Exposed (1)
Needless to say, the airport erupted into chaos the instant the aircraft accident began. Staff members shouted themselves hoarse trying to evacuate the crowds, but the panicked masses either collapsed screaming where they stood or bolted off in completely the wrong direction.
"Huh? Huh?! A-a hero!"
That was when the aircraft plunging toward the airport began to lose speed, slower and slower, until it hung motionless in midair — and clinging to the tail of the plane was what looked like a woman.
"N-no panties!! A woman with no panties just stopped an airplane!!"
The woman was wearing a short skirt, and beneath it her pale pussy was on full, shameless display.
"Oh, no!!"
Choi Min-seo went rigid with shock. She had been so busy enjoying herself with Sun Kim until the very last second that she hadn't managed to put her panties back on. She descended slowly, set the aircraft down, then shot into the sky and vanished behind the airport.
Touching down in a deserted spot, she pulled out her phone and called Lee Jun.
"Jun! I just caused an incident!!"
Once he had heard her out, Lee Jun nodded.
The existence of an S-class hero was a matter of enormous importance. Each one of them was a fighting force on par with an entire army, and White Rabbit in particular ranked among the most elite heroes in the world. For that very reason, whenever an S-class hero crossed into another country, that nation had to be notified. A failure to do so could easily be interpreted as a military action.
Choi Min-seo, however, had not informed the Philippine side that she was coming. She could hardly write sex as the reason for travel.
"I'll take care of it."
Lee Jun closed his eyes and activated his ability. Countless strings of zeroes and ones bloomed before him, and his eyes began to dart rapidly across the cascade of data.
"Choi Min-seo is really White Rabbit?"
Sun Kim, now aware of her true identity, could hardly contain his astonishment. But he soon forced his racing heart to settle. Whatever her real identity was, it had nothing to do with him.
Some time later, he was summoned by the Philippines Hero Association to verify the facts of the incident — and there he learned something astonishing. Every record from the moment the aircraft accident occurred had vanished. To be precise: the airport CCTV footage, the photos and videos witnesses had taken on their phones — every last recording that had captured the woman who saved the aircraft had been erased.
"So in the end, you don't know anything?"
"That's right. Honestly, there was nothing I could do at the time. All I could do was run."
"...Hah. Understood. Thank you for your cooperation."
Convinced that Sun Kim truly knew nothing, the Philippines Hero Association staffer let out a heavy sigh and sent him on his way.
Once outside the Association building, he pulled out his phone and searched for Choi Min-seo's number. There were so many things he wanted to ask her.
"??? The number's gone?"
Strangely enough, Choi Min-seo's number was no longer in his phone. He logged into Twitter, but even the messages they had exchanged were gone.
"What the hell is going on?"
He was still reeling from the inexplicable when his phone rang. An unknown number. He answered, and a familiar voice came through the line — Choi Min-seo's husband, a man he had spoken with a handful of times before.
"...Did you do all of this? Everything that's happening right now?"
"Yes, I did. If my wife's identity got out, it would cause a great deal of trouble."
"Impressive. Even for someone with hacking abilities, handling something like this so quickly and so thoroughly isn't easy."
"I'll take that as a compliment. This will likely be our last contact. The fewer records, the better. Thank you for keeping my wife company all this time. If you ever need help, ask the Korean Hero Association for their hacker. I'm the only one they've got."
Click. With that, Lee Jun hung up.
He would later learn that even Choi Min-seo's entry records — the ones from the flight she had taken in — had been wiped clean. It was as if she had never existed at all.
"...Yeah. I guess this is where our connection ends."
A lingering regret remained, but Sun Kim had no desire to pick a fight with an S-class hero and a hacker who could erase something like this in an instant.
"Time I started adapting, too."
Muttering to himself, Sun Kim headed back to the new house he had found.
"Haaah. Son of a bitch. How is there not a single scrap of information?"
Oh Chun-dong spat the curse as he pored over his materials. He was an ability user, but he had never become a hero. Instead, he had worked as a sort of freelance detective, putting his power to use — up until about three years ago, that is. One thing had led to another, and he had gotten tangled up with a criminal organization. Now he couldn't pull his foot free, and he was stuck doing dirty work whether he liked it or not.
"Psycho Kino, psychopath, whatever the fuck that bastard is. If he weren't an S-class hunter, he'd be dead. I swear."
The job Oh Chun-dong was currently stuck with was hunting down information on the S-class hero White Rabbit — on the orders of another S-class hero, Psycho Kino.
"There's no way an S-class hero has this little information on her."
After years as a detective, digging up information was second nature to him. And yet, bizarrely, he could find nothing on White Rabbit. For a celebrity of S-class hero caliber, information usually poured out in droves. White Rabbit was the opposite — there was simply nothing to find. All he could confirm was that she was a woman, and that her figure was exceptional. Was her nationality even Korean? How old was she? Where did she live? When had she started her hero career, and how?
