One Kick Girl — Chapter 43: "Silence After Sound"
Raon floated on her back in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by quiet.
No screaming.
No bass drops.
No exploding satellites.
Just the sound of waves, the hiss of cooling plasma, and the faint aroma of overcooked ramen leaking from her jacket pocket.
She blinked up at the sky. It looked normal again.
Blue. Calm. Unremixed.
> "Finally," she muttered, "a playlist with no ads."
Her comm crackled weakly.
> "—Raon? Do you read me? You're alive, right?"
Shion's voice was buried under static.
Raon fished the communicator out of her pocket. "Barely. I think I'm sunburned and lightly marinated."
> "You destroyed half the upper atmosphere! The Bureau's readings went off the charts—wait, are you floating?" "Technically surviving." "You fell from orbit!" "Technically drifting."
---
1. Oceanic Return
She spotted something on the horizon — a rescue drone, Bureau-issued, wobbling like it was hungover.
It dropped a ladder. Raon grabbed it lazily.
The drone's AI spoke in a monotone.
> "WELCOME BACK, HERO RAON. YOU HAVE EXCEEDED YOUR DAMAGE QUOTA BY 12,000 PERCENT."
Raon yawned. "Cool. Add it to my rent."
---
2. Bureau Debriefing (Sort Of)
Hours later, she walked into HQ, still soaked, noodles in hand.
Everyone stared like she'd walked out of a supernova — which, technically, she had.
DJ Bloop saluted. "The Bass Queen has fallen!"
Manager Kimchi ran up, flailing paperwork.
> "Do you have any idea how much paperwork orbital destruction costs?! We had to file with space insurance! SPAAACE INSURANCE!"
Raon stared at him blankly. "Did we win?"
Kimchi froze, veins bulging. "…Yes."
"Then you're welcome."
He screamed into a folder.
---
3. Shion's Report
Shion projected a hologram: fractured frequency lines slowly stabilizing across Metrosonic.
> "Synthra.EXE's core is gone. Echo Prime's remnants have vanished completely. City systems are returning to baseline."
Raon sipped her ramen.
> "So it's finally quiet?" "Relatively. We're still cleaning up the residual feedback. Oh—and every pigeon in the city can now sing in perfect pitch." Raon blinked. "…Neat."
Shion crossed her arms, clearly annoyed.
> "You realize your kick disrupted global resonance mapping for twenty minutes, right?" "Yeah," Raon said, chewing. "That's called a vacation."
---
4. Strange Frequencies
Suddenly, Shion's screen glitched — faint interference lines running through the data feed.
> "That's… odd. A residual ping from under the ocean floor." "Another remix?" "Not Synthra. Something older. A low-frequency signal repeating one phrase: 'CORE_RESONANCE: REBOOT_IN_PROGRESS.'"
Raon slurped, unimpressed. "Maybe the fish want a concert."
Shion frowned. "No. This isn't normal. It's Echo-level. Something else is awakening."
Raon tilted her head. "Great. So much for silence."
---
5. Quiet Epilogue
Later that night, Raon sat on her apartment balcony, city lights flickering far below.
She finally finished her ramen.
The wind was still. The stars twinkled like nothing had ever happened.
She leaned back, sighing softly.
> "One day," she whispered, "I'll finish a meal without a world-ending event."
Her phone buzzed — a text from the Bureau.
> URGENT MISSION ALERT: UNDERSEA ANOMALY DETECTED. CODE NAME: "ECHO DEPTHS."
Raon groaned. "Figures."
She stood up, stretched, and muttered the only words that ever seemed to start a new disaster.
> "Guess I'll kick it."