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The Girl Who Embodies the Hope of the Future – Part 02

Then suddenly, La Guardia turned serious. “Your grandmother was too weak to thrive in the New World.” Her gaze was terrifying. “A company is like a giant beast that just keeps growing in size. It cannot stay the same. It’s a monstrous entity that will decline if it stops growing. And that is exactly what the Bluecandy conglomerate is. Take a good look at my magnificent figure, young buck. I am the new economic power of the New World itself. The goddess of coin! My unwavering faith in money has continued to bring me good luck. I am unbeatable. I guarantee you, boy, those bullets will never hit me.”

“Wh-What?!”

“Go ahead and take the shot, kiddo.” La Guardia’s eyes widened, glinting. “You’re the one who’s going to die!”

The wind gusted, tousling La Guardia’s silvery, weathered hair. She raised her bony hands toward the ceiling, striking a dramatic pose reminiscent of a goddess.

“Fortune favors the bold,” she proclaimed.

Coup de Grâce stumbled back in surprise. “Fuck!” he hissed. “After all these years, you still want wealth, you monstrous relic of the New World!” He raised his shoulders. “But today marks the end of your luck! I will take you down with this gun, rid the world of the upper-class scum who follow you with the bomb, and carve out my legend. I’m the dark hero, appearing at the Apocalypse!”

He readied his gun. In response, La Guardia fixed him with a fierce glare, her eyes blazing.

“Shoot if you dare!”

“Grr…”

“You’re the one who will perish. Something is bound to intervene! I’m the invincible queen, after all!”

“You’re bluffing! I’ll kill you and everyone else here!”

“You won’t! Luck is on my side!”

Clicking his tongue loudly, Coup de Grâce tightened his grip on the trigger. The guests screamed as they scrambled away from La Guardia. Relatives, lawyers, entourage—all fled in panic, recognizing the imminent danger. None of them wanted to take a bullet for the old lady.

Amidst the chaos, La Guardia alone remained composed, sneering at Coup de Grâce.

And then, he pulled the trigger, finally unleashing the bullet of revenge.

Closing his eyes, Mayor Emigré silently bid farewell to his mother. Rosie let out a belated scream.

“Huh?”

Coup de Grâce let out a puzzled grunt. He looked down in astonishment.

His partner, Bon Vivant, who had knelt by his feet unnoticed, had drawn a replica of an ancient sword from his waist and thrust it into Coup de Grâce’s chest. He clearly wasn’t used to wielding it.

Coup de Grâce staggered backward, gasping for breath.

The guests stood in stunned silence as they watched the two young men—Bon & Coup, the renowned duo behind the popular comic, Wonder Girl.

Bon Vivant, small and chubby, clad in a suit adorned with stars and stripes and wearing a blue top hat, had stabbed his partner with a replica of an ancient sword.

While Coup de Grâce, tall and muscular, cloaked in black and masked with a skull, slowly pressed his gun against Bon Vivant’s forehead. His expression was hidden behind the mask.

Would he pull the trigger and end his partner’s life?

Bon Vivant wept like a child. Shocked, the guests listened in disbelief.

“Coup… Coup de Grâce! My dear friend!”

“B-Bon…”

“I can’t believe you stuck around with a weirdo like me. I doubt I’ll ever find someone like you again, even if I live to be a hundred. Ah, I’m sorry. I’m really… sorry… But…”

“Bon!”

“No matter how awful a person she might be, she’s still… my… grandma… I just can’t let you shoot her. I… I have to protect her. I’m her grandson. And she’s the only one in the family who truly embraced me, told me that I wasn’t weird, encouraged me to leave home and live freely. She’s my Wonder Girl. Ah, it’s tearing me apart! Both of you matter to me. And everyone gathered here, they might seem sketchy at first glance, but I believe they’re good people. Ah, why… God… Ah, forgive me… Coup…”

“Bon.”

“Sh-Shoot me…”

“Bon…”

“I’m done. Let’s just die together. Shoot, Coup!”

Bon Vivant’s sword was still lodged firmly in his friend’s chest. Coup de Grâce pressed the gun harder against Bon Vivant’s forehead.

Silence. The mask gleamed coldly.

“Stop it,” La Guardia said, panicking. “Don’t shoot him. He’s a good kid.” She was genuinely worried. “Even if people look down on him, he never does anything bad to them. He’s a kind soul. An honest person who never tells lies. My boy!” But her hoarse whisper seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Several seconds stretched to eternity.

Coup de Grâce gritted his teeth audibly. The black eyes behind the mask glinted coldly. His trembling fingers tightened. His complexion drained of color. The sounds of breathing and his heartbeat filled the air.

Then, he slowly shook his head.

