14. The Golden Lady
14. The Golden Lady
"Vacation time!"
For the weekend, I decided to pull down the shutters of the laundry shop for once and take a break.
If you cross just one bridge, leaving behind The City—a hellscape where gunshots ring out in the alleys every day, the stench of blood hangs thick in the air, and maniacal villains run wild—a completely different world unfolds.
A massive metropolis with dazzling skyscrapers rising under a cloudless, clear sky, and streets so clean you couldn't find a speck of dust.
It was the neighborhood right next door, Skyscraper City.
If The City was a gloomy, damp backwater where gangs and murderers ran rampant, this place, Skyscraper City, was truly a bright and hopeful metropolis in its own right.
I headed toward a Japanese restaurant located in the heart of the city, feeling great under the dazzling sunlight.
Today was the day I was meeting my old friend, Akiko, who works as a fairly successful fashion model in this peaceful and beautiful city.
"Long time no see, Jin-woo! How have you been lately?"
Akiko, dressed up in a stylish designer dress and sunglasses, smiled playfully at me.
Having known her since our days majoring in fashion design, she was a friend whose unique sense of ease and confidence were her charms.
We became close back when we were both poor, acting as each other's model and designer.
Akiko stood on the runway just as she wanted, but Kang Jin-woo didn't—that was the original setting in the comic book.
"These days, all sorts of crazy bastards keep showing up at the shop, so I feel like my lifespan is getting cut in half. It's good to see you living well working as a model here. I was flipping through a magazine a while ago and was genuinely shocked to see you in it."
"Ahaha, you saw it! I got lucky."
"You definitely look prettier lately, don't you think? You've got more life in you since leaving The City."
"Skyscraper City is the best place to live. The air itself is different from that gloomy The City, isn't it?"
As we popped fresh tuna belly sushi into our mouths, we caught up after a long time.
With the taste of sushi melting in my mouth and the quiet atmosphere of the restaurant, I felt like the stress from being tormented by monsters like Cheshire and Nocturne over the past few days was being washed away.
Unfortunately, the peace didn't last very long.
Crash-!
Along with a loud shattering sound of the glass door breaking, half a dozen armed robbers wearing black masks stormed into the restaurant.
In their hands, they held brutish-looking automatic rifles.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
"Everyone get your heads down and hit the floor! Any bastard who tries anything funny is going to get turned into a honeycomb!"
One of the robbers, having fired a warning shot at the ceiling, screamed at the top of his lungs with veins popping out.
"This Japanese restaurant is a front for the Yakuza to launder money! Today, we, the Triad, will begin our bloody revenge here!"
It was a turf war between organized crime groups.
'Crazy, I finally came over to a peaceful neighborhood on my day off, and there's shooting here too?'
Reflexively, I threw away the chopsticks I was holding and curled up under the table.
My heart pounded like crazy at the thought that bullets would fly everywhere and turn this place into a bloodbath any second.
But something was strange.
"Akiko! Hurry and get dow... huh?"
Lifting my head from under the table, I was speechless at the absurd sight.
Akiko, sitting in front of me, wasn't even crouching; she was elegantly dipping salmon sushi into soy sauce with her chopsticks.
Looking around, it was the same. The server, the chef holding a knife behind the bar, and even the other customers in the hall weren't screaming; they were watching the robbers with complete nonchalance.
"What the... why is everyone just sitting there? Those maniacs are holding automatic rifles!"
As I whispered, sweating, Akiko chewed her sushi and smirked at me.
"Sigh, nothing to be afraid of. Just finish your meal."
Then, resting her chin on her hand, Akiko tossed a casual remark toward the Triad members who were pointing their gun barrels into the air.
"Did you guys just come over from The City across the bridge?"
At her provocative question, the robber's voice, which had been booming throughout the restaurant, cut off abruptly.
One of the Triad members, full of venom, strode over and shoved the cold gun barrel toward Akiko's chest.
"What? You bitch, running your mouth without fear. You not gonna get your head down right now?"
"Akiko!"
Just as I screamed and tried to reach out.
