Chapter 44: I Truly Am Not the Giant from Earlier

Question: How long would it take to stop an object with a mass of 500 tons moving at a speed of 10 kilometers per second?
Zoffy quickly assessed his current strength and came up with the answer—it would take nearly a minute.

And during that minute-long deceleration, this 500-ton behemoth would travel more than two hundred kilometers, enough to punch through the space station now less than eighty kilometers from the rocket, and then some. Rather than bluntly halting the rocket, it would be better to use his strength to alter its course, at least saving the lives of those in the space station. Once the rocket had passed the station, there would be enough space to bring it to a complete stop.

But now, he had less than seven seconds to try and apply force to divert the rocket’s path!

So the Giant of Light braced his shoulder against the rocket’s body, and as he felt the rocket dragging him backward, he simultaneously exerted his strength, redirecting the force—

Six.

Five.

Bang—!

A thunderous crash and a tremor struck simultaneously. There is no medium for sound in space, but the rocket’s body itself could transmit the vibration and noise. Zoffy felt that the 500-ton iron mass, which only moments ago had been arrogantly wrestling against his strength with unstoppable force, was now rapidly losing power, and then—

Three.

Two.

One.

The rocket’s body was forcibly stopped by a tremendous force; the abrupt braking sent the internal components tumbling out of place, clattering and twisting into a tangled mess.

“…??”

Zoffy let go of the rocket’s body, now completely stalled and teetering on the brink of disintegration, and glanced behind him. Less than a kilometer away, on the far side of the rocket’s body, there appeared—

A second giant, clad in red.

Inside the space station, the researchers, still reeling from the earlier explosion, slowly regained their composure. They immediately noticed the change outside the portholes.

Another new giant had arrived!

Two magnificent giants, each with a distinct form, had descended from the heavens one after another, stopping the speeding rocket with divine strength beyond question.

When the radar confirmed that the rocket had truly stopped, waves of astonished exclamations and cheers erupted in the living quarters.

In the previous ten minutes of despair, the researchers had filled their time with urgent repairs and inspections, trying to dull the fear of impending disaster through busyness, nerves stretched to the breaking point. But ten minutes later, divinity descended from the sky and resolved the crisis, and the taut strings in everyone’s mind snapped at once, all desperately needing an outlet for their emotions.

Some researchers clung to the colleagues nearest them, weeping and shouting at the same time.

Some, thrown eight meters by the shock, still clutched their cameras, struggling to crawl back to the windows; even before reaching the glass, they stretched out their arms and pressed the lens against it to begin filming.

Some had written their last wills during the ordeal; now, clutching those letters, they tore them to shreds and tossed the confetti into the air—of course, cleaning up afterward would be a nightmare, as the scraps simply floated.

But those things could be dealt with later. In this wild celebration after escaping death, nobody noticed that two of their number were missing.

Yuxing, too, was swept up in relief after the shock. The second giant to appear—Titus! This was exactly what he’d been worried about: if he eliminated the opportunity to meet Titus, would he still be able to join forces with this wise and powerful figure? Could this, too, be the inertia of the script? Even though he had intervened, throwing the original plot into chaos, in the end, he still found Titus at the climax of this “episode”!

Not a loss at all!

In fact—what a gain!

Titus, for his part, paid no attention to Yuxing, floating dozens of kilometers away and no larger than a grain of rice from his perspective. He merely nodded respectfully to the captain, then immediately set off to execute the new task he had just been given—he hoisted the rocket and flew off into the depths of space.

The captain had instructed him to find a place beyond radar and telescope surveillance—preferably behind a massive celestial body—and completely destroy what remained of the rocket.

So, Titus immediately set course for Jupiter, rocket in tow.

Yuxing watched the wise giant recede into the distance, full of questions: “…??”

Zoffy, meanwhile, returned to scoop up Yuxing, still floating there, in his palm, and brought him back to Earth.

Yuxing curled up quietly in the darkness of the giant’s palm, sitting in silence until the world brightened around him once more.

This place…

The stars glittered overhead; it was clearly a countryside site, far from light pollution. Glancing around at the scattered buildings, Yuxing recognized it: the rocket launch base.

He hopped down from the giant’s hand onto the soft grass. Before he could even express his thanks, the towering form of Captain Zoffy dissolved into stardust and vanished.

At the same time, the captain’s human form was nowhere to be seen. Even with his heightened senses, Yuxing couldn’t find a trace of him; it was as if the giant had been nothing more than a solid, three-dimensional projection—vanished into thin air.

Meanwhile, the distant wail of sirens approached; a convoy of police cars, followed by two troop transports, broke through the security checkpoint at the launch base.

Yuxing stood on the lawn, watching as the long-overdue authorities arrived, unsure how to feel.

“Yuxing—!!”

A familiar voice called out. Ayo, in a blue uniform, raced toward him, followed by Officer Sakura, who, being older, was out of breath from the run.

“Ayo…”

Yuxing barely had time to greet them before Ayo tackled him in a hug.

Soya Ayo, face full of tension and worry, looked Yuxing up and down, grabbing his shoulders and turning him around, determined not to rest until he found some sign of injury.

“Yuxing, are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?! I heard you climbed into the rocket?!”

As he inspected Yuxing, Soya Ayo began his interrogation.

Officer Sakura, panting, caught up and asked another question: “You, and that giant just now—what’s going on?”

“Uh, well…”

Yuxing thought for a moment, then decided to answer Officer Sakura’s question, hoping to divert Ayo’s attention.

Because Officer Sakura’s question was so easy—a gift of a question, really. The standard answer had been demonstrated countless times by his predecessors; as long as Yuxing gave the textbook reply, nothing could go wrong—

So he replied seriously, “That giant just now saved me.”

Officer Sakura, stunned, hadn’t even had time to marvel before being pulled away by another officer reporting that the team had assembled.

Soya Ayo, meanwhile, stopped searching for wounds and glanced back at the retreating Officer Sakura, then turned back to scrutinize Yuxing with a suspicious gaze.

“…That giant wasn’t you, was it, Yuxing?”

“…???”

Yuxing was stunned.

What happened to the standard answer?

Never mind the others—Kaito, Daichi, Haruki, even the original Yuxing in the story, all managed to get away with that answer. So why didn’t it work for him…?

No, actually, it hadn’t worked for him before. Back then, Ayo had already been suspicious. Or rather, even before that, Ayo had his doubts.

Was this, too, the inertia of the script? But in the original story, the episode where Yuxing’s answer failed came much later!

“I’m not, I didn’t, don’t talk nonsense, Ayo!”

Shocked that a gift question had backfired, Yuxing immediately reacted, shaking his head in earnest denial, so convincing that even a lie detector would be useless.

“Then what was with that shocked expression just now?”

“It’s just that your imagination is too wild, Ayo. Why would I…?”

He really wasn’t the giant just now. Honestly, he wasn’t!

…

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