The Two Are the Saintess and the Hero
Shuffle. Shuffle.
They slipped out of the corridor and started down the stairs. The noise that had piled up through the day seemed to peel away in a single layer the moment they descended.
They cut across the central athletic field and headed for the school gate. The sun had not fully set, but the angle of the light was unmistakably lower now.
Dismissal time. Students drifted off in twos and threes toward the dormitory, or turned their feet toward the nearby shopping strip. Laughter rose from somewhere behind them and faded as everyone flowed toward their own destinations.
And within that current—there was a stride that was subtly out of step.
One.
No. Two.
Walking the same direction, yet failing to match the surrounding rhythm.
"Hey."
Sehyun slowed his pace.
"We're past the gate already. How long are you planning to follow me?"
No answer came.
When Sehyun glanced back, Yui quickly pressed herself against the wall. The movement was fast. Faster than he'd expected. He hadn't noticed it in the classroom earlier, but up close her frame was small, and there was no wasted force in the way she moved.
"…Sigh."
Sehyun turned away again, as if he no longer had the energy to press the point. The moment he started walking, footsteps resumed behind him, holding a fixed distance and rhythm.
When he stopped, they stopped. When he walked, they followed. Like a shadow.
"…Hey."
A brief silence.
"Want to stop somewhere first? We've got time."
"Sure."
The answer came faster than expected. Sehyun paused for a moment. Had she been deliberately holding her tongue until she got the reaction she wanted?
He glanced back without thinking. Yui stood a short distance away. She looked much the same as she had in the classroom. But fatigue sat plainly on Sehyun's face. Ever since the anomaly earlier, his head had felt heavy and thick. Yui, by contrast, was unreadable. No sign of exhaustion. No trace of tension. As if nothing had happened at all.
"…Doesn't any of this bother you?"
"Any of what?"
She looked genuinely blank.
"The thing in the classroom. You're telling me that didn't faze you at all?"
Did he really have to spell it out? A flicker of irritation crept into his voice.
"Oh, that. But I didn't do anything. Why would I be tired?"
Thanks for saving my life, by the way.
Yui nodded with perfect composure. She was more thick-skinned than she looked. The way she'd been trailing him in secret, the self-contained way she carried herself—maybe she was the type who lived by her own rules and logic alone. That was Sehyun's guess.
"Do you know anything about what happened in the classroom?"
"If you mean the phenomenon itself, I don't know any more than you do. What I saw and what you saw—that's all there is."
"Then what about the 'Hero' you mentioned earlier?"
Yui's eyes flickered, just slightly.
"I heard you clearly. You said you'd be counting on me from now on. You called me Hero."
"…You've got good ears."
Yui pouted, looking put out.
"It's not the kind of conversation you have somewhere crowded."
"That's why I suggested we stop somewhere first."
"You're better at talking than I expected. You give off the quiet type."
"I saw right through you. I'm only talking like this because it's you."
"Hey, don't make my heart race like that."
Sehyun was honestly a little startled, but there was playfulness in Yui's expression, so he decided to match her tone and fire back a joke of his own.
"So? Where are we going?"
Yui abruptly cut the flow and asked for the practical details.
"Well…"
Sehyun looked around.
"If we keep going straight past the Research Building, there's a park. Want to talk there?"
"Fine. Lead the way."
Sehyun started walking ahead. From here, past the Research Building to the park entrance, it would take about twenty minutes on foot.
"Why are you using formal speech, though? You were talking casually in the classroom earlier."
"That's because I'm the cute transfer student from overseas."
He looked at her face, half in disbelief. Astonishingly, she said it with no change of expression whatsoever.
"Cut the bullshit."
His everyday language slipped out before he could stop it. Startled, Sehyun swallowed a breath—
"Bullshit accepted. Actually, I'm a year younger. Early birthday."
Oh, for fuck's sake.
She was a damn kid. Sehyun swallowed the curse.
"First time I've seen an early birthday at the Academy. And I've been here since middle school."
Sehyun was, so to speak, an Academy veteran. There were students who'd entered as early as elementary school, but most of those were elites whose talent had already been firmly recognized—kids being groomed for research posts or high office, futures more or less decided.
