Would you mind if I bought you a drink?

"...Kate," the little girl answered timidly.

"Kate..." Wu Yanzu repeated the name in a low voice.

Then, he reached out and gently... touched the doll in her hand.

"...You like this?"

"Yes, it was you...you saved me."

Wu Yanzu's expression froze for 0.1 seconds. Is that so? Of course it is!

"That day... the building collapsed, my dad..." Kate's eyes reddened, "that alien monster was going to kill me... and then... and then you appeared."

She mimicked the scene: "Look at it, 'whoosh'... use the light in your eyes!"

"……sorry."

Kate was stunned.

"I'm sorry, Kate," Wu Yanzu's voice was hoarse, "that day... I should have been faster."

"If I had been any faster... your father... he would have..."

He didn't continue.

A hero's self-reproach speaks louder than a thousand words.

"Waaah..." A female intern reporter accompanying them burst into tears on the spot.

The dean also covered his mouth, his eyes red-rimmed.

A glimmer of light finally appeared in Kate's numb eyes.

She looked at the god-like man before her, the hero who had saved her and was now apologizing to her.

"No...it's not your fault!" Kate suddenly shouted, throwing away the doll and throwing herself into Wu Yanzu's arms.

"It's not your fault! You're a hero! You saved me!! Waaaaah..."

The little girl's cries echoed throughout the room.

Wu Yanzu, a man from the motherland, gently and clumsily embraced her back.

He raised his head and closed his eyes.

A single tear, a "hero's tear," slid perfectly down his handsome cheek.

"Snap—!!!!"

The spotlight has gone crazy.

"Ding! You have gained 213 popularity points!"

"Ding! You have gained 480 popularity points!"

"Ding! You have gained 355 popularity points!"

"..."

"Ding! Special popularity points gained +10000!"

Wu Yanzu laughed wildly to himself.

"Excellent...the performance was perfect. Once Walter's influence takes hold, my popularity will skyrocket, and everyone will love me!!"

After the "show" was over, Wu Yanzu left the orphanage with a satisfied heart.

Instead of returning immediately, he decided to fly around New York twice to enjoy the "dessert"—the cheers of the crowd.

Just as he flew over the chaotic area of ​​"Hell's Kitchen".

His keen "super hearing" caught a hint of something unusual.

"...No...please...let me go..." came a woman's voice, filled with suppressed fear.

Hell's Kitchen.

The name of this godforsaken place is perfectly apt.

Even a month after the Battle of New York "ended," the air here still smelled foul.

Jessica Jones threw the empty bottle into the sink with a loud thud.

In the mirror was a woman with a pale face and dark circles under her eyes.

Her black hair was a mess, like a bird's nest, and she wore her ever-present black leather jacket and ripped jeans.

"Fuck."

She muttered a curse under her breath and grabbed the keys.

Jessica has superpowers.

She herself didn't know how she got it. That damned car accident took away her family, but gave her this "gift"—super strength and the ability to jump from the 10th floor and break her legs.

But this gift meant nothing to her.

It brought only trouble, isolation, and a reputation as a monster.

So she learned to hide.

She changed jobs countless times: cashier, bartender, and even pretended to be a furry squirrel handing out flyers in Times Square.

She lived her life in a daze until... the Battle of New York broke out.

That day, she witnessed the side of a building being smashed by the "Leviathan" behemoth.

She saw a blond, caped "Superman" carrying a nuclear bomb as he rushed into the wormhole.

At her feet, a Chitauri soldier was about to pierce a little girl hiding behind a taxi with an energy spear.

Jessica didn't even think about it.

She rushed out, grabbed the alien bastard's head, and with the brute force she had hidden for ten years, slammed it hard into the asphalt.

She saved the girl.

From that day on, something she thought was long dead came back to life.

……

"Stop right there, you bitch! Hand over the money!"

Hell's Kitchen, 2 a.m.

Three drug addicts cornered a nurse who had just finished her night shift in an alley, one of them even brandishing a switchblade.

"Please..."

"Go to hell!" The leader of the thugs slapped the nurse across the face.

"Hey!"

A lazy, yet impatient female voice came from the alley entrance.

"Can you guys use some different words? It's always the same old 'bitch' and 'pay up,' it's so unoriginal."

The three thugs turned around and saw Jessica Jones.

"It's you! That weirdo in the leather jacket!" The leader had clearly heard of her. "Brothers! She's all alone! We..."

"Bang!"

Jessica didn't want to listen to nonsense.

She picked up a trash can lid from the ground and threw it like a frisbee, hitting the leader squarely in the face.

The guy's nose shattered on the spot, along with his teeth, and he passed out with a "whoop".

"What?!" The other two were stunned.

"Next." Jessica cracked her knuckles, making a "crack" sound.

"Fuck! Kill her!"

The one with the knife rushed over like a madman.

Jessica dodged to the side, grabbed his wrist, and twisted it in the opposite direction.

"Snap—!"

"Aaaaaaaaahh ...

The thug immediately rolled on the ground in pain.

Upon seeing this, the third thug turned and ran.

Jessica lunged forward, grabbed him by the back of his collar, and hurled him like a bowling ball at the brick wall at the end of the alley.

"Boom—!"

The brick wall collapsed, creating a small crater, and the guy slid down like a lump of mud.

Jessica dusted off her hands, walked up to the terrified nurse, and pulled a crumpled twenty-dollar bill from the thug's pocket on the ground.

"Here you go, take a taxi home. Don't take this road."

"...Thank you...thank you! You...you are a hero!"

"I'm not a hero," Jessica said, waving her hand sheepishly. "I'm just... Jessica Jones."

She turned and left, disappearing into the darkness.

In the shadows across the street, a man wearing a purple shirt and a purple tie witnessed everything.

A sickly smile curled at the corners of his mouth.

"Oh...my God," he murmured, "how...primal, how...powerful. You...are mine."

The next day, Jessica went to her usual run-down bar.

"The cheapest whiskey, Jack, on the rocks."

"You've gone off to 'fight crime' again, Jones?" the bartender said, wiping a glass. "You're going to get yourself into big trouble sooner or later."

"Shut up, give me the wine."

"Hey, mind if I buy you a drink?"

A gentle male voice came from inside.