Chapter 105 - Her Despair

After the final battle with Death Knight from Egostic's Villain Alliance, Stardust, Shin Ha-ru, had been living a relatively peaceful life.

"My name is Paprika! I'll turn you into paprika, aaaaargh!!!"

She would handle the occasional spandex-wearing lunatics with a single punch.

"My name is Celestian. Stardust, I've come to defeat you. Hehe, I'll break you right here!"

...

"...Sob, I'm sorry. Please spare me... Aack! Don't hit me! This is excessive force!"

And villains with special abilities were all dealt with equally - one punch each.

"....."

She was living a peaceful life, mechanically eliminating villains without any trouble.

"......Sigh."

...And as this routine continued, she felt herself becoming increasingly numb.

[Since the A-class villain Egostic's Villain Alliance launched Death Knight for the last time, they've continued to lay low for a while. Experts now generally agree that Egostream carries out terror attacks once per quarter. Mr. Cheol-gyu, do you think Egostic will launch an attack within this year?]

[Ah, that's impossible to predict. Actually, the quarterly terror theory is just an unfounded rumor circulating among netizens. In reality, Egostic's terror attacks are extremely irregular. However, looking at his attack patterns so far, there is definitely one consistent pattern.]

[What's that?]

[When he hasn't appeared on broadcasts for too long and is starting to be forgotten, that's when he suddenly appears with a bang! And his definition of 'too long' is estimated to be around 3-4 months. So, we don't know exactly when he'll come, but if he hasn't appeared for about three to four months, then he'll definitely show up.]

[I see. So attacks could happen a week apart, but they never exceed a 4-month gap from the previous attack?]

[Exactly. And what's notable here is that it doesn't have to be a terror attack. He could appear in any way, whether introducing his villains or intercepting another villain's attack.]

[So when can we definitely expect to see Egostic again?]

[End of this year or early next year. He'll come before then, or if he doesn't, he'll definitely appear during that period.]

Click

Occasionally, stories about Egostic would come up on TV. Whenever that happened, Ha-ru would quietly change the channel.

...Well, to be fair, she did watch everything before changing the channel, but still.

These days, while dealing with minor villains, she had deliberately decided not to think about Egostic.

Reflecting this determination, she hadn't visited Egostic's fan cafe even once recently.

"......"

Of course, it had become such a habit that sometimes she'd unconsciously click the bookmark and visit. But even then, she'd just quickly skim through the popular posts and leave without doing anything else.

'Ha-ru, aren't you too obsessed with Egostic?'

After hearing those words from her friend Lee Seol-ah, she realized something. Yes, she had been thinking too much about Egostic. To the point where it was interfering with her daily life.

When you think about it, he's just another villain. With so many villains in the world, it's a waste of time to wonder what a villain who isn't even carrying out attacks might be doing.

So she gradually reduced her thoughts about Egostic.

Thoughts like what he might be doing when not terrorizing, what his real name might be and how he lives his normal life, why he carries out attacks in the first place, why he singled her out for his attacks from the beginning, why a villain would cheer for her and risk himself for her.

All of it, all of it.

She tried to bundle it all deep inside her heart, trying not to think about any of it.

He's not carrying out attacks right now.

When he's not showing himself, there's no way to catch him anyway, so rather than worrying about someone who isn't appearing, it's better to focus on other things.

...That's what she tried to think, rationally.

"Haaa...."

But still.

Without Egostic, daily life was peaceful. In other words, boring.

Now that her abilities had grown much stronger, all approaching villains looked like mere punching bags to her.

Reminded once again that only Egostic could make her use her full power, she found herself unconsciously waiting for the new year.

'...Will he come next year?'

And so, a year passed.

***

In the end, Egostic didn't appear for the rest of the year, and everything flowed peacefully. A new year began.

"Right. This letter. It's a tip that there will be a terror attack in Seoul on the day of the first snow, but honestly, it's likely a prank. However, just in case, make thorough preparations for that day."

And then, words from the regular Hero Association meeting.

As reported in that tip, on the evening of Seoul's first snow...

BOOM.

A terror attack actually occurred in the heart of Seoul.

When she heard about it, Shin Ha-ru wondered if it might be Egostic's attack, but seeing that no broadcast had started, that seemed unlikely.

Just as she was feeling slightly disappointed, the association informed her not to worry as Shadow Walker had already been dispatched. They laughed, saying it had been a while since someone launched an attack at night.

Given that Shadow Walker had never failed to quickly resolve evening terror attacks, she thought, even as she put on her suit, that the incident would probably be over by the time she arrived.

However.

The situation at the scene was quite different.

Countless citizens screaming and evacuating. Buildings being destroyed helplessly.

"Aaaaargh!! Why isn't my ability working!!"

Wheeeeeeee.

The night sky of the city was filled with bizarre pink light and an intense windstorm.

In front of it, Shadow Walker was screaming, pulling at his hair, having lost his sanity.

Looking at the situation where only an ominous pink light filled the sky, Shin Ha-ru finally realized.

Something seemed very wrong.

***

The peaceful downtown area enjoying the first snow hadn't been damaged for long.

Just like any other day, a woman in a white uniform walked into the middle of the downtown street.

Wheeee-

Suddenly, a pink storm began to blow around her.

And shortly after, a pink tornado spinning at an incredibly fast speed appeared.

