Chapter 33 - HERO

"Kyaaaaaaaaaah!"

The airplane began to plummet.

Passengers screamed and clutched at their armrests.

[No! Making noise! You've crossed the final line! Bang!]

With another explosive bang,

the airplane started falling faster, faster still.

And all of this was being broadcast live to everyone.

"That crazy bastard..."

Of course, there was someone watching the scene unfold in real time...

"...Association President, what do we do now?"

[What do you mean what do we do... Give up. I'm busy writing a condemnation statement right now. Sigh, looks like I'll be bowing my head everywhere again. You just come back and get ready to write an apology for throwing popcorn at me. Ah, damn it. The reporters are here. I'm hanging up.]

And just like that, the call with the Association President ended.

Stardus was left alone, gazing up at the sky with a heavy heart.

"Haah..."

The sight of the airplane slowly falling.

Because it was descending so gradually, one might mistake it for a normal landing if they only looked at that.

But seeing the smoke billowing madly from both wings, anyone could tell something seriously wrong was happening.

Stardus thought to herself.

Wasn't this about to become the largest-scale terrorist attack in history in terms of casualties?

Egostic... that bastard had finally done it.

The most frustrating part was that she couldn't do anything—she could only watch.

The airplane's speed was at least 1000 km/h.

Considering that the train she had barely managed to stop was going about 100 km/h, this was roughly ten times faster.

Trying to stop that would be like throwing eggs at a rock. Like an ant trying to stop a car.

In other words, there was nothing she could do.

She could only watch helplessly.

As she looked up with a troubled heart,

suddenly, a ringtone sounded through the earpiece in her ear.

"...?"

She frowned at the call coming at such an unexpected time and tried to manipulate the earphone to hang up.

'Wait... isn't this earpiece only connected to the Association?'

Realizing this, she tapped the earphone once more to answer.

A man's voice came through.

And at that now-familiar voice, Stardus bit her lip.

[Hello, Ms. Stardus. This is Egostic.]

"You piece of trash..."

She almost ripped out the earphone and threw it on the ground, unable to contain her surging anger.

But at his next words, she found herself closing her mouth.

[I'm calling because I'm curious. Why aren't you going to save them?]

"...What did you say?"

[No, you should fly up and save the airplane. What are you doing?]

Stardus felt her blood boil at how he spoke so casually after being the one to bring it down.

However, thinking that losing her temper here would play into his scheme, she suppressed her anger and spoke calmly.

"...So you're telling me to stop a falling airplane? After you brought it down?"

[Yes. Of course.]

At his shameless words, Shin Haru seriously felt like punching this bastard.

Hard enough to kill him instantly.

Swallowing her anger, she spoke.

"How, exactly, am I supposed to stop that? Hm? That thing falling at 1000 km/h? Are you telling me to die? Ah, of course you are. You crazy bastard."

...Her anger was leaking out, and her persona was starting to crack.

But before she could even scream, Egostic cut her off with his words.

[No, you can do it.]

For a moment, at his voice—more serious and sincere than anyone's, even through the phone—she lost her words.

[You can do it. Stop the airplane's fall.]

As if stating an undeniable truth.

As if stating a natural fact, like the sun rising when the moon sets.

His voice was so resolute.

Momentarily speechless, she gathered herself and spoke quietly.

"...Does that even make sense? You think I don't know you're just trying to eliminate me while you have the chance?"

[Why would I want to kill you?]

And his calm voice followed.

[What meaning would I have without you? Without you, I'm just another common villain.]

[You complete me.]

[So step forward. Clench your fist, put strength in your legs, and fly into that sky to save people. You can do it. Because that's who you are.]

And with those final words, the call ended.

Left alone, she stood dazed for a moment at the sudden turn of events, as if possessed...

Soon coming to her senses, she shook her head vigorously from side to side.

That crazy bastard was just spouting his usual nonsense.

He was the one who exploded and brought down the airplane in the first place.

I know my own abilities—how could I possibly stop that?

Isn't he just trying to kill me with this opportunity?

However, his words kept echoing in her mind.

'No, you can do it.'

'You complete me.'

'Clench your fist, put strength in your legs, and fly into that sky to save people. You can do it. Because that's who you are.'

Words that, if taken at face value, could only be believed to have come from her fan.

But these words were spoken by her enemy, that bastard Egostic.

'Doesn't that make them even more credible and objective?'

Her mind was currently in chaos.

