Chapter 96: When Morning Comes
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 96: When Morning Comes
Although I had explained the situation over the phone earlier, Fuma-senpai didn't know what had happened afterward, so I had to take the time to explain it all over again.
With no better place to go, we sat around the kotatsu in the duty room. After hearing of my exploits, the members of the Fuma ninja clan looked at me with pure admiration.
"I'd heard you were strong, but I never imagined you could take down a Special-grade yokai with your bare hands."
"...What's a Special-grade?"
It was Hyoneko-san who answered my question.
"In the underworld, yokai are usually graded based on the amount of yin energy they possess."
According to Hyoneko-san's explanation, just as butchers grade meat, yokai are classified as 1st-grade, 2nd-grade, 3rd-grade, and so on. Particularly strong individuals are even given names.
Cases like Japan's Three Great Evils or the Nue from old folktales were examples of this.
The "Special-grade" mentioned here seemed to be a term for those who were much stronger than 1st-grade yokai but hadn't been given a specific name.
Fuma-senpai, who was sipping the tea Mizuki-sensei had made, asked a question.
"You said the yokai you caught looked like a white mask floating in mid-air, right?"
"Yes."
"Perhaps the 'White Face' from the school's ghost stories and the one you fought are the same yokai."
"Ah, so you know about it too, Fuma-senpai? The Seven Wonders, or whatever it's called."
Fuma-senpai nodded with a serious expression.
"Well, it is my school, after all."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Why are you two talking about things only you know again?"
For the sake of the other ninjas who had no idea what was going on, I recounted the six ghost stories Satoru had explained to me over the phone.
Hyoneko-san rubbed her chin and muttered with interest.
"So, this yokai was a case of a ghost story materializing."
"Materialization of a ghost story?"
"Just as the old proverb says, 'three men make a tiger,' if enough people repeat the same story, even a non-existent being can gain substance."
Fuma-senpai added to the explanation.
"A place like a school, where many people live together in a group, is prone to gathering negative emotions. And those negative emotions become nourishment for yokai born from such rumors."
A question came to mind after hearing their explanations, and I voiced it.
"But why did it decide to go on a rampage today of all days?"
At that, Fuma-senpai's gaze fell on Mizuki-sensei, who was sitting in the corner like a spare part.
"Since ancient times, the favorite prey of yokai have been priests, shrine maidens, and monks with spiritual power. In that sense, Mizuki-sensei must have looked like a very tempting meal to these strange entities."
"A tempting meal?"
While I was still trying to grasp the meaning, Hyoneko-san threw a blunt remark.
"Hey, teacher over there. Don't tell me you're still a virgin at your age?"
Mizuki-sensei's face turned beet red.
"How can you say something like that when we've just met?! And I'm only twenty-five!"
I asked out of curiosity.
"Is it better if she's a virgin?"
Fuma-senpai nodded.
"A pure virgin who also has the qualities of a shrine maiden, and on top of that, lacks the ability to defend herself... it wouldn't be strange for most yokai to lose their minds over that. I suspect that until now, something like an amulet or a powerful guardian spirit was protecting Mizuki-sensei, and when that disappeared, she was exposed."
Hyoneko-san asked the teacher.
"Does anything come to mind?"
The teacher clutched her head, deep in thought, before something seemed to click.
"Come to think of it, the amulet bracelet my dad gave me as a gift when I left my hometown broke last week."
"That's it."
Hyoneko-san sighed and put a hand to her head.
"Usually, when something like an amulet bracelet breaks on its own, it's because its power has run out, nine times out of ten. In that case, you should go to a spiritually powerful shrine nearby and buy a commercially sold protective charm, even as a temporary measure."
Mizuki-sensei asked with a blank expression.
"Do those kinds of charms actually work?"
"Even if they're mass-produced, the person and place that make them are important. You can indirectly receive the protection of the god enshrined at that shrine."
Fuma-senpai, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, took something out of her pocket.
It was a bracelet made of yellow thread.
"The color yellow symbolizes the earth, lightning, and wealth. Moreover, the Naruikazuchi-no-kami enshrined at Mizuki-sensei's family home is a snake god. It has good compatibility with a bracelet made of long thread."