Wheeee-

BOOOOOM.

With the sudden appearance of a pink vortex visible from far away, citizens already accustomed to terror attacks began to scream and flee quickly.

Starting with screams and sirens echoing through downtown, the peaceful night was gradually dyed with a growing massive pink tornado.

Like a dreamlike CG, a pink tornado growing as if to swallow the entire city in the middle of the bleak gray downtown.

And purple star-shaped objects beginning to appear one by one in the air.

As the typhoon made it difficult for people to even stand, suddenly the purple stars that appeared between the typhoon

began to fly around with physical force, randomly destroying the downtown area.

BOOM.

BOOM.

The evening city turned into chaos in an instant.

But people weren't as panicked as one might expect.

Because it was a night attack.

Because Shadow Walker, invincible in the evening, would handle everything.

And now, that Shadow Walker...

"Aaaaargh!"

In front of that pink typhoon, he was just writhing helplessly, pulling at his hair.

***

"So you're saying your power weakens when you get close to that pink tornado?"

"Yes. I can't even use my shadow teleportation technique!"

In the Seoul downtown area dyed pink.

Thanks to the association's advance deployment of agents and lower-ranking heroes throughout downtown based on the warning letter, civilians had already evacuated. Heroes stood on the street, having a serious discussion.

In front of the ranting Shadow, Icicle tilted her head.

"Really? Is it that bad?"

"Yes. Strangely, the closer you get to the center of that typhoon, the weaker you become and the less you can use your abilities. If you get hit by one of those purple star-shaped objects flying in the air, your body gets thrown back."

"...This is serious."

Icicle, who had come up to Seoul from Busan at Shadow Walker's request, wore a grave expression as she looked at the pink typhoon occupying downtown.

If it was an opponent that could defeat Shadow Walker at night, could she even stand a chance?

"By the way, where's Stardust, Ha-ru?"

"She said she'd go check it out and went inside."

And just as Shadow said that.

THUD.

From inside that pink typhoon, Stardust was thrown back as if she had hit something and crashed to the ground.

"Ha-ru!"

Icicle was startled and hurriedly approached Stardust, who was getting up while wiping blood from the corner of her mouth.

"Are you okay? You..."

As Icicle hurriedly examined her, she soon met Stardust's eyes and was shocked.

Stardust's eyes looking toward the typhoon.

Those eyes were almost burning, filled with fierce determination.

"Move. I'll try once more.."

"Uh. Okay..."

Seol-ah backed away at her words, which were spoken as if through gritted teeth.

And passing by her, Stardust entered the typhoon.

After hesitating, Icicle followed her.

***

'Again.'

Shin Ha-ru, who had entered the typhoon caused by the villain, gritted her teeth.

Her long hair was flying wildly, and the strong wind made it difficult to even keep her eyes open while walking.

And strangely, her strength rapidly weakened as soon as she entered this area.

"Ugh."

Shin Ha-ru barely kept her eyes open and managed to punch away a large purple star-shaped object that was flying fiercely toward her.

BOOM. BOOM.

The wide downtown area was covered with pink wind.

Between them, purple stars of unknown origin floated around and flew toward her.

And after several attempts, when she finally managed to break through all of that and approach the center...

ZZZZING-

From somewhere invisible inside, something like a purple beam was fired.

-BOOM

"Urgh..."

She tried to withstand it by crossing her arms in front of her chest, but there was no way her weakened state could hold.

In the end, she couldn't overcome the recoil and was thrown back.

"Kyaaaah!"

Seol-ah's scream was heard from beside her.

The two, barely thrown back by all kinds of attacks, were panting.

While Shadow Walker was still struggling to break through the typhoon.

Shin Ha-ru gritted her teeth.

Yes. She thought things had been too peaceful lately.

Why hadn't she realized? This world is full of malice.

Enemies stronger than her are always lurking somewhere.

The feeling of despair that she couldn't do anything despite a villain being right in front of her, destroying the city and hurting people.

Was this punishment for her arrogance after resolving all villains with a single punch all this time?

For the first time since Egostic dropped the plane, she felt filled with frustration and helplessness.

And now, there was no Egostic beside her to encourage her.

And this villain wouldn't retreat with a smile like Egostic did.

And of course, Egostic hadn't appeared now.

She gritted her teeth even harder.

This is real.

And in this situation, she realized once again.

Egostic had been going easy on me all this time.

The attacks with him were just games.

This is what a real terror attack is like.

"...This is bad. What should we do... Huh? Ha-ru, are you crying?"

At Seol-ah's words beside her, she finally returned to reality.

"...What are you talking about?"

At Seol-ah's words, she put her hand to her face, wondering what she meant.

And only then did she feel it.

Without her knowing, tears had been streaming down her cheeks.

***

"Oh my!!! Sob sob sob Ha-ru!! I'm so sorry!! I'm coming right now!!"

"Oppa, are you crazy? Calm down!"

"Hey, what's wrong with you! Sit down!"

"Da-in, please calm down! You said you'd just watch today!"

As I got up from my seat, unconsciously shedding tears like a flood while watching TV, my companions forcibly held me back.

No! How can I stay still when our Stardust is crying!! She's crying because she's upset!!

"No! Stardust, I'm coming to youuuu!!!"

"Unni! There's no choice now. Shoot some electricity at oppa!"

"Let go! I'm going... Aaaaargh!"