ed to be broadcasting from a helicopter that was circling in the sky and spoke very loudly. Even though it was night time, with the aid of many searchlights, the roof of a tall building was clearly illuminated. The people on top were divided into two groups. One group of three or four people stood near the edge of the building. The other group consisted of three people who stood near the doorway that went down into the building. Of the three, two people wearing police uniforms stood in the back. The other stood near the front. She was..

“Solitary Butterfly,” I quietly murmured her name. However, the one who flew here before was definitely not Solitary Butterfly. That person had been male.

The video then cut to close ups, showing the features of the masked robbers and hostage clearly.

Bramble immediately gave a shout of dismay, “Bri!”

The hostage was a little girl. One robber had his arm wrapped tightly around her neck, while his other hand held a gun aimed at her temple. The girl looked to be around ten years old. She looked utterly adorable with her round face, big eyes and hair tied in two buns on either side of her head. Despite the dangerous situation, she did not cry or make a scene, only opening her eyes wide. Her courage was most admirable.

However, I was unable to distinguish whether or not she was the one who had been held by the man from before. With only a moment of strong light, it had been difficult to fully make out that girl’s features.

The image once again changed to a close up of Solitary Butterfly. She stood still; her two guns lay on the ground in front of her. It could be assumed that the robbers had used the hostage to force her to drop them. The two policemen behind her were in a similar situation. The existence of a hostage prevented the trio from acting rashly.

“I have to go save her!”

Off screen, Bramble was so distraught that the calm and composed aura he’d had as a bodyguard captain vanished completely. He started to give orders to the panicked bodyguard from before. “Dell, you’re coming with me. We.. we can climb up from the side of the building. It definitely won’t alert those robbers..”

Then, a voice cut off Bramble’s orders. Unlike Dell, the owner of the voice was extremely composed as he said, “Captain, calm down. This is a rerun of the news report, not live reporting. Even if you headed there, it’d be too late.”

I glanced at the time on the news, and sure enough, the scene had happened around an hour ago. As I was still looking at the time, the image of the news report suddenly shifted, and the time it showed shifted to half an hour ago.

The image was zoomed out so that the entire rooftop, as well as the sky above, could fit on the screen. An armed helicopter could be seen hovering above the rooftop with a rope ladder dangling down. A few robbers were in the act of climbing up the ladder; however, the one climbing at the very front was the little girl hostage. Whenever she looked down in hesitation, the robber below her would immediately point the barrel of his rifle at her waist. Therefore, she had no choice but to keep climbing.

After all the robbers had climbed into the helicopter, there was an explosive sound of gunfire as they strafed the rooftop crazily with their machine guns, forcing Solitary Butterfly and the two policemen to dash for cover. The robbers began to laugh loudly; even the noise from the helicopter was not enough to cover their arrogant laughter. Suddenly, a scream pierced through it all.

They had pushed the little girl out of the helicopter.

She dropped straight down. Everyone held their breath, eyes wide as they watched this tragedy with utter despair.

Then, Solitary Butterfly began to run. She was fast like a black shadow, rushing straight toward the falling girl. Strangely, even though both the falling speed and the running speed were technically very fast, the moment felt as if it was occurring in slow motion. Everyone watched with unwavering gazes.

The vertical fall of the girl, and Solitary Butterfly’s horizontal dash. These two lines extended separately, but everybody waited and hoped to see them intersect.

Solitary Butterfly halted her steps suddenly, then reached upward as if to embrace the sky. The girl returned the embrace as she crashed down upon her. The impact knocked Solitary Butterfly to the ground with the girl lying on top. Even though the two had collided, the tension in the air did not fade.. The little girl was the first to struggle and get up, and she looked to be fine.

She had succeeded!

Everyone let out a sigh of relief at the scene; the sound was even echoed by the news broadcast. Then rose the reporter’s frenzied voice. “She caught her. Solitary Butterfly has caught the hostage!”

The bodyguards began to cheer. Even Bramble collapsed into a sitting position on the ground with sweat running down his face.

The image switched to a close up. After the girl had straightened up, she frantically turned to look at Solitary Butterfly. The latter rose to a half sitting position with difficulty, but she flashed a smile and reached out to pet the girl’s head, showing that both were safe and sound.

“Goodbye, hero!”

The robber’s shout suddenly came from the broadcast, but at this time, the image was still a close up of Solitary Butterfly and the girl, so the robber’s actions were hidden.

I could only see Solitary Butterfly raise her head, immediately leap up, grab the girl, and begin to run. In the blink of an eye, she was gone from the screen.

A huge explosion then shattered everyone’s thoughts and made their hearts skip a beat. The only thing we were capable of doing was staring dumbly at the screen. The projected 3-D image began to shake violently. We could see nothing, and could only hear the sounds of explosions, objects collapsing, and people screaming.

Finally, the image stopped shaking. The camera zoomed out to show the entire building. A huge chunk of the rooftop was missing, and it was still in the process of collapsing.

The two policemen were further away from the sunken hole and had barely managed to hold on to the building’s edge. However, Solitary Butterfly and the girl had completely disappeared.

We had been shown hope, only to have it torn away again.. Such a transition was enough to make myself, a vampire who had experienced a hundred and fifty years of life, feel my heart plummet helplessly. Never mind the humans who had watched this scene unfold, particularly Bramble, who was related to the girl.