She was already feeling both helplessness and despair at the prospect of watching everyone on that airplane die in real time.

The villain who had brought down that airplane called her, and after dropping it himself, told her to go save it—her mental state finally snapped.

'Right. I stopped a train, so why couldn't I stop a plane? Actually, if you think about it, isn't a plane just a kind of flying train? What even is a plane? Isn't it just short for "flying train"? So then, couldn't I stop a plane too?'

Her brain began to follow a train of thought using seriously flawed logic.

And eventually, her brain reached a conclusion.

[247th Shin Haru Brain Regular Decision-Making Council]

[Resolution: Let's go save the airplane.]

'Right, if I just watch them die like this anyway, I'll live the rest of my life crushed by guilt. In that case, I'd rather have no regrets.'

And immediately.

She took to the sky.

***

"Kyaaaaaaah!"

"Huaaaaaaang."

"Uaaaaaaaaah!!!"

Inside the airplane, screams filled the air.

Though the descent itself was somehow falling smoothly for something that had just exploded, that didn't make the terror disappear.

Outside the window, the ground drew closer and closer.

At first, only clouds had been visible, but now the ocean below was coming into view.

People screaming, people praying to God, people who had fainted, or people who had given up everything and quietly closed their eyes.

As they gradually drew closer to the ocean, and people began to lose hope thinking they only had minutes left to live—

Thud.

From the front, a sound began to echo.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

A sound that continued without stopping.

As if something kept striking the front of the plane, a booming sound reverberated.

And then, the sound of air being torn apart.

Kwaaaaaang.

"Uuuuugh?"

Suddenly, a tremendous impact was felt from the front.

The passengers' bodies all lurched forward in unison.

An impact so severe that if they hadn't all been wearing their seatbelts, they would have been thrown from their seats.

Like a car hitting a tree-lined street, a shock rippled through the plane as if something had collided with its front.

And the airplane, which had been hurtling toward the ocean to be smashed to pieces—

Gradually.

Gradually.

Began to slow down.

"...Huh?"

Even the passengers who had initially thought they were done for from the impact at the front began to notice something was strange.

They were definitely getting closer to the ground.

But like a landing, the plane gradually, gradually slowed.

"Huh..? Huh?"

The plane that had been slowing down—

Soon landed on the ocean with a thoom.

Bang

"Kyaaaaaaah!"

Of course, there was some impact in the process and the plane suddenly cracked from the shock.

But ultimately.

All the passengers survived.

"...What?"

The passengers were dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events.

Not knowing what had happened, unable to even feel that they were alive, they couldn't even rejoice.

A few who had regained their senses got up from their seats and went inside looking for the flight attendants.

There, they found flight attendants who had collapsed unconscious.

They woke them up, had them open the airplane door, deployed the emergency slide connecting the airplane door to the ocean like a slide with lifeboats, and slid out onto the lifeboats.

Still in a daze, the people who boarded the lifeboats rowed to the front of the plane, and what they saw was—

A blonde woman in red tights, gripping the aircraft body so hard it was dented, sitting atop the crumpled front of the plane, drenched in sweat and catching her breath.

It was Stardus.

People who instinctively realized she had saved them.

One of them unconsciously muttered:

"A hero..."

Hero.

Hero.

Savior.

Everyone there felt it as they looked at her, catching her breath in such a humble state atop the massive airplane.

That.

That person.

Who had just saved everyone.

Was their hero.

***

[Yes!!! Stardus has!!! Successfully landed the airplane!!! All passengers are!!! Safely disembarking!!! Citizens!!! South Korea is safe!!!]

[Yes, and as you can see.... Wow. She did it! Viewers, The Korean A-class hero Stardus just stopped plane from crashing in midair! Unbelievable that it happened in Korea.]

[はい、ちょうど韓国のヒーローStardus-sanが飛行機を上空で止めることに成功しました. すごいですね. 韓国にできないことがありまか?]

[韓國的英雄星塵攔住了飛機. 是的，這對於半島上一個流氓國家來說很棒.]

[En Corée, un petit pays à l'Est, un héros a arrêté un avion dans le ciel. Elle s'appelle Stardus.]

[America is shocked and Japan is stunned! The hero praised by China and feared by France, who is Stardus? "Japan must now admit that it has been completely defeated by Korea when it comes to heroes. Even if we combined ten Japanese heroes, we couldn't beat Korea." Shocking revelation from Japan's Minister of Internal Affairs!]