"Really? I heard some students skip grades and come in from elementary. I came in through a separate transfer track myself."
"Maybe it's because I've only ever seen people who were already awakened from the start. The ones who awaken midstream, I've only heard about in rumors."
Most ability users were born with their powers. Cases of awakening after entanglement with other ability users, or after brushing against life and death, did exist—but they weren't common. Yui, who had introduced herself as an acquired ability user, was clearly the latter. What had she been through? The question nipped at him, but prying into personal history felt rude, so Sehyun kept his mouth shut.
"And this isn't the classroom. Mm, right?"
"Haa…?"
Different rules inside the classroom and outside it? He didn't fully follow, but Sehyun nodded vaguely. Yui seemed to be the type who lived by her own rules and instincts. After years in an Academy that collected every kind of oddball, Sehyun had seen more than enough unusual people. At this point, something on this level barely registered as surprising.
Perhaps sensing that he was thinking something rude, Yui shot him a sidelong glare.
"…What."
"…Nothing."
Yui tilted her head, then quickly looked away.
"Anyway, give me your phone number."
"Huh? Why?"
"We should get along from now on. Our seats are right next to each other, and we're going to keep going around together."
"Why do I have to keep going around with you? If more classroom-type incidents keep happening, I'm out."
This kid. The way she'd been sticking to him since earlier was suspicious. Did she want something from him?
"Ah, I already told you I don't know about the classroom thing. It could just be some kind of accident. A natural disaster, even."
"A natural disaster?"
"I mean… didn't it feel like an urban legend? Maybe it's more convenient to call it an anomaly."
"An urban legend…"
The Academy was still a place where people lived. Even ability users ran into mysteries that reason couldn't explain. And when that happened, humans invented superstitions. The Academy had its own urban legends, a little different from the ones outside.
Talking as they walked, the two of them found themselves entering the Research Building before they knew it.
"This is the Research Building."
The research wings connected to each school were the Academy's core facilities. Research results fattened on massive funding often became the outside world's cutting-edge technology a few years later. For Sehyun, whose goal was to graduate as an ordinary student and land a stable job, it was a world far removed from his own.
"Is our school a good one?"
Yui asked suddenly. Admissions standards, that sort of thing?
"Not really. Just average. Compared to the outside, though, it's a pretty high-level school."
Wait. The conversation had drifted somewhere else entirely.
"I was talking about the classroom earlier!"
Sehyun clawed at his hair.
"Urban legends this, anomalies that! So why are you following me?"
"Ah. That has to do with my ability."
Yui glanced at him.
"Want me to tell you? It doesn't feel like the right time to go public yet."
For an ability user, revealing one's power carried considerable risk. Most ability users were special only in a narrow domain; once the principle and the weaknesses of their power were understood, they were not so different from ordinary people. Sehyun, who had lived at the Academy a long time, understood exactly what that meant.
"The kind that's inconvenient to reveal? But you're willing to reveal it?"
"Looking at the fact that I came to a school like this, can't you tell? It's not a particularly impressive ability. Hard for anyone to figure out, and even if they did, there's not much they could do about it."
Yui raised her index finger.
"As a hint—it's exploration-type?"
It's a free blood-donation service.
Yui snickered. She clearly thought Sehyun would never figure it out.
By the time they left the Research Building and reached the park, the sun had almost gone down. Sehyun cleared his throat.
"All right. Talk. What exactly is this 'Hero' thing?"
"Hmm… want to sit down and talk for a bit?"
Yui pointed to a vending machine deeper in the park. They stood in front of it for a long while, deliberating.
"What are you doing? Aren't you going to drink anything?"
Sehyun had already pulled a canned coffee. It was a product distributed only inside the Academy—supposedly higher in caffeine and less harmful to the body, though plenty of people said they couldn't tell the difference.
Yui seemed to have decision paralysis. She could talk a blue streak, but she couldn't pick a drink?
Just as Sehyun was about to grumble—
Clunk.
A can dropped.
"…That one's terrible."
What Yui had chosen was a notoriously bad drink. Loaded with sugar, and reportedly worse than useless at quenching thirst.
