Because I'm Shooting Star's Son (4)
Shuuuaaaang-!
“Kraaaack!!”
Deogi lunged, swinging his claws. The tile floor shattered, fragments spraying everywhere like shotgun pellets.
“......!”
In his acceleration state, Ohoo narrowly slipped past the trajectory of the onrushing claws. Twisting his upper body and rolling across the floor in that instant, Deogi's claw grazed his cheek.
Pshuk.
A few strands of hair were sliced clean off.
‘Fast. Way faster than before.’
Deogi's body, having devoured the organization members' heads raw and slurped up their brains, swelled larger with every passing moment of the prolonged fight. Ohoo twisted away from the attack and, in that split-second gap as he rose, snatched up the sashimi knife rolling on the floor with his left hand.
The very knife he'd jammed into Deogi's back and sliced with just moments ago before it fell.
Swish.
Ohoo readjusted his grip on the blood-drenched handle of the sashimi knife and glared at Deogi. The recoil from acceleration had already twisted his right hand's finger bones grotesquely, rendering them useless. The tip of the blade trembled in his left hand.
He hadn't picked it up thinking this sashimi knife could sever Deogi's windpipe in one stroke. For starters, it wasn't even his dominant hand. He couldn't hide the awkwardness in his swing. Moreover, Ohoo knew better than anyone that this flimsy strip of metal couldn't inflict a fatal wound on Deogi, wrapped in thick hide and muscle.
It was nothing but a cheap bluff to plant even a shred of caution in Deogi.
The moment that claw had slapped his cheek.
The 15-minute limit from his self-hypnosis had already been exceeded.
‘One more set. Whatever.’
Recalling the agony of training under Last Moment, he boldly hurled himself forward again. Yet his body's breakdown tightened around his throat relentlessly, heedless of his will. The hypnosis blocking pain still dominated his brain. He simply couldn't feel it, but the physical limits and ruptures progressed unabated. Veins bulged like they might burst any second, blood ready to spray, and his heartbeat skipped irregular beats amid the thunderous rhythm.
‘How much longer... can I hold acceleration?’
Even Ohoo couldn't guarantee it. He was in the worst overload state imaginable—one wrong second could drop him from myocardial infarction.
“Grrrrrr...”
Deogi licked the blood pooling at his mouth and prepared to leap again. His movements stretched out long and slow. Even without feeling pain, his body seemed to have unleashed hormones accounting for its current state. Thanks to that, in the dilating sensations, Ohoo recalled the first time he'd awakened to acceleration.
Not even a few days ago. On the sparring mat in the A-rank secret training facility.
“Get up, you trash! If you're gonna drop from that, pack your shit and get out now!”
Thud-!!
“Guhk...!”
Last Moment's merciless kick slammed straight into Ohoo's gut. His body, still lacking muscle back then, floated up before crashing pathetically onto the mat. Stomach acid briefly bubbled up from his mouth and receded.
Hellish training to awaken acceleration, his mother Shooting Star's legacy. But no matter how close to death Last Moment pushed him, not a scrap of ability manifested in Ohoo's body.
“Haa... haa...”
Ohoo lay face-down on the mat, gasping raggedly. Despair at his lack of power crushed him. Through his blurry vision, he caught the full-wall mirror on the training room side. There, a fat, ugly figure drenched in sweat and blood lay collapsed—the spitting image of the father he loathed, Ha Deokgu. Not a trace of his mother Han Sara's radiant heroism.
‘In the end... am I just that bastard's shell?’
Ohoo swallowed a bitter sneer inwardly. He'd boldly planned to make Eunbyeol and Miyang official heroes. Vowed to tear the loan shark scum limb from limb for revenge. But trapped in this loathsome shell without awakening his power, did he even qualify for those grand schemes? Maybe it was all repulsive hypocrisy unfit for this filthy body.
Forcing himself into a frenzy with the hypnosis app, repeating I'm Shooting Star's son—wasn't that just a weak mental victory, fleeing the miserable reality?
