Back-to-Back Rebellion
Tasha, who had been sent flying all the way into the wall, returned to her original spot as if nothing had happened. I had expected as much, but the complete lack of damage was a little deflating.
“Impressive. I clearly dodged, yet the strike still connected. Moreover, it involved superpowers. You clearly are...”
“The world is a wide place. Ready to listen to what I have to say now?”
“Not in the slightest. We are still far from that point. However, I must remain wary of that technique. Along with your superpower.”
Of course it ends up like this. Tasha clearly possessed considerable real-combat experience. There was no way she had never faced a psychokinetic superhuman before. That was exactly why I had kept the ability hidden until the first strike could be fatal, but my calculations had been slightly off. To think she could twist her body mid-motion and avoid a direct hit. Just what kind of monstrous reflexes did this woman have?
Still, even Tasha seemed slightly rattled by the way I manipulated my psychic energy. That was understandable. In this era, no one used psychic energy in that manner.
What I had just employed was a technique similar to Fa Jin, releasing psychic energy externally to deliver a strike. By wrapping my fist in psychic energy and then detonating it, the area of impact had widened. Even though she had twisted away from my actual punch, the released energy still caught her.
Some might wonder why no one had ever used such a simple principle before. After all, there were countless subculture stories about using mana, ki, or aura to defeat enemies. The reason no one had employed this straightforward method of psychic energy manipulation was simpler than expected: imagination is infinite, but the talent and effort required to manifest it are not.
Developing a brand-new psychic energy technique from a blank slate was akin to a martial arts founder in a wuxia novel creating an entirely original style. Casually thinking, It’d be nice if something like this existed. I wonder if it would work? and expecting results was naïve. Unless a monstrous genius capable of turning pure imagination into reality appeared, such a feat was impossible.
The reason these kinds of psychic manipulation methods were eventually developed in the future was because there came a need to handle those “fucking” bastards without direct contact. Maintaining distance had been the safest approach when dealing with them. The geniuses in the field had gathered, agonized for days on end, and finally produced these varied techniques. In an era like this one, where such methods weren’t yet necessary, it was only natural that psychic energy manipulation remained crude and limited.
“Most intriguing. I would like to learn it myself.”
“I’m not enjoying this at all.”
I don’t know how much time passed after that. Tasha and I still hadn’t settled the match. Her combat ability was nearly equal to my current level. Had I recovered my full prime strength, the fight would have ended with the first exchange, but that wasn’t the case right now. Besides, hand-to-hand brawling like this wasn’t my specialty. It wasn’t as if I could draw a blade against Tasha, either.
What stung more was that even though I occasionally used the full-body suit’s acceleration buff to target openings, I wasn’t achieving much. The first surprise attack had landed cleanly, but the more I used it, the more easily she countered. If I had known things would turn out like this, I would have focused on skill recovery even after dealing with Dr. Oh.
But who could have predicted any of this? I had only planned to debut at a moderate level and live quietly as an idol.
“All right! Here I come again!!”
Tasha was genuinely having the time of her life. Encountering an unknown combat technique seemed to delight her. Meanwhile, I was growing uneasy. The fight was dragging on far longer than expected. If things continued this way...
-There they are!! Get them!!
What was bound to come had finally arrived. The Storm gang members who had set the trap to capture Tasha were now swarming toward us. Over a hundred thugs poured in from every direction, with more than a dozen superhumans mixed among them.
“So the trap was real after all.”
“I told you so. Thinking of withdrawing now?”
“Not a chance. Anything that stands in my way will simply be destroyed.”
Damn it. What a hot-blooded idiot. It wasn’t that I particularly disliked that personality type, but the current situation made it irritating. Still, running away by myself now would be pointless. In that case, it would be better to break straight through and at least get a look at the face of Storm’s boss. If I could take him down, this mess would somehow resolve itself.
“Ha, fine. But you know we can’t do this here, right? The alley is too narrow. If we get surrounded, we’ll have no counterplay.”
“That is true. Then what do you suggest?”
“First we head for the main road. We’ll settle this there.”
“Good. I will take the lead.”
“I’ll provide support.”
After speaking, I drew the soft sword hanging at my waist. Using a blade against Tasha felt awkward since she wasn’t an enemy, but these thugs were fair game. They had probably brought all sorts of weapons themselves. The strange one was Tasha, who had been fighting them with nothing but her bare fists.