"…It's good, though?"
From her behavior to her tastes, everything about this kid was unique.
"I thought that shit was disgusting. The way it sticks in your throat."
Sehyun recoiled in open disgust.
"Let's walk a bit."
Even though she barely knew the paths around here, Yui took the lead. Sehyun followed without a word.
"I won't go into detail. There'll come a time when you find out on your own."
Yui looked up at the fading sky, as if preparing to say something difficult.
"With my ability, I can see people's information. Exploration-type, like I said earlier."
"You said that earlier and you're just telling me now?"
Yui didn't answer right away. Instead she studied Sehyun's expression from the corner of her eye, as if gauging how much she could say.
"The moment I revealed that you're the Hero, I had to explain at least this much."
Yui took a sip of her drink.
"Information I find out myself gets recorded by the ability. But sometimes it displays information I don't even know, on its own. Things like a role next to a name."
"A role?"
"Next to my name, it says Saintess."
"Saintess? Your ability has a bit of an ego problem."
There were limits to middle-school syndrome. Calling yourself a Saintess as a first-year high schooler.
"Pfft. A little, right? I thought so too. But what am I supposed to do when it actually shows up like that?"
"Well, this is the Academy. Something on that level is probably fine."
Sehyun looked up at the sky with her. The last of the sunlight was disappearing.
"It doesn't just say Saintess."
Yui paused.
"Saintess. Ally of the Hero."
"Ally of the Hero?"
"Yeah. And next to your name, Sehyun, it says Hero."
Yui took another sip of the terrible drink.
"The person I've been searching for ever since I got this ability. I figured if I came to the Academy, something would work out—pretty naive, looking back. I never expected to run into you this fast."
I guess destiny really is a thing.
The bitter smile on Yui's face looked somehow sad.
"I thought if I could at least meet another ally, something might change. Not that I'd solve anything right away—just that I might start to see what I should do next. Something like that."
"I came to the Academy thinking the same thing at first."
Sehyun smiled a little too.
"A nothing ability, but if I just got into the Academy, something would work out. That kind of naive thinking."
"Heh. So I'm grateful. I never thought you'd show up all at once like this."
Yui's expression brightened a little.
"Does your ability only show people's roles, though?"
Yui didn't answer Sehyun's question immediately. A short silence stretched between them.
"…No. I can see my own status too."
"Status?"
"Name, role, current physical condition—things like that. Put simply, you could call it a Status Window."
Yui raised her index finger and tapped lightly at empty air. Sehyun saw nothing.
"And only on my Status Window, separate instructions appear. You could call them quests."
"Is it okay to tell me that?"
"If it weren't okay, I wouldn't have said it."
Yui took another casual sip of her drink.
"The moment I revealed that you're the Hero, hiding just this much wouldn't mean anything."
"So what did the quest say?"
"Before I met you: 'Meet an ally other than the Hero and yourself.'"
"And now?"
They kept walking without stopping, deeper into the park—the kind of place no one would notice even if someone were there. A spot well suited for a secret meeting.
Yui stared into empty air for a moment.
"'Gather other allies with the Hero and overcome the crisis.'"
"…Crisis?"
"Yes. That's all it says. Very unhelpful."
Yui looked away from the air. The Status Window seemed to float a little in front of her face, roughly at eye level. Sehyun didn't bother voicing the guess.
"What does 'crisis' mean? Things like the classroom earlier?"
"No idea. I don't know either."
Yui shrugged.
"I get the feeling things like that might start happening more often. Just a feeling."
If the ability user herself didn't know, then she didn't know.
"That's a tough one…"
"You're just accepting this? Hearing a story like this for the first time?"
After listening, Sehyun's head actually felt clearer.
"It's definitely a strange story, and hard to swallow."
Sehyun looked at Yui.
"But I don't think everything you said is a lie. I'll believe you."
"…Really?"
"If you're going to argue that a story like this doesn't make sense—then people shooting fire or ice from their hands and manipulating electricity does make sense?"
Sehyun had lived at the Academy as an ability user since childhood. To him, the supernatural was not so different from the physics theories or cutting-edge inventions that people in the outside world struggled to understand.
