The Second Guest
Thud-thud-thud!!
"Hah...! Hah!!"
What the hell am I doing right now?
I had locked the restaurant door, grabbed only one thing, and was now sprinting flat-out toward the place I'd overheard in Snow White's call just minutes earlier.
Nobody had ordered me to do this. I had no obligation. And the person I was racing toward in a panic—Astra—and I weren't even that close.
Strictly speaking, it's a contractual relationship. We each did the other a single favor, that's all.
Astra had saved me and my restaurant from a giant monster. In return I had fed her buff cooking that let her take the beast down. After that she kept coming back for more of my food, growing her powers with ease, while I got to experiment with my ability on a superhuman and enjoy a few side benefits along the way.
That was the entire extent of it.
If something truly terrible happened to Astra, would any harm come to me?
No.
I could just keep living exactly the way I always had. Losing a test subject for my ability would be inconvenient, sure, but no amount of curiosity was worth risking my neck like this. The whole point of researching my power in the first place had been to forge a weapon and a shield for myself against the worst-case scenario. Putting myself in danger for that same research was pure contradiction.
And let's not forget—I'm a civilian. Astra is a hero.
A civilian fretting over a hero. The comedy writes itself.
And yet.
Thud-thud-thud!!
"Hah! Hah!!"
I didn't stop running.
I just... wanted to.
Looking back, the first time I revealed my power to Astra had been the same. She'd been walking toward certain death against an unstoppable enemy, still trying to reassure me, and I couldn't stand by and watch. So I used my ability for the first time.
This was no different. I simply couldn't stay still. And when the person in danger was a woman I'd grown quietly fond of over the past few weeks of shared chaos, the urge only burned hotter.
"Hah... It should be around here..."
The reckless sprint had brought me almost to the spot. No giant monster in sight. No sounds of battle. No crackle of Astra's lightning.
Maybe my gut had been wrong. Maybe nothing had happened at all.
That thought had barely formed when—
"Ugh..."
"Huh?"
I found her. A silver-haired woman collapsed in a pool of her own blood in the alley.
"Snow White!!"
Ten minutes ago she had been happily eating in my restaurant. Now she was dying in the street. A cold dread clawed up my spine as I rushed over, hauled her upright, and saw her half-open eyes lock onto me.
"Cough... Wh-what... Siwoo? Why are you... here..."
"Don't ask why I'm here. How did you get this hurt? Where's Astra?"
"As...tra...!!"
I tore off my outer jacket and pressed it hard against the worst of the bleeding while I demanded answers. The dying light in Snow White's eyes flared back to life. She forced her broken body upright and tried to stagger forward.
"What are you doing?! Stay still. If we don't stop the bleeding you'll—"
"Astra... Yuna's in danger...!"
"...What?"
My heart dropped like a stone. Snow White ignored my frozen shock and took two more steps before her legs buckled. I caught her before she hit the ground and propped her up.
"Tell me everything. Right now."
"...A villain. B-plus threat rank. Codename Elastica. Ability: rubberization. A pleasure killer who targets awakened superhumans."
Her body barely answered her will, yet she kept pushing forward under my support and laid the situation out in a flat, clinical voice. Small monsters were erupting all over the city; backup was impossible. The enemy was a B-plus villain who had crushed both Astra and Snow White in seconds.
"I have to go... I don't know the details, but that woman came looking for Yuna from the start. If I don't help, Yuna will..."
"......"
"Luckily Elastica is famous for toying with her victims before she kills them. Yuna should still be alive. So if I can just reach her while there's still time...!!"
The reality was far darker than anything I had imagined. My fingers clenched around the paper bag I had stuffed inside my jacket.
If this continued, Astra would die.
The moment that fact burned itself into my brain, the frantic pounding of my heart went quiet. My thoughts turned ice-cold and razor-sharp.
...Panicking alone solves nothing.
List what I can do. List what I must do.
According to Snow White, proper reinforcements were a fantasy. The two of them would have to break this crisis alone against an overwhelming opponent. Even the bare description of "rubberization" told me it was a perfect hard counter to Astra's power. Astra didn't control real lightning; she manipulated superhuman force that merely carried lightning's properties. Rubber's insulating nature would almost certainly carry over into Elastica's ability.
If the matchup is that bad, even feeding her this might not...
I pictured the cookies I had brought. My entire reason for charging out here had been simple: if something catastrophic had happened to Astra, I would seize any opening to get buff food into her. Then she would grow strong enough to turn the tide, just like before. Hearing the enemy's power made me doubt even that plan.
And I found Snow White first. If Elastica already has Astra pinned, there won't even be a chance to pass her a cookie.
I had come all this way only to discover I was useless. The helplessness made me bite down hard on my lip just as we reached a stretch of road littered with the corpses of small monsters. Snow White pulled free of my support.
"This is far enough. Thanks for the help. Now run."
"Run? Looking like that, you—"
"What can a non-superhuman even do? You came all this way because you're worried about Yuna, right? Then go home. I'll... I'll find a way to save her."
It was the same as that day.
Just like Astra then, Snow White knew she was walking toward her death and still chose to fight. She was ready to throw her life away for someone else.
This is what a hero looks like.
And even while preparing to die, she still worried about me and told me to leave. That settled it. My heart hardened into resolve.
"Snow White."
"Stubbornness won't change anything. You'll only be dead weight—"
"Take this."
Just like with Astra, I decided to place my trust in her.
Thud!!
"Ahh... so boring. Not even screaming anymore?"
