One Kick Girl — Chapter 83: "Silence, Interrupted"
POV: Shion
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The moment DJ Bloop bowed, the factory plunged into what should've been silence.
Except it wasn't silence.
It was Baron Silence's silence — the kind that sucked the sound out of the world like a vacuum, leaving only the distant ringing in your skull as your brain guessed at noise.
I hate that type of silence.
I hate its smugness.
Even the neon mist around DJ Bloop froze, swirling like someone had hit pause on reality.
Raon blinked three times. Then turned to me with her usual disaster-ready calm.
"…This is bad, right?"
I mouthed words. Nothing came out.
DJ Bloop's glowing face twisted. Their digital mouth moved, but even their remix-demon voice was muted.
A shadow appeared in the mist.
Not just any shadow — a tall figure in a suit that looked like it was sewn from static. He had headphones draped over his neck like ceremonial beads.
Baron Silence.
I had only seen him twice before.
One time on a pirated livestream where he calmly shut down an entire fandom war with a single soundless wave.
The other time in a concert hall, when he silenced a screaming audience until they cried.
Both times I fainted.
Raon, to her credit, didn't faint.
She kicked forward, soundlessly roaring as her leg whipped arc lightning through the air.
Her shoe hit an invisible barrier.
The force died like a candle in a hurricane.
Baron Silence didn't even look at her.
He simply raised a hand, and the world bowed with him.
He opened his mouth.
Silence echoed.
Except… no. Not silence.
A pressure wave slammed into us — sound that wasn't sound, like someone had weaponized the part of your brain that anticipates loud noise before it happens.
My knees hit the floor.
DJ Bloop disintegrated into glitch pixels.
Raon dropped to one knee but didn't collapse.
Which honestly made me question physics, biology, and maybe religion.
Baron Silence finally spoke.
His voice was a sheet of velvet being cut:
"Noise belongs to me."
The factory walls vibrated.
Workers clutched their ears without sound.
The Remix Machines convulsed, then warped — physical components bending toward him like metal flowers to the sun.
I scrambled to my feet, brain screaming silent calculations.
—Our enemy is soundless force. —Our ally is a remix demon who just got yeeted into sub-audio space. —Our offense is one girl with legs. —Our defense is… me.
Raon spat blood. It hung in the air like a floating comma.
"Baron…" she mouthed, no breath behind it.
He didn't respond.
He looked at the Loop Reaper's ruin, then at Raon, and you could feel a smile without seeing it.
"You break loops," he whispered. "You bring chaos to rhythm."
He turned his gaze directly on me.
"She kicks. You calculate."
It wasn't praise.
It was a threat in the shape of a compliment.
Raon staggered, then tried something I had only seen in training: a double pivot heel-kick, compressing force, wind slicing around her leg like a spiraling hammer.
It struck Silence's barrier—
—And shattered.
Not the barrier.
Her shoe.
Rubber fragments spun weightlessly before fading… into silence.
Baron Silence extended two fingers and tapped the air.
Raon was sent flying across the factory floor, skidding like a skipped rock.
My brain snapped out of panic.
If direct sound fails, use indirect.
If physical force dies, use bending.
If Baron Silence mutes everything…
Then the only thing that can cut him is a frequency outside his control.
And I knew exactly where to get one.
I sprinted to the nearest Remix Machine. Its casing trembled, metal tired of existence. The vinyl conveyor still fed neon dust into its maw.
I slapped the interface.
A chorus of presets flickered in mute icons:
"Nightcore Anime Grocery Store Yodel EDM"
"Lo-Fi Sad Cat"
"Subway Intruder Full Extended Malaysian Remix (illegal)"
…and then…
"BETA: SYMPHONIC ECCC0-CHAN VOCALIZER"
My heart jumped.
Echo-chan.
Raon's not-so-secret idol and the underground goddess of untouched frequencies.
Her voice was rumored to be immune to copyright claims. Ancient. Primal. Beautiful.
I hit "Load."
The screen pulsed.
The Remix Machine began to glow violet… then turquoise… then gold.
A whisper slipped from the speakers — quiet but not muted.
Baron Silence froze.
His eyes narrowed.
I grinned.
"It's okay if you kill us," I mouthed. "But you can't mute her."
Echo-chan's preloaded vocal sample awakened:
> 🎵 "I–I'M THE BEAT YOU CAN'T ERASE." 🎵
🎵 "THE NOTE YOU CANNOT CAGE." 🎵
Sound punched back into existence like a returning storm.
Baron Silence recoiled, one hand raised as if shielding himself from sunlight.
Raon rose from the ground, hair dancing in the sonic wind.
I felt the pressure drop.
She smiled.
And in a moment of reckless clarity that would forever define my life…
Raon sprinted, jumped, twisted midair—
—and kicked straight through the Echo-chan waveform.
It turned gold.
Amplified.
Supercharged.
The blow hit Baron Silence square in the chest.
The resulting sound was not loud.
It was perfect.
Like a bell rung once to split a universe.
Baron Silence's suit cracked like glass.
The headphones around his neck sparked.
He stumbled back, eyes wide for the first time.
Raon landed in a crouch, shaking her foot.
"Okay," she said, voice raw. "Now we're talking."