Her Rage
Her Rage
Egostic.
A man who orchestrated all manner of terrorist attacks, who was nearly impossible to apprehend thanks to his escape-oriented abilities, and who had gathered other villains to form a power base of his own.
The single most dangerous individual in South Korea.
On top of that, his attacks targeted not just civilians but other villains, winning him the support of vigilante hardliners. And whether by coincidence or design, he had never killed an ordinary civilian, which had earned him an actual fanbase among the general public. The problems piled up. He ran broadcasts, so his name recognition was immense.
In other words, he had not caused a truly catastrophic incident yet.
But if he ever chose to, he was a ticking time bomb capable of blowing South Korea apart.
He commanded a hacker whose limits were impossible to gauge, an A-rank villain presumed to be immortal, and no fewer than two S-rank villains.
Yes. Egostic was a radical element who had to be stopped at any cost. That was the unanimous assessment of every prominent villain and counterterrorism expert in the country. They all agreed: he had grown far too dangerous given how he had started out.
...And that was the public's understanding of Egostic.
Stardus—Shin Ha-ru herself—had always fought him face-to-face.
She knew far more about him than the general public did.
The simple fact that Egostic possessed a biological weapon called Behemoth was one thing. But there was more.
'...Next time, stay out of it.'
He somehow seemed to know her civilian identity, yet he never exploited it—he even worried about her instead.
'You're the one who completes me.'
He cheered her on, telling her to stop the terrorist attacks he himself committed.
'This time, you owe me one.'
...And once, in the past, he outright threw his life on the line for her sake.
The general public knew none of this.
They did know, at least, that Egostic considered Stardus his proper opponent. His villain debut had begun with him targeting her, and his behavior during the train attack and his habit of calling for her specifically made that clear.
But the deeper, more numerous truths about him were known only to Stardus herself.
In short, Egostic seemed to be far more invested in Stardus personally than he ever showed the world.
Except.
"...Ha. Honestly, I'm speechless."
Inside the Hero Association headquarters.
That day, Stardus was grinding her teeth again.
Over Egostic. Who else.
The latent, overt danger he represented and the occasional internal debate about whether he was truly evil—mulling over Egostic was nothing new for Shin Ha-ru.
(Mwah.)
'Good job, babe.'
But this time, her thoughts about him were on a slightly different track.
"...Ha. I really am speechless."
That night.
The sight of Mist with her purple hair, getting handsy with Egostic like she was his lover.
Remembering the two of them, the kiss they'd shared right in front of her eyes at the very end—Shin Ha-ru felt her fist clench without realizing it.
"...Hold it in."
She couldn't exactly destroy another desk.
She forced down her anger and relaxed her fist, but every time the scene replayed in her mind, the fury surged right back.
...All this time, he had said things to me about how I would complete him and everything.
And meanwhile, behind my back, he was kissing and making out with another woman?
"Haa..."
Clutching her throbbing head, she closed her eyes and let out a sigh.
She didn't quite know why she was this angry. At first, when she saw them together, doing... that kind of thing... what she felt was more like her brain just... froze. She'd never once imagined Egostic could be that way with another woman, and that made it worse.
But after she'd gone home in a daze, flopped onto her bed, and thought it over—what surfaced was pure fury. Just picturing the scene made her blood boil. Something inside her felt like it was cracking.
Why am I feeling this? What does it matter to me what he does?
Stardus thought about it for a moment.
'Right. This means Egostic has a deeply intimate alliance with another S-rank villain. Isn't that a huge problem and a potential threat?'
She justified it to herself like that.
Right. There is absolutely nothing weird about being angry at him over this. A hero should be angry. Once again: absolutely nothing weird.
After repeating that to herself like a mantra, she began to search for a response.
So, what should she do?
Obviously, she has to separate them.
"...Right. That bastard Egostic—do you have any idea how dangerous he is?"
A terrorist and the leader of a villain organization.
As expected, the only answer is to capture him quickly and lock him away in the detention facility.
Once he was locked up, if she visited him over days and weeks and talked with him... perhaps she could even rehabilitate him.
First, capture him and lock him up...
Just as she was working through a chain of thoughts that would have made Egostic's skin crawl if he could hear them—
"Huh?"
At the most unexpected moment.
Egostic's broadcast flicked on.
A livestream had started out of nowhere.
And.
The man in the video was grinning at the camera as he abruptly blurted something she never saw coming.
[Mist and I are nothing more than colleagues!]
"???"
She'd been watching the broadcast, ready to bolt at any second. His sudden declaration stopped her cold, and she turned back to the screen.
[She is simply a teammate. I'd appreciate it if there were no misunderstandings. Mist was just playing a prank, you see.]
