Easy Tasks First
When there are easy tasks and hard ones, which should you tackle first? If you asked people, you'd get all sorts of choices and reasons. If you asked me, I'd say I prefer starting with the easy ones. If you barely scrape through the tough stuff only to find more work waiting, wouldn't that just drain all your energy? Rewards have to come right away to keep the motivation going—that's the way it's always been.
That's why I decided to start locking doors from the fourth floor. It was supposed to have just one youkai, making it relatively manageable compared to the other floors. I set aside the possibility that even one could be overwhelmingly tricky for now. If it turned out that unfair, I'd call Kim Eat-Chil and figure it out then. For starters, I positioned myself on the left staircase between the third and fourth floors. Looking up at the fourth floor from there, nothing was visible. The one problem with the fourth floor was the rule itself: it could only move in the dark. You needed light to spot the youkai, but when there was light, it wouldn't move. I'd checked the hallway CCTV from the guard room beforehand, but no luck. With six youkai supposedly roaming the school today—excluding the one endlessly pacing back and forth on the first floor—I had no idea where the rest were hiding. They weren't caught on camera at all. At least the hallway was definitely clear, so I boldly stepped onto the fourth-floor corridor.
The moment I did, the emergency lights in the fourth-floor hallway flickered on dimly. I froze in place, rolling only my eyes to scan the corridor. Still nothing. It was probably holed up in one of the classrooms. I hoped it wouldn't come out, but that wasn't likely. The second the lights went out, I locked the door to Class 3-1. Then Class 3-2. Class 3-3 was already locked. I reached the central staircase. Please, let nothing happen like this, I wished.
Dr-r-r-uck. The sound of a classroom door sliding open, and the emergency lights flicked on. I froze immediately. I happened to be facing the central entrance, so I couldn't see what was happening in the right corridor. No sound of movement followed. But since I couldn't see, anxiety crept in anyway. I prayed the lights would go out fast. The instant they did, I planned to bolt up the central stairs to the fifth floor. The lights flickered off. In the dark, I relied on the distance sense from when they were on and reached the stairs without tripping. I climbed to the midpoint between the fourth and fifth floors and stopped—to check if that threat lunging at me was real.
Squatting midway down the right staircase from the fourth floor, I thought it over. Since the youkai had appeared, at least one of Class 3-4 or 3-5 must be open. To lock the room it came from, I'd inevitably have to encounter it. But I knew nothing about its appearance or power. Was it smart to go down now without confirming what it looked like? My gut screamed no. With the Kim Eat-Chil card in my pocket, there was no need to risk it right now. Gut feelings aren't always right, but this time I sided with mine. At the moment the fourth floor went dark, I bolted down the stairs. I kept descending until I paused midway to the first floor—to wait for the first-floor youkai to turn around.
Back in the guard room, I checked the CCTV. There was only one camera at the left end of the hallway, so the right end was hard to see. Sure enough, something humanoid flickered at the end of the fourth-floor corridor, but its identity was unclear. Fourth floor: pass for now. I decided to link up with Kim Eat-Chil first. Before leaving the guard room, I stopped by the break room. Wandering around empty-handed felt too exposed. I grabbed my stuff: cutter knife in my pocket, baseball bat in one hand. I left the noose. Now fully armed, I finally felt a bit secure. Not that I planned to fight any youkai. It just felt that way.
Grrrowl. Actually, not secure at all. I was starving. I hoped Kim Eat-Chil would at least earn his keep with some food—the hunger was that bad. To put it mildly, enormous.
Of all the hallways, the third floor felt the most reassuring. The second floor had constant mental attacks from outside the windows, and the fourth wouldn't let you relax with its rules. But the third? Just don't run, and you're good. Youkai followed the rules too, so if one chased, turning and fleeing would end it. No wonder it felt easy. Of course, I wasn't dropping my guard completely—there was still one unidentified youkai.
Naturally, the corridor was empty. Were they all hiding and jumping out like it was a trend? Class 2-1 was locked, so I headed to 2-2. I unconsciously went to lock it, then stopped, opened the door, and stepped inside. True to his word, Kim Eat-Chil was waiting in the front row, waving when he saw me. And next to him sat a student I'd never seen before. A real student—not a youkai, but a perfectly normal human-looking one. In the dim light, she wore a school uniform like Kim Eat-Chil's, though as a girl, it was a skirt instead of pants. Hard to make out details in the dark, but her blank expression stood out. She turned her face toward me upon noticing me, but it was utterly still, like a doll.
"She's my friend. Pretty well-behaved, right?"
Since Kim Eat-Chil introduced her as a friend, she had to be a youkai. But what kind? No clue. As I approached to inspect her closer, he stopped me cold.
"Stay right there."
I froze mid-step. There had to be a reason.
"I said she's my friend, but take some caution, will you?"
"I was approaching carefully."
I glanced around for any anomalies. Nothing seemed off.
"The floor. The floor."
"Hey."
A sharp voice I'd never heard before. It registered as the girl's, but her lips didn't move at all. Like ventriloquism. Anyway, following Kim Eat-Chil, I looked down. At first, nothing seemed wrong, but closer inspection revealed a shade difference like a stain. Tracing its shape, it looked just like a shadow stretching from the girl. The classroom was darker than the hall, so I'd missed it.
"Why interfere?"
"We agreed to help."
"What? Help? A human?"
The conversation continued, but the girl's lips stayed perfectly still. Where was the voice even coming from? At least I knew that body wasn't the real one.
"You... you said you'd lure the human earlier!"
"Obviously a lie."
"A lie? A lie? Are you nuts?"
Kim Eat-Chil and the girl kept bickering. Stepping into that shadow must trigger something bad for me. Big trouble. Kim Eat-Chil was a youkai, but my trust in him was rising. This wasn't good.
"Ajusshi, get back now."
The second he said it, I retreated swiftly to the door. Looking down, her shadow had stretched all the way to where I'd stood.
"You little—!"
The girl youkai shot up from her seat, shrieking in fury. Still expressionless, though. Kim Eat-Chil grinned ear-to-ear, freakishly wide. I'd nearly died, yet I wasn't scared—guess I'd finally lost it. Or maybe in abnormal situations, abnormal is normal? No way to join a youkai fight anyway. Perfect setup for the shrimp's back to burst in a whale brawl. I'd finish locking doors and come back; things would probably be sorted by then. What you really had to fear in this school wasn't the youkai. It was forgetting. Forgetting something meant creating a potential threat.
And that hit me as I turned toward Class 2-3. A familiar black cat. But an unfamiliar size—like a tiger stalking the hall. Our eyes met as it crept forward.
I'd forgotten: the third floor had more than one youkai. The Gallery admin had warned against getting close to wild animal types. Distance: barely four meters. I backed away slowly. The cat youkai matched my pace, closing in. I got backed to the left stairs and climbed up. I hoped it'd stop at the third floor. But against hope, it started following up the stairs. Instinct screamed: don't let it follow. Once it left the third-floor hallway rules, who knew how it'd change.