Akiko didn't even blink while looking at the gun barrel aimed at her chest; instead, she curled up the corners of her mouth and said.
"Enjoy this feeling of brandishing a gun for even one second longer while you can."
"This crazy bitch is really dying to die...!"
The moment the enraged robber cursed and put pressure on the finger on the trigger.
Whoosh-
At the moment the gunshot should have rung out, only the pleasant sound of wind brushing past my ears swept through the restaurant.
Even though I had my eyes wide open, I couldn't even perceive what had happened in that split second.
It was a strange sensation, as if someone had forcibly cut and spliced frames of a videotape, making the world's time skip by about a second.
"Aaaargh!"
"Ugh! My, my stomach...!"
And the next moment, all six Triad members who had been brandishing their guns with such bravado were rolling on the floor, clutching their stomachs and foaming at the mouth.
I doubted my own eyes as I looked at the rifles in the hands of those who had collapsed on the floor.
The long barrels made of steel were twisted and knotted like rubber toys or soft ropes.
Tying steel into a knot—it was something absolutely impossible with human physical strength.
"Is everyone okay? I'm sorry for causing a scene during your meal."
In the middle of the robbers sprawled on the floor, a woman who appeared out of nowhere was standing with her hands on her hips, grinning.
A woman who looked to be in her mid-20s with flowing black bobbed hair and a healthy, bronzed complexion—vividly engraved on her chest was a golden emblem symbolizing the sun.
The strongest hero of humanity and the absolute guardian of Skyscraper City had revealed herself.
"Ultra Girl!!"
"It's Ultra Girl!!"
Humanity's strongest hero, Ultra Girl—she has the appearance of a Latina beauty, but in reality, she is an alien with immense power who flew in from beyond the universe.
She hails from a planet called Iridian, where every single inhabitant is a superhuman; she arrived on Earth as almost the sole survivor when her planet was destroyed, and she grew up under kind parents to become a hero.
Because she advocates for non-lethal methods, she doesn't kill villains unless they truly cross the line, but she is a living god who suppresses all crime in the literal blink of an eye with supersonic flight speed and strength capable of crushing stars.
Ultra Girl lightly dusted off her hands, which had twisted the steel barrels like taffy, and smiled brightly at the fallen robbers.
"Is anyone hurt?"
"Thanks to you, no one is hurt, Ultra Girl."
"Ultra Girl, would you like to try this?"
"Oh my, thank you. I love tuna belly sushi."
Ultra Girl, having happily munched on a piece of sushi offered by the server, added a few more words with the same smiling face.
"By the way, I didn't know this was a shop run by the Yakuza for money laundering."
"U-Ultra Girl-nim, it's a misunderstanding..."
"I wish it were a misunderstanding, but if it's not, that's a big problem, isn't it? Organized crime groups entering Skyscraper City. Thanks to you gentlemen, I've gotten some good information. On my way back after handing these guys over to the police station later, I'll have to round up all the Yakuza guys and send them to prison too."
She waved friendly to the customers in the restaurant, then gathered the six hulking men lying on the floor, strung them together in one hand, and with a loud boom, shot up into the sky and disappeared in an instant.
Since the situation was resolved in less than 10 seconds, people returned to their daily lives without any particular tension.
Akiko shrugged her shoulders, holding out a piece of sushi dipped in soy sauce in front of me as I stood there with my mouth hanging open.
"Do you get it now? Why the crime rate in Skyscraper City is low, unlike in The City."
"...My god, she's truly amazing."
"Ultra Girl handles 95 percent of the crime in this city all by herself. Her method is clean—she suppresses them and hands them over to the police, so the police have no complaints. She doesn't suppress anyone unless they're caught in the act, and she's always kind and smiling, so she's very popular. Even though she's such a great hero, she always participates with a smile in things like youth counseling or helping reclusive youth, and there are many people who say they were saved thanks to her."
"......"
"Plus, her memory is so good that she never forgets anyone she's met once. She always asks how they're doing, and if they say they're living a better life, she even praises them. She's a truly wonderful woman."
I quietly picked up my chopsticks and put the sushi into my mouth.