Chapter 34: Reasonable Doubts
[Hello, everyone. It's the 9 o'clock news. This afternoon, there was a plane attack by a villain. Our nation’s hero caught this falling plane and saved everyone. Reporter Jeon Jae-seung will tell you more about the news.]
[1 PM today. The screens of the three terrestrial channels suddenly changed.]
The TV screen that used to show entertainment becomes black. And suddenly, an image of the inside of an airplane began to be shown on the screen. People were in fear, and Egostic’s voice could also be heard.
[Welcome to The Ego Show, the biggest quiz show in the sky!]
On TV, Egostic appeared on the screen, which was previously showing a show. Somehow, he was smiling wickedly.
[This is Egostic’s third terrorist attack. After the previous two attacks, he chose the air this time.]
And Egostic’s voice came out again.
[The rules are simple! There will be 10 questions for the non-sense quiz, so you just have to answer them correctly! If you get even one person right, quietly. And safely! I will let you go. But what if everyone is wrong? The bomb will explode!]
Confused passengers were taking the quiz in fear.
[The passengers calmly solved the questions even in panic when he said he would save them if they got the nonsense quizzes right, or he would explode the bomb on the plane. However.]
The humorous voice of Egostic.
[…was the wrong answer!!! That's too bad. Well then, tsk. The end. Goodbye!]
At the same time, Bang! with a loud sound, everything inside the plane was shaking.
People screamed, and the plane began to fall gradually.
The camera changed.
The news showed a video of a camera filming the sea far from the ground.
You may not notice at first glance, but if you look closely, you can clearly see the plane going down at an angle.
Just like that, as the plane was going down,
A little dot started flying toward the plane.
And that dot hit the plane.
Bump-.
The vibrating was so hard that you can feel it on the camera.
The anchor continued.
[Then a figure flies toward the falling plane. She is the A-class hero, Stardus. Waiting near the plane's expected landing site, she flew alone to stop it when the plane was about to crash.]
[Many experts predicted that she would not be able to stop it, but the plane stood and slowed down as if it was laughing at the prediction.]
In the video, it can be noticed that the plane was falling slowly.
[The plane eventually stopped, and all the passengers were rescued safely. Stardus later collapsed and was taken to a hospital, but the Hero Association announced that she fainted due to fatigue and that her life was not significantly affected. This has been reporter Jeon Jae Seung.]
After the reporter's report.
The screen changed to the standing female anchor from the news again.
She spoke up.
[Yes, hero. What is a hero? Justice, salvation, sacrifice, faith… This time Stardus, what she showed us was simply a hero's thing. On behalf of our broadcasting company, I would like to express my gratitude to Stardus for protecting the citizens of Korea.]
So the anchor bowed her head.
***
[Yeah, you can take a day off. Come down and go sightseeing at the sea. Just relax. Let’s go for a run together after a while.]
"Okay, I will go this time."
[Really? Promise! Promise?]
"Yeah, yeah."
They hung up.
Sitting in a chair in front of her desk with her phone, she sighed deeply.
"…."
It's already been a few days since she blocked the plane by herself.
She wondered how she stopped it herself and how she was still alive.
Anyway, the important thing was that she saved people by blocking the plane, and she's still alive.
She clenched her right hand then relaxed it.
Her strength got stronger again this time.
It's a lot different than before.
Seeing her unusual growth, the association has probably judged that they have underestimated her power so far.
She already had that much power and accepted that no one knew it.
In fact, that wasn't the only improvement in her ability.
When she flew to the plane, she clenched her teeth and flew with desperation.
She has crossed another wall.
Somehow, her speed when she flies is much faster than before.
The association explained that she seems to have underestimated her power so far.
She knows her own power very well.
Her power wasn’t this strong, but it has clearly improved.
She wouldn't doubt it.
Indeed, her ability has become stronger.
How?
She met a situation that she couldn't handle with her own ability, so her ability grew on its own to solve it?
Does that make sense? How convenient it is.
However, she cannot deny that her ability had become stronger because it had already happened.
But, actually.
She doesn’t seem to care about how her power has grown.
But what she's still thinking about right now is
Him, Egostic.
Many people who indiscriminately followed EgoStick as anti-heroes have disappeared due to the plane attack. Through this incident, people have come to their sense again that he was a villain that the association has approved.
Although there was no civilian damage this time, there were many opinions criticizing him because this time, many people would have died if Stardus hadn't stopped him.
But.
Only Stardus, as the person involved in the case, was thinking differently from the public.
A sudden contact when she stood still helplessly.
And he said.
Look at yourself, stop that crashing plane.
‘You have to fly up and save the plane.'
As she asked him how she could stop it.
In a confident voice, he said…
‘You can do it. Stop the plane from falling.'
When she asked if he was trying to kill her, he said…
‘Without you, what would life mean to me? Without you, I'm just a common villain.’
‘You complete me.‘
When she was slightly stumped by a sudden remark.
He then spoke in a heartfelt voice, appealing.
‘So step up.'
‘Clench your fists, tighten your legs, and fly into the sky to save people.’
‘You can do it.'
‘Cause, that's you.'
His words that she has never heard in her hero career before as if he believes in herself more than she does.
Has anyone ever believed her this way, even once?
When she first worked as an A-class hero, she was too young. She only heard bad criticism, such as not being able to solve the case quickly.
In the eyes of the public who don't really trust the hero in the first place, she just stayed quietly.
She has only been working so quietly to protect her own justice.
But the first time she heard it, it was from her villain nemesis as if he trusted her completely. How ironic.
And it actually worked out as he said.
She doesn’t understand how he could believe in her and said that, but she succeeded as he said.
Hitting a rock with an egg
An act of suicide
Whatever you say, something that could be raised, has actually been done.
As he foretold.
“Egostic…”
Staying alone inside her house, she murmured his name quietly.
He said he believed in her.
He told her to pick up the plane.
But the point to note here is not the part where he told her to believe in herself.
He told her to lift the plane.
Why is that?
He dropped the plane, and he told her to save it?
Then why did he drop it in the first place?
There was something doubtful about him, more than simply being a psycho who killed people with his own ability.
An airplane that would have fallen if she had stayed still.
But because he told her to save it, she was able to save it.
So why did he ask her to save it?
He wants to plan a crazy death game where a plane crashes if people get the nonsense quiz wrong, but he doesn’t want to see people die?
Alright, there is a possibility. There is, but…
Somehow, her gut was screaming that it couldn’t be.
‘Without you, I'm just a common, a normal villain. You complete me.'
What he said, kept ringing in her ears.
Without her, he was just a common villain, so he said he needed her.
How come without her existence make him a common villain?
It’s not a big deal if other hero comes as his opponent, right? Is it because she's the only A-list hero near him?
She doesn’t think so.
Her gut kept shouting like that.
There seems to be some other reason.
Groundless, logical leap, absurd speculation, almost a kind of delusion to be frank.
She decided this time to believe what her senses were telling her.
"…I'm gonna have to look into his tracks so far."
What has he done so far?
How did that end up?
If she put all the events he has caused together, wouldn't something come out?
She got up from her seat and began to go outside.
Egostic. She doubts that he's planning something, intent on something and doing all this.
Not a reasonable doubt, though.
She decided to make a guess.
So Shin Haru dressed up and went out.
Egostic. Whatever you're hiding. Whatever you're planning.
I will find out.
***
"Why do my ears tickle?""
"Oppa, isn't it because you don't pick your ears?""
"No, I don't think so."
What the hell. Is someone cursing me?