"....."
Elastica yawned and flicked blood from her knuckles. At her feet Astra lay breathing in thin, fragile gasps that looked ready to stop at any second. Clotted blood matted her brilliant golden hair. Her proud suit hung in shredded tatters. Yet even on the edge of death her eyes still shone bright, as if she were absolutely certain that some other hero—someone who wasn't her—would arrive to punish the villain.
"No fun at all."
Annoyed by the lack of reaction, Elastica seized a fistful of Astra's hair, hauled her upright, and sneered into her face.
"How can you still look at me like that? Oh—still counting on that friend who ran away after I smacked her around?"
"......"
"Honestly, she looked just as weak as you... She's probably long gone by now. Or maybe that one solid hit already finished her."
"......"
"Or why don't you try calling for her? Beg for your life. Plead for help. Who knows—maybe she'll pull off some dramatic last-second rescue if you put enough heart into it."
"....."
"...Tch."
Every taunt bounced off those unshaken eyes. Elastica studied them a moment longer, decided she would never get the reaction she wanted, and dropped Astra like trash.
"Fine. I was going to play with you a while longer, but if you're in such a hurry to die..."
Interest drained from her gaze, replaced by pure, flat killing intent. She raised her fist.
In that instant—
Whooosh!!
"Hm?"
The air turned bitterly cold. Frost crystallized across the arm Elastica had lifted.
"Back again? You could barely move, yet you still dragged yourself all the way here?"
Interest rekindled in Elastica's expression as she turned. There stood Snow White, covered in blood, staring at her in absolute silence.
"Still being able to move is impressive, but... you should have just run. I never expected you to come back looking like that."
She needled the newcomer the same way she had needled Astra, yet her eyes never stopped scanning Snow White's body.
What? With that much blood loss she should already be face-down... but her stance isn't wavering at all.
She hadn't earned her reputation as an uncaptured hero-killer by being careless. A faint wrongness prickled at her instincts. Still, she felt no real concern. The Association had rated her B-plus—strong enough that several B-class heroes would be needed to take her down. A mere C-class was nothing to fear.
"Where's all this confidence coming from...? Ah. Did you come back to get on your knees and beg? Want me to spare your friend? Normally I wouldn't, but if you grovel hard enough I might consider—"
"You."
A voice colder than the arctic wind itself cut through Elastica's smug monologue. Every trace of Snow White's usual light, playful tone had vanished, leaving only boiling hatred.
"You won't die cleanly."
Crunch.
"Hm?"
At the same moment a sound completely out of place—something being chewed—reached Elastica's ears.
"What was that? What did you just eat—"
Crack-crack-crack!!
"...!!"
Before she could identify the source, a wave of killing frost exploded outward and flash-froze the entire surroundings. Elastica's face hardened; she dropped into a combat stance just as Snow White shaped an ice spear and launched it.
Shhhk!!
"Ha. And here I thought you might actually—"
The attack looked no different from before. Elastica scoffed, stretched her legs, and used the sudden elastic force to vault high into the air.
Then—
Crack-crack-crack-crack!!!
"Ah?"
Dozens of ice spears crystallized out of thin air. Elastica made a dumbfounded noise and dove behind cover.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!!
"Wh-what is this number?"
The spears formed faster and in far greater quantity than before. Even as she scrambled clear, several grazed her body and instantly froze the wounds solid.
Crack!!
"Kyaaah! You arrogant little—!!"
Something had clearly changed, yet Elastica still believed the advantage was hers. She weaved through the storm of ice, using every scrap of terrain, and closed the distance in a single burst.
"I don't know what suddenly got into you, but!!"
Confidence still ruled her face as she charged. The sudden denser barrage had startled her only for a second; after that she danced through it with the ease of a true high-tier fighter.
Twang!!
Attacks that no ordinary human body could have dodged were avoided by contorting herself into impossible angles, her rubberized form pushed to the absolute limit of acrobatic elasticity. She punched through the ice barrage and appeared right in front of Snow White, fist already flying.
Whooosh!!
Cold erupted from Snow White's body, but Elastica didn't care.
Her power's still slow as hell!
Her fist would land first. That calculation, however—
Crack-crack!!
"...Ah?"
—proved fatally wrong.
"Uh... ah...?"
The arm she had stretched out froze solid in an instant. The body that had always contracted and expanded at her slightest whim turned rigid. A pain that was somehow both freezing and burning raced through her nerves.
"I told you."
Snow White laid a hand on Elastica's body with eyes colder than absolute zero. The freezing accelerated. Elastica desperately tried to activate her power and create distance, but her own frozen flesh refused to obey.
"You won't die cleanly."
The words had barely left her lips before Snow White brought her free hand down in a vicious chop against the frozen arm.
CRAAASH!!
"Ah..."
Elastica's arm shattered into glittering fragments of ice, still frozen solid.
"KYAAAAAAAAH!!"
A raw scream tore free—then the next blast of cold flash-froze the moisture inside her mouth, sealing her jaws shut. When she tried to blink, her eyelids froze together, locking her eyes half-closed.
"Don't feel pain. Don't scream. Yuna...! Astra suffered worse than this!!"
"Mmmph...!!"
Only now did Elastica realize she had completely misjudged her opponent. She thrashed with everything she had left, but every limb was already locked in ice. Tears of pure terror tried to form as she watched Snow White deliberately, almost leisurely, place a hand on each remaining limb—only for those tears themselves to freeze solid on her cheeks.