Heroes, Vigilantes, and Villains

Chapter ten

I sat on the edge of a tall city building, staring out at the buzzing city streets. The sun had set a long time ago, but the city was still alive with noise. Normal people should be scared sitting this close to the edge but I didn't after doing it for three months now. I sat there taking in the sounds of the city until I heard a scream from a nearby alley.

Most people these days think that all of the crimes happen during the day, and they would be right to a certain extent. All of the major crimes that get classified as villain attacks happen during the day. Those are the ones that the heroes handle and the people of the city watch with stars in their eyes. Because of those fights, the people forget about the crimes that happen in the dark, the ones that no camera crew is there to film.

I ran down the building's fire escape, pulling out the weapon stashed on my body as I ran almost soundlessly. I stopped at the corner, crouching down and peaking around the side of the building, observing the situation at hand.

There was a tall, muscular man pinning a young woman against the wall, a hand over her mouth so that she couldn't scream anymore, his other hand wandering to places that it shouldn't. Disgust coursed throughout my body while looking at the scene before me.

I crept around the side of the building and aimed my gun at the back of the man before firing emotionlessly, the bullet striking the man in the middle of his back. I watched the man turn around, an angry expression painted across his face. I adjusted my aim and shot the man in the head, wiping the expression from his face.

The woman looked at me with fear in her eyes as she glanced between me and the body on the ground. She stumbled away from the man, a hand shaking across her mouth. She seemed to be torn between horror and gratitude.

I decided to settle this for her.

"He's not dead," I called out to the woman. "They're just paintballs with a strong tranquilizer in the paint. He should be out for the next hour, so call the cops and tell them what happened."

I waited for the shaking woman to nod her head. Before I continued.

"Do you need first aid?" I asked her coldly, making sure to keep my distance as she crept forward to get some of her own from the piece of crap on the ground.

We watched his chest rise and fall together for a moment before she answered me. "... N-no I'm fine. He did- didn't do anything yet."

I nodded, holding out a gloved hand to the woman, raising it slowly so she could see just what I'm doing. I crouched down and rolled something to the woman's feet, watching her flinch slightly as it hit her feet. "Take it," I told her sharply as I stood back up. "Just in case."

The woman leaned down and grabbed the object on the ground, a small paintball. I don't know that man's quirk, sometimes they make the time shorten. The woman stood up from her spot, but I was gone before she even picked the object up.

I ran through the streets, listening to the sounds of the city once again, adrenaline coursing through my veins as I ran.

I'm not a hero, that's something that I can never be, even still, I'm too selfish to give up on my dream.

Instead, I'm the closest thing that you can get to being a hero without truly becoming one.

A vigilante.

Though even that word doesn't fit me either.

The Japanese government's definition for a vigilante is someone who uses their quirk illegally to do heroic works. I don't have a quirk for that label to truly apply to me.

A shadow of a hero, just like I'm a shadow of a person.

I glanced up at the clear sky as I ran. It was nice running like this. The only other times I ran before these past few months was when I was being chased by others.