One day before Homelander's speech, Allen had a complicated situation. It all started when Allen brought Kimiko to his hotel.
Annie opened the door, excited and smiling, but when she saw him return carrying a young woman in his arms, Annie's smile faded, and she looked at him questioningly.
"It's complicated," Allen replied, and then they went inside.
Annie bit her lip, about to get angry, but after a moment, she decided not to express her jealousy. After all, she didn't have a relationship with Allen; they were just friends, right?
Annie smiled to herself as she realized she was starting to fall for Allen.
Allen apologized and asked Annie if she would help Kimiko. The girl in question showed reluctance and tugged at Allen's clothes with dissatisfaction.
Kimiko tried to show hostility towards Annie, but seeing her relationship with Allen and realizing she was someone close, decided not to be aggressive, though she did growl a couple of times.
Annie proceeded to take her to the shower. Kimiko could bathe herself, so Annie didn't insist and went to get some clothes for her. Fortunately, they were of similar height.
Annie left the clothes in the bathroom, out of the shower, and went to the couch to sit with Allen. Annie asked Allen what had happened while Kimiko took her shower.
"She was a victim of Vought. They injected her with Compound V and turned her into a weapon. After years of using her as an assassin, they sent her to New York to be a 'villain' for the Seven."
Annie covered her mouth in shock, then got angry at Vought and felt bad for Kimiko and for feeling jealous of her. At another time, if things with Vought hadn't gone wrong, she might have fought Kimiko as Starlight without even knowing it.
"Don't worry," Allen said with a smile.
Annie held her head and moaned. As the days passed, she continued to be disgusted with Vought and the lie of the superheroes they had created for so many years.
It was all an elaborate charade. If it were just a lie, she would be disappointed but might accept it. However, after what The Deep and Black Noir tried to do to her, after seeing what Homelander did on the plane in the news and hearing it from Allen, she could only reaffirm her belief that this world was corrupt.
Annie began to tremble. A warm hand rested on her shoulder. She looked up to see Allen, concerned for her.
Allen spoke, lamenting the situation. "I'm sorry, Annie..."
Annie was momentarily spellbound. Certainly, everything related to Vought was a vile lie, but the man beside her—the man she considered her savior—had proven to be even more than the fantasies she had about superheroes.
Annie couldn't believe what this young man, not much older than her, had achieved. If not for him, she might have fallen into despair.
"Allen..." Annie said softly, with a loving gaze.
He saved the plane that Homelander had abandoned and then faced Homelander, the most powerful hero, and Black Noir, an even more terrifying monster than Homelander, just to protect the plane.
Annie's sincere thoughts seemed to be expressed by her pretty eyes. 'In a world where every superhero I had known only showed me that everything I thought was a lie, there was a villain hated by many and hunted, who actually did the job that superheroes wouldn't.'
Annie leaned in, moving closer without thinking much about her actions. Allen seemed surprised by her actions but didn't pull away. This gave Annie more confidence to continue, but at that moment, the door opened and Kimiko emerged from the shower, completely naked.
"What are you doing?!" Annie panicked and ran to cover Kimiko.
Kimiko looked at Annie for a moment and then at Allen as if asking for permission to attack her.
'Don't do it.'
'I'm sorry to interrupt your intimate moment with the blonde...' Kimiko said through her thoughts, her words trailing off with a cold tone.
Both girls returned to the bathroom.
...
Allen was stunned. Honestly, he hadn't expected Annie to try to kiss him and for Kimiko to get jealous.
"Master, are you stupid?" Rebecca appeared on his shoulder and looked at him as if he were an idiot.
"Onni-san, you can't be so naive," Nokotan appeared in the room in her full size, wearing a Sherlock Holmes hat, a monocle, and puffing on a bubble pipe. She looked at Allen with piercing eyes. "It's elementary, my dear Allen. You become the hero for those two girls in their worst moments. Add to that the fact that you're just being yourself, and it's easy to predict the outcome. They end up developing feelings for you."
Bocchi appeared sitting next to Allen but not looking directly at him. However, her hand grabbed Allen's clothes while she blushed, indicating that Bocchi was also jealous.
Allen coughed and petted Bocchi's head. She melted, literally, and became a slime that Allen placed on his lap with a playful smile. Bocchi trembled with pleasure as Allen petted her in that state.
"Onni-san!" Nokotan was annoyed with Allen. He looked at her, surprised. "Nun, you must be very aware that you're practically a walking magnet for women without doing anything! And if you add to that the fact that you go around helping everyone, you become practically irresistible!."
Allen blinked twice before answering, that look of innocence made Nokotan embarrassed. "You're right, Nokotan... but I can't stop. Not in this world."
Allen sighed and lowered his head. In DC and Marvel, there are as many superheroes as villains. Allen was certain that even if he did nothing, it would be fine, but that's not the case in this world.
