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Translator: Vine
Chapter Title: The Miracle
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"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"
The plane began to plummet.
Passengers screamed, clutching the armrests of their seats.
[No! You made a sound! I'll cut the last line too! Bang!]
With another bang,
the plane began to fall faster and faster.
And this entire scene was being broadcast live to everyone.
"You crazy bastard..."
Of course, there was someone watching that scene in real-time, directly...
"...Association President, what on earth do we do now?"
[What do you mean, what do we do? Give up. I'm busy drafting a statement of condemnation. Sigh, I'll have to bow my head in apology here and there again. You, come prepare a letter of explanation for throwing popcorn at me. Ah, damn it. The reporters are here below. I'll hang up.]
And just like that, contact with the Association President was cut off.
Stardus remained alone, her heart heavy, simply gazing up at the sky.
"Haa..."
The sight of the plane slowly falling.
It was plummeting so gradually that, if you only looked at that, you might mistake it for a normal landing.
But the insane amount of smoke billowing from both wings made it clear to anyone that something serious was happening.
Stardus thought.
Was this perhaps the largest terror attack in history, in terms of casualties?
Egoistic... that bastard finally went and did it.
The most disheartening thing was that she could do nothing but watch.
The plane's speed was at least 1000 km/h.
Considering that the train she barely managed to stop was about 100 km/h, this was roughly ten times faster.
Trying to stop that would be like hitting a rock with an egg. Like an ant trying to stop a car.
In other words, she was powerless.
It meant she could only watch, helplessly.
As she looked up with a heavy heart,
suddenly, the phone in her in-ear earphone began to ring.
"…?"
She frowned at the call, which came at such an unexpected moment, and tried to operate the earphone to hang up.
'Wait... this earphone is only connected to the Association, isn't it?'
As that thought reached her, she tapped the earphone once more and answered the call.
From it came a man's voice.
And hearing that now-familiar voice, Stardus bit her lip.
[Greetings, Ms. Stardus. This is Egoistic.]
"You piece of trash..."
For a moment, unable to control the sudden surge of anger, she almost pulled out the earphone and threw it to the ground.
But as his words continued, she instantly fell silent.
[It's just, I was wondering. Why aren't you going to save them?]
"...What did you say?"
[No, you should be flying up there and saving the plane. What are you doing?]
Stardus's temper flared at his brazen words, spoken so nonchalantly after he himself had caused the plane to fall.
However, thinking that getting angry now would play right into his scheme, she forced herself to calm down and spoke steadily.
"....So you're telling me to stop a falling plane? After *you* dropped it?"
[Yes. Of course.]
At his utterly shameless words, Shin Haru seriously felt like punching him.
Hard enough to instantly kill him.
Suppressing her anger, she spoke.
"How, am I, supposed, to stop, that? Huh? That thing falling at 1000 km/h? Are you telling me to die? Oh, I guess you are. You crazy bastard."
...Her anger was somehow leaking out, and her composure was starting to crack.
But before she could even shout, Egoistic cut her off and said,
[No, you can.]
Instantly, his voice, which sounded more serious and sincere than anyone else's, even over the phone, made her lose her words for a moment.
[You can do it. Stop the plane's fall.]
As if he were speaking only undeniable truths.
As if he were stating only the obvious fact that the sun rises after the moon sets.
His voice was so utterly firm.
She, momentarily speechless, pulled herself together and quietly spoke.
"...Does that even make sense? Do you think I don't know you're just trying to get rid of me with this opportunity?"
[Why would I try to kill you?]
And following that, his calm voice.
[What meaning would I have without you? Without you, I'm just a common, ordinary villain.]
[You complete me.]
[So go. Clench your fists, put strength in your legs, fly into that sky and save the people. You can do it. Because that's who you are.]
And with those words, the call ended.
Left alone, she stood dazed for a moment, as if possessed by a ghost, by the sudden turn of events...
Then, as if snapping back to reality, she shook her head vigorously from side to side.
That crazy bastard was just spouting his usual nonsense.
After all, these were the words of the guy who himself exploded and dropped the plane.
I know my own abilities, how am I supposed to stop that?
Isn't he just trying to kill me with this opportunity?
However, his words kept echoing in her head.
'No, you can.'
'You complete me.'
'Clench your fists, put strength in your legs, fly into that sky and save the people. You can do it. Because that's who you are.'
If you just listened to the words themselves, you'd think they came from one of her fans.
But these words came from her enemy, Egoistic himself.
