The 21st Century
Terrorists.
Sunya had seen them a few times through the news and in movies. He roughly understood them as something like villains who wore masks and blew up cities or bridges. They might have had their own beliefs or grievances, but given that innocent people were sacrificed along the way, they were a breed difficult to look upon kindly.
"What exactly is the situation?"
"I don't know for sure either. I think there might have been terrorists on the connecting flight."
Gyeong-seo's face still couldn't quite grasp the movie-like turn of events. From Sunya's perspective, that was fortunate — better than her falling into a full panic or being too flustered to get words out.
"How did you find out about that, Miss Gyeong-seo?"
"Well, an emergency alert text just came from the government… but it probably isn't true. The government always makes a huge fuss sending texts left and right. Terrorists in this day and age? That doesn't even make sense, right?"
But that composure lasted only a moment. She was starting to come undone. Sunya soothed her so she wouldn't completely lose her grip.
"It's alright."
At Sunya's words, Gyeong-seo's heart calmed as if by magic. His voice held something that cleared the mind.
"I'm sure nothing will happen."
"R-right?"
"More importantly, I have somewhere I need to go for a moment."
"Where? Of all times, now?"
Gyeong-seo looked incredulous. Regardless, Sunya rose from his seat at once.
"It's a secret."
"Don't go!"
Gyeong-seo cried out. She wanted Sunya by her side during this precarious time.
"Don't worry. I intend to return before it's too late."
Sunya used his Myeong-an. "Myeong-an" was a name he had recently given his eyes to distinguish them from those of ordinary people. Through them he tracked down Gyeong-seok and Hyeon-ju's whereabouts, and at last determined where, in the vast sky, the plane carrying them was flying.
One way or another, this really is cheating, isn't it.
Even he found it rather unfair. From a spot where no one was watching, Sunya lifted his body into the air, then shot off somewhere at a speed exceeding hypersonic.
"If anyone moves, I'll detonate the bomb right then and there."
A man in a mask spoke in clumsy English. He was not alone, and he held an assault rifle in his hands.
How the hell did they smuggle something that big aboard?
Gyeong-seok's head ached as he tried somehow to reassure Hyeon-ju, who was trembling with fear.
"What do we do, honey? If something goes wrong…"
"It's okay. Everything will be fine."
Even as he said it, Gyeong-seok was deeply anxious inside. He wondered how things had come to this — where it had all gone wrong.
Maybe I shouldn't have suggested a trip just because it was our wedding anniversary?
The outside world really was dangerous. He tried to dispel the dread with such trivial thoughts, but it wasn't working. The terrorists had already subdued the security personnel and, by threatening the pilot, diverted the plane from its flight path.
What am I supposed to do?
Terrorists had appeared just like in a movie, but unlike a movie, no protagonist was about to show up and resolve the situation. Just moments ago, some passengers who resisted had needlessly gotten holes put through their heads.
I could maybe handle one of them. But…
Gyeong-seok didn't give up. He kept turning ideas over in his head, searching for a way to break through.
A sudden explosive crack froze his thoughts. A gunshot.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
What followed was a woman's scream — no, closer to a cry of despair than a shriek born of mere shallow fear.
"I clearly warned you not to move."
"Nick!!"
When Gyeong-seok carefully peeked his head past the seat, a white woman who appeared to be American was crying out her child's name. The one who had been shot was her child.
"Cough… Mo…m…"
"No no no no no!!!!"
The woman cradled the child bleeding from the mouth. The boy called Nick looked about the same age as Gyeong-seok and Hyeon-ju's daughter, Hyeon-a.
Hyeon-a…
Though he knew he shouldn't think this way, Gyeong-seok felt both pity for the woman and child and a guilty relief that they hadn't brought their daughter along. Even if things went wrong, at least she would live.
"Return to your seat."
"Please, God, please! Please save my child!!"
"Didn't you hear me? I said return to your seat. Otherwise I'll shoot you too."
The terrorist's warning never reached the woman's ears. How many people could keep their composure when their child was dying of a gunshot wound?
"Tsk!"
In the end the terrorist aimed his gun at the woman's head. He was about to pull the trigger without further mercy when—
A strange sound rang out. Something different from the crack of gunpowder. The terrorist still had not pulled the trigger.
"What?"
As the terrorists looked around in bewilderment, the airplane door crumpled like paper and someone stepped inside.
"Whew~ Looks like I made it in time, fortunately."
And he was someone Gyeong-seok knew.
Sunya-ssi.
He had appeared. A protagonist who truly seemed to have stepped straight out of a flashy comic book — not an ordinary action hero, but a superpowered Superman. The existence Gyeong-seok had once found so unsettling now showed up precisely when needed, and he couldn't have felt more reassured.
"How…"
The terrorists stared at the suddenly appeared Sunya with blank incomprehension. Things that absolutely should not have happened had all occurred at once, and their thoughts couldn't properly connect. They couldn't understand how the plane's door had crumpled like paper, how someone had boarded an aircraft mid-flight, or why — despite a hole punched clean through the fuselage — the airflow had not changed in the slightest.
"So this is the interior of a passenger plane. It's my first time seeing one in person."
As he spoke, he naturally approached the bleeding child and the woman holding him.
"Could you hand the child to me for a moment?"
"What?"
"I think I can help."
"…"
The woman was equally flustered. Someone who appeared out of nowhere and spoke to her so casually even in this situation didn't feel like an ordinary person at all. But wanting to grasp at any straw, she handed her child to Sunya.
"You bastard!! Don't move!!"
As Sunya prepared to do something, one of the masked terrorists swung a gun toward him.
"I'd rather not."
"What?"
"Even if I don't follow your orders, what exactly can you do about it?"
"You—?"
The people around them tensed. They felt anxious that Sunya was needlessly provoking the terrorists.
"You son of a bitch!!"
The terrorist opened fire — not single shots, but a full automatic burst.
"Huk!"
"Oh my god…"
"It's Neo!!"
But none of those bullets struck anything. Nearly twenty rounds all stopped dead in midair. A strange silence settled over the cabin at the surreal sight.
The surprises did not end there. When Sunya placed his hand over the wound of the child the woman had given him, white light swirled, the injury vanished, and color returned to the boy's face in an instant. The sight of a child on the brink of death coming back to life could only be called a miracle.
"Oh… my god…"
The devout Christian woman fell to her knees, tears streaming. To her, Sunya was already the savior from the Bible.
"Oh God…"
Even some of the terrorists dropped to their knees. The miracles Sunya displayed were wondrous and shocking even to fanatics who had been about to commit mass slaughter.
"No! That's impossible!! There's no way a bastard like you could be the messiah!!"
But one of the terrorists refused to surrender quietly. His eyes rolled back and he pressed the detonation switch.
A bomb hidden inside the cabin exploded. Fortunately no one was near it, so people weren't caught in the blast itself — but a large hole tore open in the fuselage.
"Oh my god!"
"Hold on tight."
The plane shook hard once. But that was all. Unlike in the movies, no one was sucked outside.
"What?"
"What's going on?"
People were confused. Then some looked out the windows, grasped the situation, and shouted.
"Hands!!"
"What?"
"Huge hands and small hands are covering the plane from the outside!"
"?!"
It was exactly as they said. Looking through the windows, one could faintly see large and small hands of light densely blanketing the fuselage. They were surely maintaining the cabin's air pressure that way.
"Ah…"
Faced with an incomprehensible, ineffable being, even the last remaining terrorist fell to his knees.
"You'll stop now, won't you?"
Sunya asked gently. Yet in those words was an indescribable pressure. The terrorist trembled and barely managed to nod.