"I guess in this world I'm doomed," Allen smiled calmly. "No... doomed isn't the right word. After talking to Superman, I realized that I don't really mind helping others. I don't think I'm a hero, but I guess I have a soft heart than I thought...which bothers me... I prefer to be a malevolent entity."
"That's impossible!" replied all the girls in unison, it wasn't really planned it was their sincere thoughts.
Allen frowned but then sighed and laughed broadly "Then I'm screwed haha."
Nokotan blushed, threw down her pipe and monocle, and started pointing angrily at Allen.
"ONNI-SAN, THAT'S PRECISELY WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT DO!!"
Rebecca suddenly attacked Allen. Of course, by "attacked," she mounted Allen's lap, sending Bocchi flying, and proceeded to kiss him intensely.
She paused to look at Allen while panting. "You can't show me that and expect me to hold back..." Rebecca said with a predatory look. Allen swore he saw hearts in Rebecca's eyes.
At that moment, Annie and Kimiko were about to leave the bathroom. 2B appeared and covered Rebecca's mouth, taking her away. Rebecca didn't want to go but couldn't resist being taken by surprise.
Allen saw 2B press her lips together with a slight blush on her face.
Nokotan picked up Bocchi, who had spiral eyes after being sent flying by Rebecca. Allen apologized with his eyes, and Nokotan shrugged with a mischievous half-smile.
'Nununu~ Allen-tan, if you're not careful, one day you'll get stabbed,' Nokotan said as she disappeared with Bocchi the slime in her arms.
'Don't say bad luck things!' Allen replied, feeling that Nokotan was right.
So far, Allen had managed to maintain an almost miraculous relationship within his harem, but the time would come when a girl who had feelings for him would not accept that relationship and might even hold a grudge against him.
[Host, don't worry. Remember that you have the healthy harem subsystem!]
'Wait, didn't it have a different name?'
[Leave the details aside!]
[Mission: Annie January is beginning to develop feelings for the host but is afraid of rejection because she has a slight inferiority complex with you. Make her understand that it doesn't matter to you or help her overcome it as a person and superhero.]
[Kimiko: She is a very wounded woman. At the moment, you have earned her trust, but you are far from healing her. Help her regain her humanity and show her that not everyone is a horrible monster.]
Allen pressed his lips together. It had been a while since the subsystem had activated.
[Host, the truth is I had prevented the subsystem from activating because you usually don't need help with these issues. But seeing your doubt with both girls, I decided to intervene.]
"..." Allen shrugged, the subsystem "missions" are pretty much what he was going to do without being told.
(An Allen and two pretty girls in the same house? 🗿🍷)
...
'Hey...' Kimiko called out to Allen.
When Allen turned around, he saw a beautiful girl with long black hair and deep eyes looking at him intently; her white dress gave him a very contrasting feeling to her previous attitude. Allen was amazed and forgot to ask how "that" Kimiko agreed to wear a dress.
"Hee hee~" Annie smiled proudly at having helped Kimiko look so feminine.
"You certainly are a pair of beautiful girls" Allen smiled without looking away.
Kimiko didn't know how to react, nor did she remember if anyone had ever used the word beautiful to refer to her. Annie was more confident and folded her arms with a 'You barely noticed?' look.
Allen complained in his heart but certainly needed a pat on the back to realize that he had influenced Annie and Kimiko more than he had planned. Now he could only take responsibility for it.
After all that, Allen looked for an apartment since living in a hotel wasn't comfortable.
Annie and Kimiko ended up teaming up with him. It was so natural that he was surprised at how things had progressed.
While he was finishing furnishing the apartment with things from the system, he heard that Homelander would give a speech...
Allen could only admit that Vought's counterattack was brilliant but expected.
...
It all began with shouts and boos. Homelander had never faced such massive rejection from the public. The most powerful man in the world knew this; whoever had come up with this idea hadn't held back. Like a sly snake and a rabid hyena, it lunged for his throat.
Although the plan was malicious, underhanded, and deeply affected him, it wasn't enough to bring down Vought.
Homelander listened intently to Madelyn's instructions. He felt disgusted knowing he had to appear weak and admit that he had been outdone this time. But as he watched his follower count plummet and his popularity nosedive by the minute, he had no choice but to go through with it.
...
After his best performance ever, Homelander entered a bathroom, immediately pulled out his phone, and checked the results. His numbers began to rise.
Homelander's eyes lit up as he switched to his social media feed, scanned the news, and read Ashley's email with popularity statistics.
Everything was green; things were starting to climb again. There was still a long way to go to recover everything he had lost, but public opinion had improved enough.
Comments previously filled with hate and contempt were now mixed with comments defending him.
He had succeeded; he had turned a situation that should have been desperate into a better one.
Madelyn was pleased and told him she would come by his house later that afternoon to give him her "thanks." Homelander had seen her smile many times but had never seen her do so sincerely.
Homelander sighed with relief, then looked at himself in the mirror. He splashed water on his face and looked at himself again, a smile forming on his face.
