Eventually, his crimes escalated.
At first, it seems he’d been content with targeting people within his reach. But over time, that clearly stopped being enough. He began following women he’d never even met on the street and assaulting them, and by the time everything came to light, thirteen victims had come forward with sexual assault allegations alone.
Honestly, it’s surprising he hadn’t been caught sooner. But apparently, he had his own way of making sure his victims stayed quiet. He’d throw around enormous settlement sums, amounts large enough to make anyone think twice about speaking up, and if money wasn’t enough, he’d simply resort to threats and force.
Honestly, I probably wouldn’t speak up either.
The guy has social standing, money, and on top of that, an ability that makes it difficult to leave behind any evidence. Even if he decides to retaliate against someone afterward, what are they supposed to do?
Did he snap while working as a Hunter, or was he always this kind of bastard?
Either way, it doesn’t really matter.
Setting aside the particularly stomach-turning nature of sex crimes, there’s no way I can pick someone like him. I’m already fighting both the Gates and public opinion, which is hostile enough toward the Convict Squad as it is. Bringing him onto the team would only give people another reason to hate us.
Definite pass.
"Next, the second one."
A female Hunter who uses gemstones as a medium to create and manipulate razor-sharp wires.
Her crimes are somehow even more disturbing.
She would seduce ordinary men and arrange dates with them. Then, once she’d gained their trust, she’d suggest showing them the inside of a Gate "for a thrill." She’d make it sound exciting, but dangerous enough that they had to keep it a secret. After warning them that they’d be in serious trouble if anyone found out, she’d get them to promise not to tell anyone and lead them inside.
And once they were in the Gate, she’d tie them up with her wires and leave them for the monsters.
After she was finally caught, she claimed she’d done it out of anger.
According to her, ordinary people could never understand the suffering Hunters endured while fighting monsters.
So, naturally, she decided to take that anger out on innocent people?
What kind of logic is that?
Whether she genuinely believes her own excuse doesn’t really matter. She deliberately and repeatedly murdered civilians, and pulling someone like her out of prison would provoke a massive backlash from the victims’ families. Public opinion toward the Convict Squad is already bad enough. This would probably make it even worse.
And that isn’t even the only problem.
If her mind is broken enough for her to lure innocent people into Gates and leave them there to be torn apart, then I have to assume there’s a very real chance she’d eventually escape my control and do it all over again.
Maybe not immediately. Maybe not while I’m watching.
But trusting someone like that would be a gamble I don’t need to take.
Either way, picking her is a surefire way to get myself screwed.
So, pass.
"Alright, the third one."
A female Hunter who manipulates cold energy and ice.
According to the report, she’d infiltrated a known gathering place for "Bandits" somewhere in Stratford, slaughtered everyone present, and then turned herself in afterward.
"Hmm... Bandits."
Bandits are raiders who join a party, enter a Gate, and then murder their own teammates when the raid is nearly over so they can take all the loot for themselves.
They’re such a serious problem that they’re one of the main reasons the current Guild system even exists.
The problem is that they’re notoriously difficult to catch.
Gates, by their very nature, leave behind almost no witnesses. Once a raid is over, the Gate disappears completely, taking the crime scene with it. If someone is murdered inside, there might be no evidence left to investigate and no witnesses willing, or even able, to testify.
They’re practically ghosts.
Everyone knows what they are, but proving what they’ve done under criminal law is another matter entirely.
So, morally speaking, they’re exactly the kind of scum most people wouldn’t lose sleep over seeing dead.
When the news first broke, public opinion was mostly on her side. Most people thought she’d actually done something good by eliminating a group of murderers who had managed to stay out of prison.
Unfortunately for her, the law doesn’t really care about that.
A mass murder committed outside a Gate, using Hunter abilities, is still mass murder. The charges piled up until there was no avoiding prison.
For someone in my position, though, that makes her almost ideal.
I have the law on my side, but I still have to worry about public opinion. And compared to the people I’ve looked at so far, there isn’t anyone more suitable than this.
"Audrey Winter."
I look down at the photograph attached to her file.
The woman staring back at me has a refreshing, almost stark kind of beauty. A silver bob brushes against her shoulders, framing snow-white skin and a pair of cold, transparent blue eyes that seem to stare straight through the photograph.
She might actually be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
For a moment, I just stare.
Then I shake my head, snapping myself out of it, and quickly turn the page.
Focus.
"And the fourth."
A male Hunter who can shape wind into blades.
His crime is secretly transferring Gate raid rights, which can only legally be obtained through an Association-verified auction, to smaller Guilds that aren’t qualified to receive them.
Of course, he doesn’t do it for free.
He charges a hefty commission for every transfer.
The result is numerous casualties. Guilds full of hopeful Hunters end up entering Gates they are completely unprepared for, and people die because they were given access to something they never should have been allowed near in the first place.
A fool scamming a fool.
Still, I don’t find it particularly funny.
If he’s an S-rank, the legitimate money from Gate raids should already be more than enough. He doesn’t need to do this.
Maybe he doesn’t want to enter Gates anymore. But to maintain his S-rank license, he still needs achievements. So he’d come up with a scheme like this instead?
It’s a well-known fact that the demonic landscapes inside Gates are dreadful places that can slowly eat away at your sanity. Constantly fighting monsters, surrounded by blood and death, can’t exactly be good for anyone’s mental health.
But that’s still no excuse.
It certainly isn’t an excuse to use cheap tricks and calculated schemes to send innocent people to their deaths.
For now, it’s probably best to rule out guys like this altogether.
Even if this is technically a case of a fool scamming another fool, I want to avoid cunning, conniving criminals as much as possible. The kind of people who are always calculating, always looking for loopholes, always thinking about how they can turn a situation to their advantage.
Because if I bring someone like that onto my team, there’s a good chance he’ll eventually try to screw me over too.
So, pass.
"Then the last one is... attempted terrorism?"
A female Hunter who uses body enhancement and explosive force.
She’s presumed to be an illegal mercenary who was smuggled into the country and hired by some small-to-medium-sized Guild.
Her crime, however, is something else entirely.
She’d taken a Core, a magic stone mined from a Gate, and, "just for fun," tried to artificially open a Gate.
When the authorities asked her after the arrest what she would’ve done if a Gate had actually opened, her answer was apparently simple.
"Wouldn’t it be fine as long as I raid it?"
...
If it were nothing more than absurd confidence in her own abilities, that would be one thing.
But there’s definitely something abnormal about her.
Something about that answer doesn’t sit right with me. Trying to artificially open a Gate is already insane enough, but doing it "just for fun" and then acting like it would all be fine as long as she could clear whatever came out?
Yeah.
There’s something seriously wrong with this woman.
Still, I’m in a situation where I have to pick at least two people out of these five. And I’ve already ruled out the two public-relations nightmares, along with the cunning con artist who’d probably try to screw me over the moment I gave him the chance.
Which means...