"There's nothing. It's like someone wiped it all on purpose."
Even the records of her overseas assignments had vanished. Every single record containing the words "White Rabbit" had been erased.
"Controlling information once it's on the internet is impossible, even for a nation-state."
Once information hit the internet, scrubbing it clean was next to impossible. Sure, you could wipe it from sites ordinary people visited — but erasing it from the deep web, where professional hackers operated, was absolutely impossible. And yet White Rabbit had pulled it off.
"How the hell is this possible? Haaah. Fuck. At this rate, that psycho bastard might actually kill me..."
If Psycho Kino didn't like something, he attacked — colleague or subordinate, it made no difference. Oh Chun-dong's ability wasn't combat-oriented. If that man came after him, he would simply die.
"Hm?"
That was when an article caught his eye.
People who read the story suspected the woman was White Rabbit, but since she had no record of ever leaving the Republic of Korea, the suspicion quickly died down. The incident had caused a considerable stir inside the Philippines. For a nation still underdeveloped in its hero infrastructure, it raised the possibility that a new hero might have emerged. But no matter how hard they searched, they never found the woman. She had vanished like a ghost.
"She lifted a falling aircraft and then just vanished?"
His eyes drifted to the photo of White Rabbit tucked beside his computer.
"And every photo, every video, every scrap of information disappeared?"
Just like how nothing remained on White Rabbit. The instincts honed over years as an investigator flared to life. White Rabbit's information had been wiped so thoroughly that it only made him more suspicious.
"...The odds are slim, sure. But I'll start by going to the Philippines. Nothing's turned up so far anyway. Even if I'm wrong, I might as well grab at a straw."
If he kept going like this, that psychopath — no, Psycho Kino — was going to kill him anyway. If he was going to die either way, he might as well clutch at a straw.
"So. They said there was a hero among the witnesses, right? Name's Kim Tae-yang, hero name Sun Kim? Talk about phoning in a hero name."
Muttering under his breath, he boarded a plane bound for the Philippines.
Sun Kim was lying down, resting at his house in the Philippines, when he received a call. It was from the Philippines Hero Association.
"I already gave a full statement about what happened that day."
"Someone wants to see me? From Korea?"
The news that a man from Korea wanted to hear his testimony sent a flicker of unease through Sun Kim. From Korea? Taking an interest in an incident that happened in the Philippines, of all things? Why? Why bother? Had someone figured out this was connected to White Rabbit?
"...Eh. It should be fine."
The worry didn't last long. There was no remaining record that she had ever come to the Philippines, and more importantly, he figured that even if this man knew the truth, nobody was going to pick a fight with an S-class hero.
He made his way down roads that had grown somewhat familiar by now and arrived at the Hero Association. A staff member led him inside, where a man was waiting.
"Oh Chun-dong. Sorry to call you in when you must be busy."
"It's fine. I was just resting at home anyway."
"Glad to hear it."
Oh Chun-dong greeted him with an easy, ingratiating smile. The two sat across a table from each other and exchanged some small talk.
"So why were you at the airport that day? Someone who's supposed to stay in the Philippines going to the airport is a little... Ah! I'm not accusing you of anything, of course. I just want to get a clear picture of the situation, so please don't take it the wrong way."
"It's fine. Let's just say I was out for a walk."
"A walk? To the airport?"
"What, I'm not allowed to take a walk at the airport?"
"Well, no, of course not. Understood."
Oh Chun-dong pressed him like an interrogator, but in the end, he came away with nothing.
Haaah. So it really was just a coincidence? Shit. What the hell am I supposed to tell that Psycho Kino bastard?
Oh Chun-dong's head was a mess. His last straw had just slipped through his fingers, and he couldn't see a way forward.
"So are we done with the questions?"
"Ah. Yes, that's everything. Thank you for your cooperation."
Sun Kim, who had grown increasingly irritated by the endless questions, frowned as he asked. Oh Chun-dong swallowed his disappointment and decided to let him go. He had already concluded he wasn't going to get any information on White Rabbit here.
"Thank you again. Our side has a bit of interest in this incident, you see."
"...Don't mention it."
Oh Chun-dong extended his hand for a handshake. Without thinking much of it, Sun Kim took it.
In that instant, Oh Chun-dong's eyes trembled.
"...You gonna let go of my hand?"
"Ah. Sorry."
Snapping back to himself, Oh Chun-dong released his grip, and Sun Kim left the room.
"Heh heh. Good thing I came after all. Who would've thought something like that was going on? You've really gotta live a little to see it all. So that White Rabbit is a masochist slut."
Oh Chun-dong. Before he had gotten mixed up with a criminal organization, he had used his ability as a freelance detective — and a fairly popular one at that. The power he possessed was psychometry. He was an ability user who could read memories the moment his hand touched an object — or a human being.