“Ten-minute break. Catch your breath and come back.”
Last Moment tossed him a towel and turned away coldly, signaling rest. Ohoo slumped against the mat's edge, trembling hands fumbling his smartphone from his pocket. He stared blankly at the hypnosis app's screen, its purple vortex swirling.
‘What... was my name? Oh, right, that.’
His name from the original world, before possession—playing that eroge in his room as an ordinary guy. Just days ago, those three clear syllables had been vivid, but now they faded like an overexposed photo, scattering in his mind. No matter how he strained, the name wouldn't form on his tongue.
“Ah...”
‘Maybe I can't awaken... because of this.’
Ohoo stared piercingly at the screen.
‘Lingering memories from before possession... I'm not fully Han Ohoo, Shooting Star's son. Not assimilated, not fully rejected...’
Hero abilities manifested from the body, but rooted in mind and will. Yet a corner of his psyche clung to I'm not from this world as an escape. That frailty might be blocking his mother's legacy.
Ohoo tapped the hypnosis app's text input without hesitation.
> 【Command: Forget your past name.】
> 【Additional Command: Leave only the name Han Ohoo, son of Shooting Star, imprinted on your soul.】
He slammed the enter key without a second's hesitation.
Paaat-!
A purple flash erupted.
“Kheuk...!”
Ohoo clutched his head and rolled across the mat. And right after.
A faint but unmistakable heat began rising from his toes. His mother's suppressed legacy, acceleration, flickered to life for the first time—weakly, but real.
But it wasn't full awakening. As Last Moment said, the forced ability was immature; prepping for real combat by ramping heart rate and heating muscles took dozens of minutes—a half-baked power.
So Ohoo devised a cheat. Recalling when he'd first broken human limits. In the funeral home alley, ambushed by Miyang's current—muscles forcibly contracting, paralyzed—yet paradoxically, his body enhancement instincts awakened, saving him from death. That electric thrill.
Based on that, he had Miyang jam current straight into his nape's central nervous system, forcibly skipping the dozens-of-minutes warmup.
Snaping from that day's fierce epiphany and awakening memory, Ohoo still heaved ragged breaths, facing off against Deogi.
‘No time.’
His body creaked past the 15-minute limit. How many more dodges from Deogi's attacks? Two? Three? The standoff of mere minutes felt like five endless hours.
The instant acceleration's limit hit and speed dropped, Deogi's claws would bisect his torso.
‘One way to survive.’
Ohoo subtly readjusted the sashimi knife in his left hand. This puny blade couldn't end it. It was mere bait to draw eyes.
Ohoo's real weapon. The sole joker card to snap Deogi's neck in one go.
The hypnosis app, buried deep in his pocket. Shove its purple vortex screen right in Deogi's eyes and knock him out cold—that's how he'd survive this melee.
One chance only.
“Kraaaack!!”
Deogi finished prepping, coiling his hind leg muscles, and launched at Ohoo again.
“Haat-!”
Ohoo twisted to his limit, sliding across the floor. Deogi's foreclaw grazed his shoulder, pulverizing a concrete pillar.
Bam!
But the cost of the reckless dodge arrived. Crack-! Crunch-!
Sound from his left knee joint and shinbone, the pillars propping his body. Bones unable to withstand his weight and acceleration's centrifugal force hit their limit.
“.......”
But not a flicker of pain crossed Ohoo's face. Facial muscles frozen serene.
【Feels no pain】
Thanks to that ruthless self-hypnosis command embedded in his brain, he heard the snap but pain signals were blocked from reaching it.
‘Right leg's still good.’
Ohoo dragged his broken leg like dead weight, barely steadying and rising.
‘Two more.’
He counted down mentally. Two dodges left before his body gave out. He ached to shove the app from his pocket, but Deogi's brutal combos left him scrambling just to evade. No gap to show the screen.
But.
‘Slightly... but my speed still edges his.’
Forced acceleration or not, Shooting Star's genes outpaced the mutant villain's physique—just barely.
‘Slow him a bit more next move, then use the speed edge to jam hypnosis in his eyes.’