'Perhaps that's precisely why it holds more credibility and objectivity?'
Her brain was in a state of chaos.
She was already feeling both powerlessness and despair, thinking she would have to witness the deaths of everyone on that plane in real-time.
But then the villain who dropped the plane called her, telling her to go save it after he'd dropped it, and her mental state finally broke.
'Right. I stopped a train, so why can't I stop a plane? Actually, isn't a plane just a kind of flying train? What's a plane? Isn't it short for 'plane-train'? So, maybe I can stop a plane too?'
Her brain began to continue its thoughts using severely flawed logic.
And as a result, her brain reached a conclusion.
[The 247th Shin Haru Cerebral Regular Decision-Making Council]
[Agenda Result: Go save the plane.]
'Right, if I just stand by and watch their deaths, I'll live with guilt forever. Rather than that, I'd rather have no regrets.'
And immediately.
She flew into the sky.
***
"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Waaah-waaah!"
"Ugh, aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
Inside the plane, screams ran rampant.
Although the fall itself was somehow smooth for an explosion, that didn't erase the fear.
Outside the window, the ground was getting closer and closer.
At first, only clouds were visible, but now the ocean below began to appear.
People screamed, people prayed to God, people fainted, or people gave up everything and quietly closed their eyes.
As they got closer and closer to the ocean, and people began to lose hope, thinking they only had a few minutes left to live—
Thud-.
From the front, a sound began to be heard.
Thump-. Thump-. Thump-.
The sound continued.
As if something was repeatedly striking the front of the plane, a booming sound reverberated.
And the sound of tearing air.
CRASH!
"Ugh-ugh-ugh?"
Suddenly, an enormous impact was felt from the front.
Passengers were collectively thrown forward, as if launched from their seats.
If they hadn't all been wearing seatbelts, they would have truly been flung out by the impact.
As if a car had hit a tree on a street, a shock reverberated through the plane's front.
And the speed of the plane, which had been rushing towards the ocean to shatter into pieces, began to.
Slow.
Slow.
Down.
"...Huh?"
At first, passengers who thought they were surely going to die from the impact at the front, noticed that something was strange.
They were still getting closer to the ground, but
the plane was slowing down, gradually, gradually, as if it were landing.
"Huh...? Huh?"
And so, the plane, which had been slowing down,
eventually landed with a thud in the ocean.
-CRASH.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Of course, there was a slight impact and the plane suddenly split due to the shock in the process.
But as a result.
Every single passenger survived.
"...What was that?"
The passengers were dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events.
They didn't know what had happened, and they couldn't even feel happy, unable to truly grasp that they were alive.
A few who regained their senses got up from their seats and went inside to find the flight attendants.
There, they found unconscious flight attendants lying on the floor.
Waking them up, opening the plane's door, and setting up a rescue slide that connected to a life raft in the ocean, people slid out and boarded the life raft.
Still somewhat dazed, those who boarded the life raft and rowed to the front of the plane saw.
A blonde woman in red tights, gripping the plane's fuselage with enough force to dent it, panting and sweating profusely on the heavily crumpled front of the plane.
It was Stardus.
Instinctively, people realized she had saved them.
One of them, without realizing it, murmured,
"A hero...."
A hero.
A savior.
Everyone there, looking at her, a somewhat shabby figure panting on top of the massive plane, felt it.
That.
That person.
The one who had just saved everyone.
That was their hero.
***
[YES!!! STARDUS HAS!!! SUCCEEDED IN!!! LANDING THE PLANE!!! PASSENGERS ARE ALL SAFELY!!! DISEMBARKING!!! CITIZENS!!! THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA IS SAFE!!!]
[Yes, and as you can see.... Wow. She did it! Viewers, The Korean A-class hero Stardus just stopped plane from crashing in midair! Unbelievable that it happened in Korea.]
[はい,ちょうど韓国のヒーローStardus-sanが飛行機を上空で止めることに成功しました. すごいですね. 韓国にできないことがありまか?]
[韓國的英雄星塵攔住了飛機. 是的,這對於半島上一個流氓國家來說很棒.]
[En Corée, un petit pays à l'Est, un héros a arrêté un avion dans le ciel. Elle s'appelle Stardus.]
[America is astonished and Japan is in shock! China praises and France trembles in fear! Who is Stardus, the hero? "Japan now has no choice but to admit complete defeat to Korea when it comes to heroes. Even if you combine Japan's ten heroes, they won't be able to beat Korea." A shocking revelation from the Japanese Minister of Internal Affairs!]