That said, I had no intention of indiscriminate slaughter like I had with Dr. Oh. I tend to be selective about time, place, and target. These men were villains too, but unlike the situation with Dr. Oh, Tasha was the main player on this battlefield. Since she had no plans to kill them, there was no need for me to spill blood. Besides, beating them too severely would only cause unnecessary bloodshed.
As I had mentioned before, countless villain organizations were already eyeing Yeongdeungpo. If Storm grew weak and the balance collapsed, the others would bare their fangs immediately. Many people would die or be injured as a result. In the worst case, not only the security forces but even the Special Task Force might get involved. I wanted to avoid the absolute bullshit scenario of being hunted by the Special Task Force over someone else’s business.
“Tahat!!”
Tasha shot forward like a cannonball. I followed right on her heels. She smashed through the front line, hammering anyone who tried to block us, while I neatly sliced down the ones she missed. When we finally broke through to the main road, a group of superhumans was already waiting.
-Surround them!
The superhumans formed the first encirclement while gang members filled in the gaps. They clearly intended to keep us completely boxed in. As a result, Tasha and I naturally ended up fighting back-to-back.
“Can you guard my rear?”
“It is not difficult. Go ahead and rampage.”
“Right. I asked something pointless. Very well.”
“Ah, but be careful of guns.”
“Understood. Then… here I come!”
When a new idol group launches, it’s standard practice to learn and perform their agency seniors’ songs. Many programs require it, and showing that level of sincerity is the norm if you want to even slightly absorb the seniors’ fandom. Since we still didn’t have our own title track, our group practice sessions always began with Purple Swan songs.
Among Purple Swan’s hits was a track called Rebellion. In its choreography, there was a section where two members leaned back-to-back, perfectly syncing their breathing. That part had been assigned to me and Tasha. It wasn’t for any special reason; it was simply a matter of positioning. The original performers had been Purple Swan’s main dancer Yuri and visual center Jiyu, and the instructors had thrown the part at us.
The choreography for Rebellion was quite fierce and tough. After the two members pressed back-to-back like a decalcomania, executing elegant movements in perfect sync, the song’s highlight—the dance break—followed immediately. During that break, the pair even performed a flashy action scene against the other five members while still pressed together.
Purple Swan had seven members, so splitting five against two still looked clean. Our team only had five people total, so the formation didn’t look as pretty. Still, Rebellion was their signature hit and impossible to avoid. The dance break in particular was the part fans loved most. Since we would have to perform it at least once or twice no matter what, Representative Cha had invested quite a bit for this single song.
He had even hired stuntmen just to practice it. The result was a huge success. With more members, the battle scene became far more grand than the original. The practice footage was edited and scheduled to be shown separately at our debut showcase as both fan service and a display of our skills.
What I’m trying to say is that fighting back-to-back against multiple opponents was already a familiar situation for me. Moreover, I had spent two whole days obsessively studying Tasha’s movements. No matter how many enemies there were, and even if some were superhumans, our coordination was more than perfect against villains who weren’t used to proper teamwork.
Of course Tasha still had no idea I was Na Yeri, but the fact that I knew her patterns was enough. I could simply match her accordingly.
“Hahaha!!!”
“You crazy bitch!!”
“Fall back!”
“There’s an opening—”
“Damn it, what the hell is that other crazy bitch?!”
The destructive power of the Tasha-Yeri combination exceeded even my expectations. For some reason, Tasha trusted me completely. Assuming I would perfectly cover her blind spots, she boldly exposed them, leaving me with the simple task of stabbing anyone who tried to exploit those gaps.
When she even used my back as a platform to leap over and smash enemies—just like we did in the choreography—I genuinely wondered what the hell was happening. The intense dance practice must have engraved those movements into her body. Still, wasn’t it too dangerous to do something like that on the first meeting? The slightest misalignment in timing would have been catastrophic.
Her movements were so clean that I actually started enjoying myself a little, but this was still reckless. It seemed that once this hot-blooded idiot’s gear shifted into high, she stopped seeing anything around her.
After our fierce rush, the area grew quiet. Dozens of men lay sprawled across the ground, beaten or stabbed, and the remaining thugs, completely overwhelmed, hesitated to charge in.
“Something feels off…”
The situation was overwhelmingly in our favor. Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. The momentum had shifted far too easily. These guys had supposedly planned this trap carefully, so why had it crumbled so smoothly?
I briefly pondered why things had turned out this way, then realized something important.
These bastards hadn’t fired a single gunshot the entire time.
“Ha, damn it.”
Things had gotten a lot dirtier than I thought.