Lunar Cruiser Odobimos.
Inside the dimly lit conference room aboard the ship, the leaders of the Fourth Calamity were gathered, discussing how to handle this sudden “public relations crisis.”
Of course, it wasn’t about covering up the truth.
Burying the problematic subsidiary on the spot was just incidental. Since the incident had already happened, that company was going to be shut down no matter what—it wasn’t important to begin with…
For an evil organization, being openly provoked by an obscure little hero company was the real issue if they didn’t respond.
“Dream Witch Personnel Dispatch… I’ve never even heard of them.”
Psycho, still wearing his tight leather suit, pushed up his glasses and frowned as he questioned the female eccentric sitting opposite him.
“Hey, big head! What the hell is going on? Why did those punk kids from the subsidiary suddenly go and kidnap the president of that small company?”
The woman being questioned rubbed her forehead, tapping away at the laptop in front of her with one hand.
“That red-haired little girl is suspected to have ties to the Great Leader of Nightmare. I was planning to bring her in for interrogation… Who would’ve thought such a kid would be a company president?”
Psycho leaned forward aggressively, narrowing his eyes.
“Don’t make excuses! This is your failure, isn’t it? You didn’t even do a proper preliminary investigation before ordering the operation, and now we’ve lost a whole company and a building… That’s on you!”
The woman, known as “Big Head,” frowned but answered calmly:
“That Dream Witch company is still in its infancy. There’s barely any info about them online. Even hacking into the Hero Association’s network won’t reveal much… After all, hero companies have extremely high confidentiality levels, and a lot of information can be kept private.”
Any publicly available info could become a weapon against them, so hiding one’s identity was the first lesson in becoming a hero. The Hero Association supported this approach.
A female eccentric wearing a paint-splattered apron and a beret spoke up:
“So, that little girl who never shows her face but is somehow connected to the Great Leader actually runs a hero company? Is this some kind of April Fool’s joke, Big Head?”
“Don’t rush, Artist. We still can’t confirm her connection to the Great Leader. Kidnapping her was to verify that… And my name is Idea, not Big Head.”
Idea—the so-called “Big Head”—was the Fourth Calamity’s Strategic Department Chief, possessing multi-threaded thinking abilities.
Not only was she highly intelligent, but she could simultaneously think through and manage several tasks at once. She was responsible for arranging the daily operations of the execution division and tailoring different combat plans to exploit individual heroes’ weaknesses.
Her head was larger than average, giving her a somewhat chibi appearance.
At that moment, a warning came through the conference room’s broadcast system.
“Everyone, this isn’t the time to be discussing this! If Odobimos doesn’t leave now, the Hero Association will use force to expel us! At least withdraw from the airspace above the city!”
It was a reminder from the bridge.
“Don’t rush, Captain Aerial. That so-called ‘Dream Witch’ small company wants to ride the Fourth Calamity’s reputation to hype themselves up. We need to show them what it means to play with fire…”
Before Psycho could finish his brash speech, a lazy voice interrupted.
“Calm down, all of you~ Honestly, do you just fight when I’m not around?”
“Boss!”
“How many times do I have to say it? Calling me ‘boss’ is so outdated! Call me President!”
The president and chairwoman of the Fourth Calamity, Frost Rain.
Her half-lidded, lazy eyes looked over the room. Her water-blue hair was styled into a single short ponytail, with an icy white streak dyed at the front. The side without the ponytail was adorned with a translucent fan-shaped hairpiece.
Cold and dignified, she gave off the impression of a noble lady.
She wore a tight-fitting black cheongsam embroidered in gold, its sleeves made of sheer black fabric that loosened around her forearms. She wore a pair of black half-gloves.
Her high-slit skirt revealed long, pale legs. Despite her petite stature, her legs were proportionally long. To make up for her lack of height, she wore painfully thin stiletto heels.
With every step Frost took, sparkling ice shards scattered, and the clicking of her heels echoed elegantly as she walked toward the conference table…
Then she twisted her ankle and fell sideways.
Luckily, she caught herself on the table and avoided a total embarrassment.
“President, I told you those heels are too much for you at this stage.”
Psycho spoke with his usual self-assured tone, even sounding a bit gleeful at her mishap.
Frost steadied herself on the table, maintaining her dignified expression as she sat down, though only she knew the pain from the sprain.
“Captain, submerge and retreat.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Captain Aerial finally breathed a sigh of relief as she ascended, activating the optical camouflage developed using Psycho’s abilities. The entire warship was covered in a gray-white grid and gradually vanished beneath the dome of Central City.
Though she hadn’t agreed with Psycho earlier, the artist wearing the beret now spoke up:
“President, if we let them off so easily, it might hurt the reputation of the Fourth Calamity…
Being provoked by such a small company, for the second-ranked evil organization, not responding would turn us into a joke.”
Frost propped her chin on her hand and replied, “No rush. There will be a better time to deal with them. Let’s let them go for now and have Idea think carefully about our next move… And call me President!”
“Ah, speaking of which…”
Psycho seemed to have something to say and leaned against the back of the president’s chair.
“I’ve heard that Sigma Hero is in communication with Magical Girl Clara about some kind of collaboration.
Come to think of it, isn’t that Clara from this company?”
“The magical girl who bombarded our building is Clara,” Big Head reminded him.
“Exactly. So if we wait for their collaboration to happen, we can take them all down at once.”
“You just want an excuse to get closer to your White Tempest again, don’t you?”
Frost said this while glancing toward the conference room door.
“Medusa, come in and say hello to everyone.”
At Frost’s summons, a black-skinned, white-haired little girl walked in. Her vertical-pupil snake eyes looked both dangerous and lifeless…
“Witch… Medusa?”
Psycho recognized her as the witch they had brought back from the Waste Disposal Center.
“No wonder, President. That’s truly a fitting name. But according to the Fourth Calamity’s naming conventions, it should be pronounced Me-dusa, right?”
Actually, he just paused at the first syllable.
“As you all know, she’s the culprit behind the Exhibition Center incident… but from today onward, she’s a new member of the Fourth Calamity!”
Although the ladies of the Fourth Calamity clapped along, Medusa showed no reaction.
Her body needed time to recover.
Before regaining her strength, she’d just have to make use of this organization for a while.