一层一层剥掉你的衣服

Chapter 119: Chapter 119: The Great Earthquake (Part 3)

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The walls gave way like splinters, allowing me to propel forward like a bullet! Unfortunately, all of a sudden, there was a drop.

“Kyaaah!”

“Aaaah!”

“Kyaaah!”

All three of us screamed that it was almost harmonious. Thankfully, we only dropped a little bit before I managed to freeze ourselves in the air.

“Wow, that was close.”

Taking a deep breath, I looked down. We were really high up. Part of the building had collapsed, creating this dead drop. At the bottom, there were steel bars jutting out vertically. If I hadn’t caught onto the edge, we would’ve surely been pierced by the bars as we went down. Just the thought was enough to make me shiver.

“I’m going up.”

I moved my legs, climbing the air as if it were a set of invisible stairs. The two gasped in surprise. Well, I couldn’t blame them. The sight must have been shocking. No normal person could just walk on air like that, but I’m not any normal person as they could clearly see. But then again, the sight must have been too much for Ako-san since her hands slipped from my neck as I felt her slide off my back.

“Whoa!”

I immediately reached out and managed to grab her by the hair. I pulled her up and took her by the arm, swinging her onto my back again.

“Be careful. You almost died.”

“Sumimasen…Spider-san…”

“Eh?”

I began to climb once again. I’m sure some of you were wondering why didn’t I just walk down? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. I can only walk on air for so long, and my current body is drastically different from my past one. Just then, I lost my footing and slipped. Luckily, I managed to catch the edge of the building just in time.

“Wow…this is hard.”

I used my strength to pull ourselves up and once we were back inside, I decided to rest.

“Can you guys climb down?”

At that, the two girls climbed off of me.

“You okay, Sian?” Nayoung asked. Her voice sounded concerned, but her face looked almost like she was trying to figure out who I was.

“Do I look okay? Why are you guys so heavy?”

My neck hurts.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sumimasen…”

The two looked incredibly apologetic. But just then, Nayoung spoke up.

“Sian…who are you…”

She sounded very hesitant.

“I’m Sian Lee. I’m in Lovely Girlz.”

“No, I mean…what are you…?”

“What?”

What did she just say to me? Is she calling me an alien? Then again, after what she just saw…eh, what the heck?

“I’m an alien…from a galaxy far, far away.”

“Really?!” Nayoung gasped. Next to her, Ako-san just looked at us, wondering what was going on. Nayoung turned to her and translated what I just said, and soon enough, Ako screamed in shock. She stepped away from me in shock and accidentally stepped too close to the edge.

I managed to catch her just in time.

“Ugh, seriously. This girl. Here. Get on my back. I need to keep a closer eye on you.”

Just then, the building across the street exploded as a pipe flew towards us not long after. I stuck out my hand and swiftly caught it, with Nayoung and Ako-san gasping in amazement.

“Come on,” I said, picking Nayoung up. She wrapped her limbs around me as Ako-san climbed onto my back. As soon as they were both secure, I started to run again. No particular direction – just whichever way that didn’t have a dead end. I ran down the stairs, breaking any wall I came across with the pipe. The strength of the pipe combined with my own powers meant that no wall stood a chance.

Boom!

I had just punched a hole through another wall to run down some more stairs when suddenly…

“Aaah!”

I turned towards the scream. A man was on the ground, dying with a wound in his abdomen.

“Oh no…”

There was nothing I could do, but he was still alive.

“Are you okay…”

Upon hearing my question, the man turned around. The moment he saw me, tears filled up his eyes.

“I….I…”

He clearly wanted to say something, but was unable to. He took out something from his breast pocket and held it out to me. It was a family photo. Him, his wife, and his daughter. He gave me one last meaningful look and with a final nod, he closed his eyes forever.

“Oh…”

I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. I’m not the type to usually cry over things like this. I guess I’ve changed a lot. I pushed the photo into Nayoung’s back pocket. I really didn’t have anywhere else to put it since the girl was clinging onto my front. Anyways, I started to run down again, one level at a time. Soon enough, we were on the 8th floor. I considering breaking a window at this point and just jumping down, but it was still too high. Not to mention, the two women I was currently carrying. It could be very dangerous for them. I went down one more level and then, I stopped. I could hear people screaming for help.

“I should’ve just blocked my ears.”

I’m dead serious. Like, how am I supposed to ignore someone calling out for help? But just then, I heard another explosion and all of a sudden, a great wall of rubble and smoke began flying towards us.

“Fuck.”

I took the pipe and spun it around quickly, creating a wind bubble so that the smoke flew above us.

“Can you guys come down for a bit?”

The two girls immediately obeyed. Part of the ceiling started to collapse, and so I immediately knocked it aside with my pipe.

Then I finally said, “I think there are some survivors.”

At that, the two girls nodded. I thought for sure they’d tell me to leave them behind and save ourselves first, but they didn’t. How nice of them.

“Leave them…”

“We can’t do that!” Nayoung cut in, looking horrified at the very idea. Of course, I wasn’t finished.