"This is the Academy. If it's an ability, I can believe it."
"Okay."
Yui smiled with a face that looked considerably lighter.
"From now on, we're partners. Looks like God decided it that way."
"…But."
Sehyun wrinkled his nose.
"Don't you smell something burning?"
His eyes sharpened.
"This… smells like cigarette smoke."
Yui closed her eyes and focused on her sense of smell. After a few more steps she stopped. In front of her stood three students with cigarettes in their mouths.
One of the boys, spotting Sehyun and Yui, hurriedly shoved a small envelope from his hand into his pocket.
"The fuck are you two?!"
The boy at the front shouted.
"Haa…"
Yui drained the rest of her drink in one go and crushed the can.
"Could you move? We're just passing through."
Yui walked straight toward them without hesitation.
"What is this little shit? You not reading the room?"
The boy in front put a hand in his pocket. Sehyun, who had run into delinquents more than a few times during his long years at the Academy, understood the situation with perfect clarity. Unless the other side stepped aside, a fight was inevitable.
Distance to the opponents: roughly six meters. He needed to close it. Sehyun's ability only worked properly within five meters.
He loosened his fist inside his pocket and followed behind Yui. Now he was in range. The moment the other side moved, he would have no choice but to strike first.
"Hey, this—"
The instant Sehyun started to say something, the guy next to the one with his hand in his pocket charged first.
The moment he moved, Yui threw the crushed can straight at his face. While the boy reflexively covered his face, Yui kicked the arm of the one whose hand was still in his pocket. It was a roundhouse kick strong enough for even someone with no martial arts background to recognize. The blade he'd been holding clattered to the ground.
Without pulling her foot back, Yui drove it into the boy's side. He folded with a choked sound and went down hard.
The one who'd taken the can to the face settled into what looked like a boxing stance and took a step back. Yui closed the distance as if she had no intention of letting him go. The moment he extended his lead hand, Yui slipped back. His fist cut empty air, and she immediately drove in low. He threw a rear-hand counter, but Yui had already rotated her body under the punch. From a crouch so low she nearly touched the ground, her rear foot shot up. Her heel caught the boy under the chin.
Sehyun had witnessed street fights a few times, but he had never seen a bare-handed strike lift a person off the ground. The boy's body rose slightly, then toppled straight backward.
The remaining one stood frozen at the scene unfolding in front of him.
"Get lost."
Yui's voice was low and small. The boy flinched, then hauled up his fallen friends and fled. The sound of their footsteps cut off in the direction they'd gone—unnaturally fast.
"…You okay?"
"Totally fine."
Yui rolled her shoulders lightly, muttered something about still being usable, and started walking again. Sehyun followed.
"You used to train?"
"Mm. Competed a little? Looking back now, it's an old story."
Probably elementary or middle school. Sehyun felt a small, new fear that he would have to choose his words carefully with Yui from now on.
"From now on, pick your words carefully…"
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
Sehyun found himself unable to meet her eyes for no good reason.
"By the way."
Yui looked around.
"Doesn't it feel like there are no people? Not just a few—none."
As they walked, the two of them had passed through the park and come out onto the roadside. Just as Yui said, there was no one nearby. No car sounds. No distant laughter of students. All of it had vanished.
"Was the fog this thick today?"
As Sehyun said, the street was drowned in dense fog. Only a little while ago, the night sky had been clear.
"Something…"
"Shh!"
Yui, scanning the surroundings, suddenly clamped a hand over Sehyun's mouth.
"Mmph—!"
Sehyun reflexively grabbed her wrist.
"What are you—"
"Shh."
Yui's voice was trembling, faintly. The same hand that had dropped three people in an instant was trembling with it. Sehyun closed his mouth.
Yui was pointing at something, her face raw with fear. Sehyun followed her finger.
In the middle of the empty road stood a man in black clothes.
His face was pure white. More precisely, there was nothing that could be called a face. No eyes. No nose. No mouth. No ears. Only a white mass shaped like a human head.
And yet they knew.
That man.
That something.
Was looking straight at them.