Egostic on the screen, smiling with utter confidence.
Stardus had frozen in the middle of changing clothes. She stared at him for a moment, then realized:
It's the truth.
Even by her own intuition, that was not a lie.
Her faith in her intuition had taken a hit after that string of incidents, but this time she had no choice but to admit it. That was the truth.
"...Well, why bring that up now?"
Not that it mattered, but Stardus had actually known all along. Right. There was no way Egostic would do something like that.
Even as the thought crossed her mind, her expression was relaxing without her permission.
Then, once Egostic's video ended, she murmured:
"...Hunt villains, he says?"
The words felt like something she hadn't heard in a long time.
...Right. Come to think of it, the first time she became aware of Egostic was when he'd hunted villains and written his name in their blood.
She recalled the events from years ago, then finished getting ready to head out.
She had to stop him first, after all.
"Stardus, we're unable to trace Egostic's current location. Please stand by for now."
...And as she was about to leave, an Association staff member stopped her.
***
A few hours later.
Someone had fired a flare on a mountain, and following it had led to the discovery of a suspicious cave.
Association agents and Stardus were dispatched to the site.
Now, returning to the present.
"..."
Inside what looked like a cavernous, unnervingly vast research complex connected to that cave.
Stardus had already seen the man lying in a cold heap and the message Egostic had left for her beside him.
She moved on, surveying her surroundings.
"Yes, Chairman. As you can see, a significant number of weapons have been confirmed. They all appear to be operational."
[Ha ha ha! In other words, all these state-of-the-art weapons are ours now, aren't they? Good grief, if this isn't a gold mine, what is! Have them packed up at once!]
"Understood!"
She glanced at the Association staff member on a video call with the Chairman, then picked up one of the weapons from a table.
Clearly cutting-edge technology. She set it back down, scanned the area, and her expression hardened.
Weapons. Weapons. Weapons everywhere she looked.
Unlike the Chairman, who was celebrating that everything now belonged to the Association, Stardus felt a chill at the gravity of the situation.
...So this much lethal firepower had been stockpiled right in the heart of Seoul.
And no one except Egostic had known about it.
The unease Stardus felt only grew stronger as she listened to a staff member's report in another underground section.
"...It appears the perpetrator intended to abduct people and turn them into machines. Modification, essentially. Judging by his plans, a minimum of several thousand Seoul citizens would have died from his explosives and weaponry. We'll need a thorough investigation, but given how detailed the operational plans are, the likelihood of a successful attack was high..."
"..."
The agent's muttering made Stardus's expression freeze.
...A minimum of several thousand dead?
The more she toured the weapons stockpile and understood what she was seeing—
the stronger that thought became.
...While a large-scale terror plot was being hatched right underneath Seoul, the Association had known absolutely nothing about it.
Was this the only one?
Uneasy, she completed a full circuit and eventually returned to the room where the villain had fallen.
The body had already been removed; only the bloodstains remained.
Stardus stared blankly at the message Egostic had left.
...Years ago, seeing Egostic run around killing people as if he were the arbiter of justice had filled her with seething rage.
But now... she isn't sure anymore. Whether he is truly in the wrong.
If he hadn't done this, thousands would likely have died.
To you, Stardus.
"Ha..."
And even in this situation, you still left a message for me.
What does it mean?
Was he asking her? Asking whether killing a villain who had been about to slaughter thousands was truly wrong?
Or was he saying that stopping the villain's plot had been a gift—for her?
Stardus, Shin Ha-ru, stared down at it in a daze, then reached her conclusion.
...Ultimately, none of that matters.
Egostic. She has to dedicate everything to capturing him.
The conclusion felt abrupt, but to her, each reason was clear.
He's a figure of immense danger, so capturing him is obviously the correct course of action.
And additionally, to find out the meaning of this message. How he learned of the villain's location. The reason he commits terrorist attacks. To uncover all of it.
...And also, to stop Egostic from playing around—no, from forming alliances with other women.
Stardus renewed her resolve.
The time had truly come to chase Egostic down by any means necessary, sparing no method.
***
"Big bro, why did you write 'To you, Stardus' at the end? Does it mean something?"
"Hm?"
On the way home.
When Eun-wol asked, I answered like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"No special reason."
"...Excuse me?"
"What? Back when I was hunting other villains, I used to leave messages like that to get aggro from Stardus. It popped into my head, so I did it again. Gotta respect the classics."
"Ah-ha..."
Leaving Eun-wol behind with her ambiguous expression, I was busy wrestling with a much more serious concern.
...I definitely had a bad feeling, so I even went on air to clear up the dating rumor.
But that bad feeling still hadn't gone away.
What was it?
This ominous sense that things were only going to get harder from here on out.