“…was something I was considering.”

At that, the two breathed a sigh of relief, though the look of perpetual fear remained on their faces.

“But I can’t just leave them, so I’m going to try and help them. Is that okay?”

Just then, another part of the ceiling fell, and I hit that away with the pipe not long after.

“It’s fine. Let’s hurry,” Nayoung said. Ako-san confirmed the same in Japanese.

“Then, let’s go.”

We hurried towards the voices.

***

“Here, here, and here,” I said, pointing towards three rooms. The earthquake had bent the doors, making me wonder if we’d even be able to open them.

“What should we do? The doors…” Nayoung said, stretching her ankles. She seemed to be more serious about helping the survivors than I was. She really was a sweetheart. Who is this girl? A foreign exchange student with the face of a flake. I feel like she has a lot of money on top of that. Judging by the way she carries herself, she didn’t come from any average household. Well, I can ask about that later. Not long after, I picked up the pipe.

“Move,” I said.

Nayoung immediately stepped to the side. I took the pipe and banged on the door.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The door started to come off the hinges bit by bit. Finally, I gave it a good kick.

Crash!

The door crashed open and that’s when we saw them. A whole family, sitting and huddling together, trembling in fear.

“Come on,” I said.

The family didn’t waste any time, scrambling out of the room. Nayoung immediately began talking to them in Japanese while I started my work on the other rooms. There were more people in those two rooms – more than I would’ve thought was possible. After rescuing them all, we all started going down again, level by level. Soon, we reached the 5th floor (I think) and by this time, I really wanted to just jump out the window, but the group that was following me had grown considerably so I knew that it wasn’t an option.

“We’re blocked!” Nayoung shouted. I immediately started trying to dig out the rubble. Everyone screamed.

“There’s no way out!” Nayoung screamed. I turned to the wall and punched it with my all. Everyone gasped at that.

“The ceiling is falling!”

“Fuck!”

I couldn’t stop my cursing. The ceiling really was collapsing! I summoned up my powers again to hold up the ceiling, pushing it off of us.

“Fuck this…ugh…”

It was so heavy that I had to bend my knees. Fuck this. At this rate, even I’ll be buried.

“Go! Now!”

Seriously! They need to leave so I can put this down! At my command, Nayoung immediately directed the group to follow her down the stairs. One of the kids ran after her, but then turned around to look at me.

“It’s the Hulk Lady!” he shouted.

“That little brat…”

I guess he understood the irritation in my voice because he immediately turned around and started running down the stairs with the rest of the group. I finally straightened up, letting go of the ceiling and letting it fall to the floor.

It cracked like a chicken’s egg.

“That was close.”

At that moment, I suddenly thought of the cockroaches that I had stepped on and killed. Is this what they felt like? I started to feel a little bad.

Anyways, I ran after the others and quickly caught up with them, taking the lead once more. I picked up the kid who was holding tight onto his mom’s hand.

“Hey, kid, why are you so slow?”

“Hey! It’s the Hulk Lady!” the kid shouted again, smiling at me.

It looked so pure and radiant. To think that such a smile exists in this cold, cruel world. Kids really don’t know anything. Well that’s putting it nicely anyway. After hoisting the kid up, I ran forward with the group. Now we were on the 4th floor and we almost reached the 3rd. And that’s when…the aftershock hit.

Boom!

Crash!

The sound of rubble falling. It really was terrifying. Just then, black smoke started to rise from the floor below us.

“We’ll have to jump!” I decided.

We were on the 3rd floor, so it should be okay. I can just catch everyone from below. I eyed a window at the end of the hall.

“Everyone!” I shouted. “Run towards that window!”

At that, everyone turned and immediately started running with me. I was in the lead and I threw the pipe towards the window.

Whoosh.

But the pipe didn’t do anything to the window. Part of the ceiling fell, blocking the pipe from reaching the glass.

“Are you xx xx xxx xxxxx xxxx!”

I bellowed curses, wondering what I was going to do now. And just when I was feeling desperate, I looked down and saw the ends of a necklace. The golden necklace that Jinwoo had let me borrow. The one that he told me to never lose. The one he told me to return to him at the airport, but then forgot about. The one I was still wearing.

Jinwoo, I am so sorry.

I took the necklace and threw it with all my strength.

Whoosh!

The necklace reached the window and pierced through the glass.

Crack! Crack! Crash!

“Everyone jump out through the window!”

Everyone stared at me in shock, clearly wondering if I was crazy, but I just grabbed the kid and jumped.

Whoosh!

“Kyaah!”

“No!”

“Sian-san!”

Everyone was screaming, but I managed to make a clean landing. And in the distance, I could see firefighters. They noticed us and headed for our direction. But just then, another building fell, blocking their path. I swear someone up there was doing this on purpose.

“Bastards.”

Of course, it’s no one’s fault. Just the building. Anyways, I looked up at the 3rd floor window while everyone was staring down at me.

“Everyone!” I shouted up at them. “Jump!”