“Kraaack!!”
Enraged at the miss, Deogi wheeled, dropping low like a wolf on all fours, charging head-on with terrifying speed.
Ohoo didn't dodge. Instead, he gripped the sashimi knife's tip downward and stared straight at the oncoming Deogi.
Bam-!
Distance closed, bodies crossing.
Crunch.
Ohoo pivoted on his broken left leg, thrusting the knife with all his might into the back of Deogi's hind leg.
‘Sever the Achilles tendon!’
Squelch-!!
The blade punched through tough hide and fur, sinking into hind leg muscle with heavy feedback.
“Kruuuugh-!!!”
Deogi's scream erupted. Bam! Knife in leg, he lost balance and tumbled forward.
“Hoo...”
Ohoo shook blood from his hand, gasping. Perfect hit. Now Deogi couldn't stand properly, reduced to crawling. Close in, flash the app, end the fight.
But.
“Grrrrr...”
Dust swirling, Deogi rose slowly, sashimi knife deep in his leg.
“......What?”
Ohoo's eyes widened. Achilles severed should've made standing impossible. Deogi limped, but stood firm on that hind leg.
‘Fuck... he's not human.’
Deogi: canine mutant ability user. Leg skeleton, joint structure, muscle layout all differed from human. Ohoo's human anatomy target was just thick leg muscle to the dog-mutated Deogi—not the real Achilles.
The decisive blow missed.
But too early for despair. Didn't sever the tendon precisely, but the knife tore muscle; blood poured from Deogi's hind leg. Movements clearly dulled.
‘Not dramatic, but speed's shaved. Gap for the app made.’
Ohoo dragged his broken leg, advancing slowly. Left hand clenched the phone's power button in his pocket.
Next was last. Ohoo slyly drew the smartphone. Lens emerged.
“Yang Taeyang.”
“......!”
A new voice intruded the battlefield. Calling the alias Deogi by his real name—a woman.
Ohoo froze mid-draw, shoving the phone deep back in.
His gaze snapped to the voice. Center of the blood-soaked underground mall. Unnoticed approach, a mysterious woman stood prim in a black trenchcoat.
“......Who?”
Ohoo swallowed. Deogi, knife in leg and heaving, whipped his head at the voice calling his true name.
The woman didn't flinch before the rampaging Deogi. Slowly raising both hands, she gripped her black trenchcoat's lapels and flung it wide.
Whoosh-.
Coat spread, lining exposed. Blood-red. Impeccably so, every speck enthralled by crimson. Like a matador, she displayed it to Deogi.
“Come here.”
She whispered to Deogi.
“......!!”
At that brief whisper.
“Grr... aaah!”
Phlegm-choked voice, facing the red lining, drooled uncontrollably, drawn inexorably toward the coat. But simultaneously, the suppressed human Yang Taeyang's ego thrashed.
“No! Don't go! You'll get eaten! Run, please run!”
Human reason instinctively knew that red maw would devour him, slamming brakes on his steps. But the body was long under phlegm-voice control. The human scream mere fading echo.
“Hehe... hahaha...”
Deogi chuckled sloppily, blood pouring from knife-pierced leg, yet limped moth-to-flame toward the woman's red lining.
‘That coat lining... another awakened ability?’
Ohoo's eyes shook watching. Then.
Sss...
Even Ohoo, maintaining reason via emotion-control hypnosis.
Staring into that scarlet lining, he nearly stepped unconsciously, entranced.
‘Go there... and it'll be easy...?’
Pupils dilating, body leaning toward her—
Thud!
“Kuhk!”
Utter bad luck. Acceleration recoil and dodging had finally broken his last good right leg. Crash! Ohoo collapsed, slamming the floor. Couldn't move anymore. Legs unresponsive.
But.
‘Fuck, why's my hand...’
Ohoo's right hand clawed the floor. Still crawling toward that red coat, refusing to stop. The ability's lure pierced his nerves, seizing his body.
Just like Ohoo's hypnosis app.