I did not look at Bramble. The presumed deaths of the girl and Solitary Butterfly were already too tragic. I simply could not bring myself to look at Bramble’s expression. All I could do was focus my eyes on the screen.

A blur of black suddenly emerged from the collapsed hole in the building and flew straight up into the sky.

“What was that?” I blurted out in shock.

However, the news feed vanished suddenly, leaving behind no trace.

“Where’s the video?”

“What the heck! Hurry and open the projection!”

Everyone started to shout, and even though the darkness prevented their expressions from being seen, they were clearly agitated and panicked.

A refined-looking bodyguard said moodily, “Wait a moment. It’s only the channel changing!”

When the 3-D projection once again displayed an image, the focus was no longer on the rooftop but on the ground. Cries of “quick, look at the sky” and “what’s that” came from the video. The camera then quickly pointed to the sky. There, a black shadow was falling at top speed. It grew larger and larger, clearer and clearer.

After a small while, it could be seen that the shadow had a huge pair of wings. Then the shape of a person could be somewhat distinguished between them..

Thud!

The pair of wings touched ground, revealing their owner to be a man. He gently released the two people he was carrying, Solitary Butterfly and the girl. They fell to a sitting position on the ground and then raised their heads together to stare speechlessly at the man who had wings.

Inside the projection and outside the projection, all was silent.

As she looked at the man, Solitary Butterfly’s eyes suddenly widened, and she blurted out the question in everyone’s minds.

“You’re Dark Sun?”

The man did not answer. Instead, he looked at the sky and flew upward once again in the blink of an eye. Not long after, he landed once more with the two policemen. The sound from his landing was much louder this time. Clearly the weight of two grown men was a burden even for him. The sound was so loud one could not help but worry for his feet.

However, he only bent his knees slightly when he landed, then stood up straight immediately after. Clearly, he was not injured in any way.

Only then did I seriously take in his appearance.

He wore a silver visor; the lens was not transparent, so they concealed half of his face, and only the bottom half could be seen. But from what was visible, one could tell that he was likely young. He had silver hair that was surprisingly similar to the young master’s. However, the length was much shorter.

As for his clothing, the top was a skin-tight red shirt, while the bottoms were what looked to be a standard pair of jeans. On his feet were long boots, while gun holsters hung from his hips. Everything matched the description of Dark Sun from the rumors. It was safe to assume that he was indeed Dark Sun.

There were no traces of any modifications on Dark Sun’s body.. except for that pair of wings.

Those wings were definitely not something he could be born with. For, instead of soft feathers, they were formed from feather-shaped metal blades. Under the bright illumination, the light that reflected off those blades was sharp and piercing.

Truthfully, if not for that pair of wings formed of metal feathers, Dark Sun appeared just like a normal person you might see walking down the street. This was vastly different from the flashy appearances of the other heroes.

However, I think that no matter how he dressed, there was no outfit that could take the spotlight away from those wings.

Inside the screen, Solitary Butterfly had already stood up. She walked a few steps forward, lips parted as if to ask a question. But that person seemed to have no interest in replying. He lightly flapped his wings and began to take off.

Seeing that he was about to leave, the media went crazy as everyone tried to push their way to the front. Even the projection shook nonstop.

“Daddy!”

The girl who had been brave throughout the whole encounter with the robbers suddenly started crying as the media pressed closer. With her tears flowing non-stop, she kept asking to find Daddy.

Dark Sun seemed to have heard the girl’s cries. He stopped his attempt to take flight and planted himself back down on the ground. Turning to face the girl, his huge wings blocked the cameras. At that, the media began to press forward with even more enthusiasm, hoping to capture his wings at a closer distance. However, he lightly flapped them. The sharp glint from the metal feathers clearly was not just for show. The feathers effortlessly cut off a bunch of camera lens as they moved, finally stopping the media’s advancement.

Dark Sun bent over slightly and then one word came out.

“Where?”

The girl whimpered her reply, and a few words could barely be made out. “..’s rooftop.”

Dark Sun nodded, picked up the girl, and spread his wings. As he was about to take flight..

“Wait a moment!”

Solitary Butterfly shouted to stop Dark Sun and helplessly gestured toward the surrounding media. Then she spread her hands wide, pleading helplessly and innocently, “Look, could you take me along as well?”

“No, too heavy, can’t take flight.”

Dark Sun only left behind this sentence which made Solitary Butterfly’s expression stiffen. He then took flight instantly. The girl in his arms screamed in fear, but quickly, it changed into bubbly laughter. She even leaned over Dark Sun’s shoulder and waved goodbye to the cameras beneath her with a smile.

Below, many hands were raised in response, enthusiastically waving back at the girl. Even though their laughter was not as pretty as hers, the sound was heartfelt.

Surely, one day, a hero will raise his hand, and as the crowd watches, he will take flight into the skies.

This scene was unbelievably touching; even the reporter’s voice was especially warm. As for me and the bodyguards around me though, we felt our hearts chill.. There was no question about it anymore. Just now, the energy cannon fired by the bodyguards had shot down the pair who came to find Bramble: Dark Sun and Bri.