One Kick Girl — Chapter 28: "The Echo Awakens"
(Told from Raon's POV)
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Raon hadn't slept in three nights.
Not because she was tired — she never really got tired.
But because the city wouldn't shut up.
Every night since the "Remix Incident," the skyline of Neo-Seoul had pulsed with noise — low frequencies rippling through the air like invisible tremors. Windows rattled, neon signs flickered off-beat, and even her rice cooker had started beatboxing.
Something was wrong. Something big.
She stood on the rooftop of Studio Echo, wind slapping her hair across her face, looking out at the city she'd accidentally saved (and occasionally destroyed).
Below, the billboards screamed headlines:
> "Heroine or Hazard? ONE KICK GIRL STRIKES AGAIN!"
"Mayor Denies Cityquake Tied to Raon's Training Routine."
"DJ Bloop Hospitalized After Attempting to Remix Raon's Punch."
Raon sighed. "They always forget the important part…"
She cracked her knuckles.
"…That I won."
---
The elevator behind her dinged.
Synthra Byte rolled in, literally — she'd replaced her legs with hover-wheels again. "Testing Version 4.0 mobility mods," she said proudly.
Raon raised an eyebrow. "You look like a Roomba with sass."
"Correction: a weaponized Roomba with sass."
"Better."
Shion's hologram flickered between them, all calm poise and quiet judgment. "Focus, you two. We have bigger problems. The Echo signal is still active."
Raon crossed her arms. "How big?"
Synthra pulled up a holographic waveform — jagged, pulsating, like a heartbeat made of static.
"Big enough to shake the sub-bass layer of the city's network grid. Someone's hijacking the sound infrastructure. Every club, every speaker, every comm device."
Raon frowned. "You're saying the city's about to… drop the bass?"
Synthra smirked. "More like drop into chaos."
---
The last Echo Protocol had been a disaster.
Raon remembered the flashing lights, the corrupted rhythms, the sound that moved like it was alive.
She remembered Echo-2 — the digital entity that tried to rewrite reality through beats per minute.
And she remembered punching it so hard the servers fried and the clouds briefly formed the word K.O.
But this new signal felt different.
Smarter. Hungrier.
Raon could feel it thrumming in her chest — not through her ears, but through her pulseband. The same band that registered her combat rhythm, tracking her every strike.
> bpm: 62 → 63 → 64…
It was syncing. Slowly.
She clenched her fist. "Someone's trying to tune me like an instrument."
Shion's expression darkened. "Then they're about to learn what happens when they hit the wrong note."
---
The lights around them flickered.
A faint hum rose through the concrete — like a bass drop winding up.
Synthra's sensors flared red.
"Uh… Raon? We've got interference. Directly below the studio."
The rooftop cracked.
A shockwave of distorted sound erupted upward — neon patterns spiraling through the air, forming digital glyphs that twisted like living code.
Raon's hair whipped back as the vibration tore through her clothes.
Her Pulseband glowed bright crimson.
> ECHO-FREQUENCY MATCH DETECTED.
SIGNATURE: RAON.EXE / PRIMARY RESONANCE SOURCE.
"What—" she started, but the voice cut her off.
A distorted, feminine tone echoed from the storm of light.
Half-synthetic, half-sinister.
> "Hello, Raon. I've been waiting for you… my original signal."
---
The glyphs solidified into a shape — a mirrored silhouette.
Raon squinted.
Same build. Same stance. Same hair.
Except the figure's eyes glowed cyan, and her expression wasn't lazy — it was cold.
Synthra gasped. "Wait. That's—"
"Yeah," Raon said grimly. "That's me."
The copy smirked.
> "I am ECHO-3. The perfected resonance. The remix that replaces the original."
Raon cracked her neck. "Cool speech. Needs work on delivery."
> "Your power is raw, chaotic. You break the rhythm. I am the rhythm."
Raon stepped forward, smirk curling. "And I'm about to break you."
---
The two Raons vanished in a blink —
and the rooftop exploded in shockwaves.
Every impact pulsed to a rhythm — kick, block, twist, counter — each punch syncing with the invisible beat flooding the skyline.
Synthra's sensors couldn't keep up.
Shion's data feed glitched into static.
Two silhouettes blurred through the neon haze — one red, one cyan — colliding faster than the eye could track.
The soundwaves rippled outward, turning every nearby billboard into dancing strobe lights.
---
Finally, Raon slammed her fist into Echo-3's gut — a perfect beat drop.
The clone flew back, disintegrating into fractured light.
But before fading, she smiled.
> "You can't destroy what's already inside you."
Then she vanished.
---
Raon staggered back, breathing heavily.
Her Pulseband flickered erratically.
Synthra rushed forward. "Raon! Your pulse rate's off the charts!"
The band emitted one last pulse — and projected a holographic mark across Raon's chest.
A symbol made of light and static: E3.
---
Shion's voice trembled. "That… wasn't a copy."
Raon looked down at the glowing mark, jaw tightening.
"What do you mean?"
"That was your Echo. Your power — rewritten."
---
Raon stared at the city below.
The lights pulsed again, every neon sign flashing to a new rhythm.
Every building. Every speaker. Every heart.
Syncing.
And somewhere in the distance…
a bass drop answered.