However, Homelander was taken aback when he saw his reflection erase the smile and look at him with disdain.
"...What are you doing?" said the reflection with a cold, contemptuous voice.
"Y-you? ..." Homelander was speechless for a moment but then frowned. Judging by his reaction, this wasn't the first time his own reflection spoke to him.
"Are you happy?" the reflection asked with immense scorn.
Homelander wasn't sure when it started, but sometimes his reflection talked to him. Sometimes when things went wrong, sometimes when he made a mistake, or when he didn't know what to do.
"Look at yourself! You're Homelander! You're the damn Homelander!" the reflection scolded mercilessly.
"I had to do it!" Homelander justified himself while walking around the bathroom. "They saw the videos... everything I worked for years would have been lost!"
The reflection pointed at Homelander. "But you had to act like a damn coward?! You had to cry on camera?! Where's your pride?!"
"Shut up!" Homelander approached the mirror, anger showing on his face. "Do you think I did it for fun?! Do you think I had another option?!"
Homelander was pretending in front of the cameras. He feigned suffering, weakness, and remorse, while inside he was filled with frustration. He did it all to manipulate public opinion, to stir empathy, to evoke the memories he had been planting in people for years. However, even though these actions were effective and everyone might consider it a masterstroke. But for the enormous ego within him, for Homelander, it felt like degrading himself to please inferior beings.
It was undoubtedly a masterstroke. Thanks to it, the massive damage Homelander and Vought had suffered, being exposed to the world as a psychopath, was now in question.
"What was I supposed to do?" Homelander demanded of his reflection.
"YOU SHOULD HAVE FOUND THE BASTARD AND SPLIT HIM IN HALF, NOT DANCE LIKE A MONKEY IN FRONT OF THE CAMERAS!"
"Shut up..."
"YOU'RE THE DAMN HOMELANDER, THE MAN AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD! STOP ACTING LIKE A SERVANT!"
"Shut up!"
"ARE YOU HAPPY BECAUSE YOUR INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS ARE DEFENDING YOU?! YOU'RE PATHETIC!!"
"SHUT UP!!"
Homelander slammed the mirror and broke it along with part of the wall. Fortunately, the wall was thick, and it didn't break through to the other side.
Homelander came to his senses and noticed that his hands were stained with red. His face, his suit, his hair, and his entire body were covered in red.
Homelander looked around; the bathroom was splattered with blood. All the walls and the floor were smeared with blood, and drops of the red liquid fell silently from the ceiling. There was a macabre pattern leading to the same place.
Homelander saw the reflection in the mirror where one of the toilets had a broken door and was half-closed. Unlike the rest of the bathroom, this cubicle wasn't smeared with blood but was completely covered in red.
Homelander approached with a serious look and opened the door. Seeing the inside, he averted his gaze. Homelander was used to killing, but what he saw disturbed him.
There was a person, or rather, what remained of one. Judging by the blue uniform, it must have been the janitor. However, what was visible wasn't a person but a mass of flesh and pulverized blood.
His arms were broken every three inches in different directions, and his legs were twisted as if they were screws. The skull had been crushed by great pressure, turning its contents into mush. The spine had been ripped out, his intestines were pulled out, and his chest was crushed, causing the ribs to protrude from beneath the skin.
If someone said this MAN fell into an industrial shredder, no one would doubt it. It was a brutal death.
Homelander looked to the right, checking for any witnesses, then approached the sink and cleaned his hands and face. Homelander wasn't an empathetic person; he generally didn't feel the slightest remorse about killing. Still, he felt strange about killing without being aware of it.
Homelander looked at himself in the cracked mirror as if expecting someone to speak to him. However, after thirty seconds, nothing happened. Homelander left the bathroom and, before leaving, used his heat vision to melt the lock.
Homelander called Madelyn to take care of the mess.
Homelander didn't realize that playing the "victim" was causing his ego significant stress, as he was a narcissistic psychopath who believed no one was on his level.
The desire to kill Allen grew along with the resentment towards everyone who cursed him and all those who pretended to be on his side but turned their backs on him once the videos came out.
Homelander thought about visiting the passengers of the plane who were now suing Vought and demanding his arrest. However, he rejected that possibility, as anyone seeing him would ruin the popularity he had regained by humiliating himself in front of the public.
Ashley saw Homelander and wanted to congratulate him, but upon seeing him up close Ashley felt chills and turned away from Homelander had a red hue the veins in his body popped as if they were going to explode.
Homelander had never met a rival or an enemy but this time he vowed to take revenge regardless of the consequences and the blood spilled.
===
Chat: Author, Homelander is completely crazy!
Author: Yeah, have you barely noticed? 🗿
A/N: The next chapter will be perfect 🍷🗿, as a spoiler I'll tell you it's 3,5k words. well all the chapters I write lately are 3K but it's no matter.
My new patreon is: Patreon.com/_Aizen