The Fight Between Him and Her
The Fight Between Him and Her
It was another peaceful day on the streets of Seoul.
No major incidents had occurred since the Moonlight Church's large-scale terrorist attack, and people walked the streets without fear.
It was the weekend, and the streets were packed.
The latest pop song drifted from a nearby phone shop, music spilled from a coffee shop, a dozen other tunes poured from storefront speakers, passersby babbled, and car horns blared.
The street was alive with noise and motion.
Someone moved through that chaos of overlapping sound.
"......?"
A shopkeeper, a few particularly alert pedestrians, noticed something was off.
Every song pouring from every store speaker had suddenly become a blaring rock track.
A shop that had been playing a bubbly girl-group song only moments before was now filling the space with the demented solo of an electric guitar.
And it grew louder.
Louder still.
"Ugh..."
Soon the music was so loud that shoppers were wincing and covering their ears.
People who had been chatting on the street started stopping and turning their heads, wondering if this was some kind of promotional event.
BZZZZZT.
In an instant, the street had turned into an impromptu rock-concert venue.
People pulled out their phones and started filming the scene, murmuring and glancing around.
The surreal sight of dozens of separate speakers all united in playing the same single rock song.
By the time everyone had reached the stage of enjoying it, wondering if it was some kind of YouTube hidden-camera stunt—
Thud.
A distant sound of something landing.
BOOM.
"Aaaah!"
Something exploded in the street, and smoke began to billow into the open air.
Now realizing that something was genuinely wrong, the crowd scattered in every direction, panic-stricken.
Thud—
Thud—
"Aaaah! What is this!"
Suddenly, iron cages plunged from the sky and slammed down over people on the street, trapping them one after another.
They'd all heard of a movie where food falls from the sky, but no one had ever heard of a film where giant iron bars fall from the heavens. The citizens grabbed at the bars and shook them, shrieking.
The huge rock track continued to blare, mercilessly loud.
Police cars raced into the chaos, but even the officers were caught under cages that dropped from the sky, leaving them to rattle the bars helplessly.
Jiiiiing.
The electric guitar continued its frenzied live solo.
In the center of it all, the steel cages filled with people chirping like trapped birds began to rise, one by one, into the air.
Screams filled the space—aaaah—aaaah—
The cages ascended until they formed a perfect circle in the middle of the sky.
And at the same moment.
—HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
From the very speakers that had been pumping out the deafening rock track, a man's manic laughter suddenly erupted.
Bizarrely relentless, looping laughter. Massive rock music. People thrashing inside steel cages.
At the center of the colossal noise echoing across the city—
in that scene of utter chaos—
All the music stopped at once.
And then.
At an eardrum-shattering volume, a mechanical-sounding voice spoke from every speaker in unison.
WELCOME TO THE SHOW—
On cue, a massive explosion erupted at the center of the floating cages, and pink smoke scattered in every direction.
In the middle of it all, a man was now suspended in the sky.
The heart of the floating circle of cages.
By now, numerous cameras had formed a second ring around him.
At the center of that ring stood a man beneath the open sky.
He wore a black hat, black robe, and black cape, with a gray mask covering his face.
He raised the microphone to his mouth.
In the same instant, every camera in the sky flicked on.
The man opened his mouth, and his voice thundered across the entire street.
"Hello, everyone. This is Egostic!"
It was the sound of the starting gun.
The signal that the villain Egostic's terrorist attack had begun.
***
Egostic.
Everyone in South Korea knew the name now; some had even become followers. Since the Korean branch of the Hero Association was founded, Egostic had become the country's most influential villain.
And I was not pleased with that outcome.
...Yeah, maybe I'd been neglecting my main job a little lately.
I hated the idea of people not fearing a villain—not being terrified.
I'd pulled off some pretty flashy stunts, hadn't I?
Just off the top of my head: the train derailment, the plane crash, the bridge demolition. Those were all suitably spectacular.
So why the hell was this happening?
Fine, I would be honest. That opinion poll I'd seen before had rattled me a little.
I mean, did it make any sense that I had become more popular than an A-rank hero? I was a villain operating in South Korea's shadows, not a goddamn idol.
And in the long run, that phenomenon was even worse.
What was my whole reason for becoming a villain in the first place? The justification was that since I was personally wiping out most of the Original Work's villains, I'd take on the role of Stardus's "trial" myself.
But if I ended up like this, calling myself Stardus’s trial would feel hollow. Seriously, what kind of villain was more popular than the heroes?
There was only one way to fix the situation.
Terrorist attacks. Terrorist attacks. More terrorist attacks.
And threatening ones at that.
That was why, right then,
I was floating in the middle of the street, watching people shiver and shake inside their steel-mesh cages.
Rock music continued to blast through the street.
The noise was deafening.... Seo-eun’s sensibilities were all over it. She really did take after me; she loved making every scene as flashy as possible.
[Big bro, everything is ready.]
Eun-wol's voice came through the in-ear monitor.
Lifting those cages was too much for me alone, so I got a little magical help from Moon Priestess Eun-wol. She was controlling them from the rooftop of that building over there.
Anyway, she said she was ready. It was time to make my entrance.
I switched on the cameras and shouted into the open sky.
"Hello, everyone. This is Egostic!"