Fuma-senpai handed the bracelet to Mizuki-sensei with a word of caution.
"This is just a temporary measure. You'll have plenty of time during summer vacation, so please return to your family home, explain the situation, and receive proper follow-up treatment."
"Thank you, Fuma-san. I should repay you somehow."
As Mizuki-sensei said this and bowed her head, Fuma-senpai waved her hand.
"You should thank Kim Yoo-Sung more than me. If it weren't for him, you might have been in grave danger today, Sensei."
Hearing that, Mizuki-sensei bowed to me as well.
"Thank you too, Kim-kun. You saved me."
"Ah, no. It was just a coincidence that I was able to help."
If Satoru hadn't borrowed my book and left it in his desk, and if I hadn't decided to get it today instead of waiting until morning, I wouldn't have been here.
It was a chain of what-ifs, but thinking about it made me feel truly glad I'd come to school.
"So, are we done here?"
Hyoneko-san asked as she emerged from the kotatsu and stretched.
Fuma-senpai, who was next to her, heard her and nodded.
"We'll just clean up and then we'll be on our way."
She was probably talking about the broken window in the hallway.
"Ah, will that be alright?"
Fuma-senpai nodded at my question.
"For the Fuma ninja clan, repairing that level of damage is nothing. Concealing traces of battle is one of a ninja's main duties."
In that case, I had no choice but to trust them with it.
"I'll leave it in your hands."
"Leave it to us."
With those words, Fuma-senpai looked at Mizuki-sensei.
"Sensei, you should probably head home for the day as well. We've done some basic cleanup, but tonight is a full moon, which makes the malevolent ones particularly restless. We will escort you home."
"Thank you, Fuma-san..."
Though it had only been a few hours, so much had happened that the teacher seemed exhausted.
Afterward, we gathered our things and left the school in the middle of the night.
What happened today would likely become a memory that neither I nor Mizuki-sensei would ever forget.
After all, people tend to remember scary or unhappy memories more vividly than happy ones.
*
In the end, I got home at four in the morning.
Normally, that was the time I would be waking up.
But after getting swept up in all sorts of incidents just to retrieve a literature textbook I'd left at school, my body was pickled with exhaustion. I chose sleep over my morning jog.
I crashed on my bed and the next time I opened my eyes, it was well past 1 PM.
It was the first time I had woken up this late since I started seriously working out in my first year of high school.
In any case, with only two days left until the exams, I ate a late lunch and then locked myself in my room to study all day.
The next day, I went to the library near my house and studied for about twelve hours straight, perfectly completing my preparations for the final exams.
I had completely returned to my daily rhythm, to the point where the midnight yokai commotion on Friday felt like a lie.
And so, Monday arrived again.
Thanks to burning the midnight oil over the weekend, I was able to perfectly solve the problems on Monday's exams: Language Arts in first period and Classical Literature in second.
I had been very worried since they were my weakest subjects, but my focused studying had paid off.
After the test, Class 2-B was filled with groans. The questions had been much harder than the midterms.
I saw Satoru packing his bag with a gloomier expression than usual. To lighten his spirits, I put a hand on his shoulder and said:
"Hey, Satoru. You've got some nerve pulling a prank like that last Friday."
Satoru turned his head with a "Huh?" and replied.
"What are you talking about? What prank did I pull on Friday?"
"What, are you playing dumb? On Friday night, I called you and said I was at school, and you rattled off all that stuff about the school's seven wonders."
Satoru looked at me as if I were speaking complete nonsense.
"What are you talking about? When did we talk on the phone? I had my phone turned off on Friday evening because of my cram school class."
"...What?"
Hearing Satoru's words, I frantically pulled my smartphone out of my pocket.
I checked my recent call history.
"It's not there..."
Even though I was sure I'd talked to Satoru from school last Friday, his name wasn't in my call history.
Seeing me like this, Satoru tilted his head and said:
"You're saying all sorts of weird things all of a sudden. Yoo-Sung, did you get heatstroke or something?"
But Satoru's teasing words didn't register.
Then who was the 'Satoru' I spoke to at school?
I had no way of knowing who it was.