“I don’t have anything against you. I… I really liked you.”

“C-Coup…”

“How ironic. To think that both that monster and I have the same thing in common: caring about you.”

“Coup!”

“Bon…”

“Me, too. Me… too… I care about you,” Bon Vivant said through tears. “Why… Why did it have to come to this… Coup!”

Coup de Grâce slowly raised his trembling arm. He removed the black mask and tossed it aside. Tears spilled, streaming down the red bruise under his left eye.

As if the tears had melted the ice in his eyes, he returned to the friendly young man he used to be.

“Hey, Bon,” he said softly.

“Yeah…”

“We… We worked so hard together in creating a superhero. Just the two of us. In that quirky boarding house you owned. Those were good times. Ah, if only we could go back to those days. Then people started reading our work, and it got famous. And now, our Wonder Girl has become so popular. Does that mean Bon & Coup had a bit of Wonder Power too?”

“Yeah… We did all that. Together, we felt invincible. It was like being kids again, without a care in the world.”

Coup de Grâce blinked wistfully, then winced in pain.

“But what is justice? What exactly is the right thing, Bon?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anymore! Ugh…”

“Continue the story, Bon. You’re incredible. Wonder Girl came to life because of you. Use your power, your Wonder Power, for what you believe is right.”

“Coup!”

“My vision’s getting blurry,” he murmured.

Slowly, Coup de Grâce’s towering figure collapsed.

Bon released his grip on the sword, his knuckles having turned white from holding it so tightly. Trembling, he stretched out his arms, trying to catch Coup de Grâce. Their eyes locked.

As Coup de Grâce weakly closed his eyes, he whispered, “Have you… ever danced with Death in the dark of night?”

Bon Vivant’s bloodshot eyes widened. “Have you… ever danced with an angel… in the light?”

Thud!

Coup de Grâce fell to the floor. Bon Vivant was pinned under, crying like a child.

“My best friend! My grandmother! Ah, ah! It feels like my heart’s been torn in two!”

The hall descended into silence.

The Bluecandy family’s eccentric grandson’s wails mixed with the raucous laughter of the legendary grandmother.

Behind the cake, Victorique, wrapped in gray cloth, blinked slowly. A gust of wind tousled her silver hair and the fabric.

And then…

“Look, everyone!”

The guests turned at the high-pitched voice. A petite old woman laughed gleefully, the legendary figure of the Tobacco Road, a long nightmare of the upper class. The guests stared silently. Unperturbed, La Guardia continued to laugh, dancing happily.

“I told you I’m bulletproof, didn’t I?”

She laughed triumphantly until her mouth split from side to side.

“What was that? He came to defeat the monster and become a new hero of legends? Give me a break. There’s no such hero anywhere! Anyone who has the power to defeat me is, in a way, a monster themselves! Such beings don’t exist in the New World! I am the invincible queen! Ahahaha!”

Puffing on her pipe, she cackled as she danced. Then, she approached Coup de Grâce’s body and repeatedly kicked his side in a sacrilegious act toward the dead. She draped his black cloak around herself and snatched the gun from his hand, gripping it tightly. She also picked up the black mask and cheerfully donned it. She then glanced around the hall, as if proclaiming how good she looked.

Underneath Coup de Grâce’s body, Bon Vivant opened his eyes and looked up at La Guardia. He grimaced at the sight of his grandmother happily dancing in her black mask and cloak.

He lifted Coup de Grâce’s large body. Hanging his head, he remained motionless, as if dead himself.

La Guardia, now resembling the Grim Reaper with her skull mask and black cloak, swung the gun around, laughing defiantly.

“So curious,” she said. “Since days past, youngsters who oppose me have only one thing waiting for them.” The gun whirled. “Death!”

Fear petrified the guests. They stared blankly at the impaled young man, the weeping Bon Vivant in his stars-and-stripes suit and top hat, and the old lady laughing gleefully in her black mask and cloak.

La Guardia continued to brandish the gun. “There is one more kid who needs to die.”

She smirked, then fixed her gaze on one spot. The guests shuddered as they turned to look. There, curled inside a gray cloth, was Victorique.

The guests hastily cleared a path. La Guardia glared at her with hatred, then threw her head back, laughing uproariously.

“Hahahaha!”

A tepid breeze wafted from somewhere. The chandelier swayed ominously.

La Guardia glanced up at the ceiling, jokingly swinging her gun. “Well, well, what do we have here?” she remarked, applying pressure to the trigger. “Young lady, have you ever danced with Death in the dark of night?”

Muted laughter echoed from beneath the black mask. The voice of the accursed Grim Reaper.

“I have. I’ve danced with him for a long time, since the day I chose to leave the old world. And tonight, you’ll be dancing too!”

Bang!