My voice boomed from every store speaker I'd hijacked almost before I finished speaking.
Hovering in the air, grinning into the gentle breeze, I checked the chat window.
[Mangostic has arrived lol]
[No way, already??? What the hell, goddammit!!!]
[Egostic is hitting us with a suspiciously high number of attacks today T_T]
[There it is, my porn lol just wait lol]
[Fuck it's so fucking loud lol I'm watching with earbuds and the band's drumming is vibrating in my skull lol]
[What's with the people in cages, is this a human zoo?]
[As always, Mango casually surpasses our every imagination lol]
Good. The broadcast seems to be going out properly.
Having checked the chat, I turned my focus back to the terrorist attack.
Ah, first—
Let's do this.
I snapped my fingers.
Simultaneously, countless guns materialized in the air, floating.
Every single one of them aimed its muzzle at the people trapped inside the cages.
Eek...!
With the gun barrels pointed directly at them, the people trembled.
As expected, no one could keep from being afraid when they had real guns staring them in the face. Right. A single slip of my finger on the trigger and they were dead. It must have been terrifying. I should've handled hostages like this from the start. I'd been too lenient up to that point.
Setting that aside, seeing them tremble in front of me made me feel a little guilty, but it couldn't be helped. It was time to tighten discipline.
"Now, now, everyone! Don't be scared, don't be scared."
I said this while waving a gun around.
Today's weather was nice—the gentle breeze still made my cape flutter faintly.
I smiled softly and told them,
"I'm not planning to do anything bad to you. I merely plan to shoot you with these guns in one hour."
Eek...!
No, I wasn't actually going to shoot.
But showing any sign of that would have been amateurish. A first-class villain had to project the madman energy of someone who genuinely might pull the trigger at all times.
"Haha!! You have one hour left to live, everyone! I'll be broadcasting your last hour on earth live to the whole country, so go ahead and say your final goodbyes! I've always been curious to see how people act right before they die, you see."
Eeeek...!
They trembled even harder.
Yes. The unhinged image I was projecting seemed to be working.
...But how much longer did I have to keep this up? It was honestly breaking my heart. I wished she'd arrive soon.
Right at that thought,
A big voice came from behind me.
"That's far enough, Egostic!"
It was a clear, beautiful voice even when raised in a shout. It felt like it had been quite a while since I'd heard it.
I didn't bother hiding the smile that crept onto my face when I heard her. I cut the blaring rock music, turned around, and spoke.
"Oh dear, the party pooper has arrived."
A red latex suit clinging to her whole body.
Long blonde hair flowing in waves.
And her gaze, fixed on me with those faintly sky-blue eyes.
Yes. Stardus. That was her.
"What do you think you're doing, you bastard!"
Even an exchange of furious shouting like this felt almost nostalgic after so long.
Facing her as she glared at me with that slightly angry look, I giggled.
"Yes, yes, Stardus. It's been a while. Although it does feel like we see each other quite often? Almost as if you're following me around... gasp, could it be you're stalking me!"
"What? What kind of ridiculous nonsense is that! Look at what you're doing right now!"
She fired back, face reddening at my absurd statement. Weak against provocations, as always.
Still giggling, I beckoned at her with my fingers.
"Well, anyway. You're here to stop me, right? Then come on. Try."
I perched myself on top of a nearby cage, crossed my legs, and wiggled my fingers at her. She frowned, as if trying to gauge my intentions.
When I thought about it, my inability to defeat her was a given. I might have held out for ten seconds with Behemoth, but that was all. I couldn't match her at all.
That was why, when I taunted her, she stared at me with obvious suspicion.
But her resolve hardened quickly. She launched herself from where she'd been standing in the distance and began flying straight at me.
Yes. That's how it should go.
Alright, Seo-eun. Your turn now.
The instant she kicked off from her spot—
A shadow suddenly fell over the space between us.
BOOM.
As if to shield me from her, something enormous and ash-gray crashed down from the sky.
It resembled a gigantic suit, massive in both width and height.
I raised the microphone again and shouted to her as she stopped short in midair at its sudden appearance.
"My apologies, but I'm not your opponent this time!"
"Allow me to introduce: a weapon built solely for you. The 'Starbuster'!"
As I threw my arms wide and shouted, the hulking figure rose from its three-point landing and a voice came from within.
[Stardus, I'll be your opponent!]
...Despite the mechanical filter, it was unmistakably a young girl's voice. Oh, Seo-eun... And what's with the awkward acting?
That's not what matters right now anyway. What matters is the fire blazing in Stardus's eyes.
Let's begin.
"Let's see how long you can last against my Starbuster!! Now, Starbuster! Charge!"
[Raaaah!]
With that, Seo-eun's Starbuster swung its steel fist at Stardus.
The battle had begun.
***
Stardus—Shin Ha-ru—was in a foul mood.
The first reason was that Egostic had staged yet another heinous terrorist attack.
The second reason—
[Hwaah! Hey, lady, is that the best you can do?]
...What's with this girl?
This woman, presumably a new villain ally of Egostic's.
Egostic had recruited another woman. That much she could accept, but...
...Something about the way the girl talked got on her nerves. Immensely.
Swallowing her anger, Ha-ru punched the steel fist flying toward her.
...This won't do.
She resolved to capture this villain right here and now.
That was the decision she reached.