"If you really want to know who proposed this plan, I can tell you afterward. But for now, let us explain why this plan even exists."
This, without a doubt, was the question shared by all four newcomers.
"You should all be familiar with that great diviner, Madame Shibabawa, right?"
"Of course. She is the one who predicted countless disasters, all of which came to pass," Genos replied, his vast knowledge reserves clearly serving him well.
"She passed away, not long ago."
Bang's words caused Genos to knit his brows.
He couldn't help but interrupt, "With all due respect! If you are trying to find a culprit, I suggest you find a team with higher intelligence to handle the task. No matter how you look at it, Alice could not possibly be the killer!"
"Don't be so impatient, young man."
Bang sighed helplessly. "We aren't looking for a killer... No, rather, the 'culprit' we are looking for isn't a person. The truth is, Madame Shibabawa's death wasn't a murder or an accident. She died while choking on a throat lozenge after seeing something truly terrifying during a divination..."
Genos: ...
Saitama: ...
It should have been a grave and sorrowful matter, but their emotions were struggling to keep up with the absurdity of the situation.
"Since this has nothing to do with Alice, what is the meaning of all this?" Genos demanded.
His hot-headedness made Bang shake his head. "I am not trying to be mysterious. This plan is, in fact, directly related to that incident."
"The issue lies in the final prophecy Madame Shibabawa wrote down before she died—the last vision she ever saw." Bang's expression turned solemn.
"The disasters Madame Shibabawa predicted were only a fraction of what is to come, but her accuracy rate was 100%."
"And this prophecy, which she used her final moments of strength to scrawl down, simply stated: 'The Earth is in danger.'"
"The Earth is in danger?"
Genos didn't find his answer in that phrase; if anything, he was even more confused about how this involved Alice.
His already furrowed brows tightened further. "So, what exactly is the connection between this prophecy and Alice?"
"It is less about the young girl herself... and more about that 'Madam Herta' she serves."
Bang focused his gaze on Alice.
Madam Herta?
Genos finally recalled the name, but how did "the Earth being in danger" relate to Madam Herta? Did they really believe she was going to destroy the planet?
"The only one among us who has met Madam Herta is Tatsumaki," Bang continued. "Tatsumaki's description of Madam Herta comes partly from personal experience, and partly from what she gathered from Alice."
"And whether it's from her own words or Alice's descriptions, one thing is clear: that Madam Herta possesses a power that the Earth cannot fathom, perhaps even power beyond our imagination."
Genos didn't know much about this, as he rarely paid attention to Association gossip, having joined solely because Saitama had.
"The chair the young girl is sitting in is specially crafted," Atomic Samurai said, not wanting to leave the psychological pressure solely on Bang's shoulders. "It is designed to restrain whoever sits in it, though it won't hold for long."
He was someone who hadn't wanted any part of this from the start, so he felt no burden.
He shot a playful glance at Metal Knight before continuing, "And according to the 'plan,' we were to wait until 'Herta' was absent, combine our efforts to subdue the girl, and extract information about Herta from her memory banks."
Alice couldn't help but glance at Tatsumaki, who still had her back turned to everyone. No wonder her behavior earlier had been so sudden and strange.
"So you think Madam Herta is the mastermind behind the 'Earth being in danger'? With all due respect, that is laughable."
Genos could not accept this. "Even if you had such a suspicion, how can you call yourselves heroes and still commit such an act? Do you have no shame!?"
His speech was stern and righteous. No one in the room made a move to respond.
Some believed this was a "necessary evil" and didn't care to explain; others were just there to go through the motions; some felt genuine guilt; and a few were simply waiting for the moment things became truly irredeemable to turn against the plan.
Everyone had their own reasons, and the end result was silence in the face of Genos's interrogation.
High-ranking officials of the Hero Association, watching the situation through monitors, felt their hearts leap into their throats.
It wasn't because they feared retribution—the truth was, this plan had little to do with them.
As members of the "pure-blood" faction responsible for disaster countermeasures, they cared deeply about the "purity of heroes."
They would never have dreamed up a plan that involved burning bridges like this.
Of course, they didn't consider themselves saints. They hadn't proposed it, but they had authorized it under the request of S-Class heroes, which effectively made them accomplices.
What truly terrified them was that, regardless of the plan's success, the image of the S-Class heroes—and the Association itself—would be deeply tarnished. The scene playing out before them made that perfectly clear.
"This farce is, indeed, the fault of us seniors," Bang admitted bluntly. He had been part of the group that never intended to act, and he was ready to intervene if things went too far.
He hadn't left simply to see what the other S-Class heroes would choose. As it stood, it seemed most of them had chosen not to walk the wrong path.
He then looked toward Tatsumaki.
Bang knew that even this self-willed, headstrong girl was finally showing a change, a sign of maturity for her age.
"I apologize to you once again, Alice the Hero."
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL