Chapter 21
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Spirit Photography
-----------------------------------------------------------------
When I came to my senses, I was in front of the annex room door.
I stood there blankly, recalling what had just happened.
‘Phew.’
The sensation of my neck being torn off was still vivid.
I shuddered and fumbled at my neck.
It was still safely attached.
“Why the long face? You look like you just died and came back to life.”
“...It’s just your imagination.”
I was so damn lucky I’d saved. Wiping away the cold sweat that was streaming down my face, I opened the annex room door.
The same scene as before unfolded.
I stepped into the middle of the empty classroom.
I thoroughly inspected the camera sitting alone on the table.
[It's a ridiculously large film camera. Various contraptions are attached to it.]
I examined it for a while but found nothing out of the ordinary. Aside from being intimidatingly large, it was just a normal camera.
“...It’s just a camera.”
It only had a single shutter button for taking pictures. There were no other functions.
‘That’s strange.’
I definitely took a picture with this camera.
A funeral portrait disguised as a graduation photo came out, I tore it to shreds, and then I died.
My upper body was ripped apart exactly like the torn photo. It was as if the 'me' in the picture and the real me were one and the same.
But the camera had no special mechanism. It was utterly bewildering.
“Sit down. I'll take a souvenir photo for you.”
Dayeon casually approached the camera.
After fiddling with it, she gestured for me to sit.
I followed her gesture and sat down in front of the camera, a bit dazed. It was the exact same situation as before I died.
Dayeon, as if she'd seen this done somewhere, raised her hand high to give a signal.
“I'm taking it. Say cheese.”
“...”
-*Click!*
As Dayeon set off the flash, a brilliant light burst forth.
The light was so bright it stung. For the second time, I squeezed my tingling eyes shut.
“All done.”
A device attached to the side of the camera whirred to life and spat out the film like a card.
[You have acquired a Graduation Photo.]
As time passed, my image slowly appeared on the film.
“This came out pretty well.”
“Not at all.”
It wasn't taken mid-sentence like before I died, so my posture was straight.
But it looked like she hadn't focused on the subject, as the picture was completely blurry.
Thanks to that, my face was so blurred and distorted it was unrecognizable.
How do you even manage to take a picture like this?
I was about to complain, but Dayeon dashed in front of the camera as if fleeing.
She plopped down on the chair and swung her legs back and forth.
“Now it's my turn. Make sure I look as good as I do in real life. Got it?”
“How can you be so shameless?”
I soon collected myself. All that mattered was getting the photo, right?
It didn't really matter how the picture turned out.
I placed my hand on the camera, intending to get it over with quickly.
“Alright, I'm taking it.”
I brought my eye to the camera lens. Through it, I could see Dayeon sitting primly in the chair.
She was making a V-sign with both hands, holding them up by her face.
“Okay, take it.”
“This is a graduation photo, you know.”
“Yeah, so?”
“You're supposed to sit still and pose formally.”
Normally, a photo like this should just be a straight, proper bust shot, like an ID photo.
But Dayeon paid no mind and kept her V-signs.
She didn't look like she had any intention of lowering her arms.
“Can't you just take it like this?”
“...Do whatever you want.”
“Cheese.”
Dayeon stubbornly kept her hands up. Shaking my head, I finally operated the camera.
I focused carefully to prevent the photo from blurring and pressed the shutter.
-*Click!*
The picture was taken successfully. The attached device activated and ejected the film.
“Did it come out well?”
“Well, we'll see when it develops.”
We waited quietly for the film to develop.
But no matter how much time passed, the film remained pitch black.
“Is the camera broken? What's wrong with it?”
I checked the camera parts for any problems. Nothing was tangled or broken; it was perfectly fine.
“...Take another one. I think there was a problem with the film.”
Dayeon placed the undeveloped film on the table and went back in front of the camera.
Seeing her shamelessly strike the V-pose again, it was clear she was determined to be photographed that way.
“Alright, I'm taking it.”
-*Click!*
The flash went off, and the second picture was taken. Dayeon didn't even blink at the intense light.
This time, the camera worked properly as if the picture was taken correctly. A faint shape started appearing on the dark film.
“Ah, it's coming out.”
“Must have been a malfunction earlier.”
We waited for the film to develop and watched Dayeon's image slowly emerge.
In the photo, Dayeon had a blank expression while making double peace signs.
It was the kind of picture that left you wondering where to even begin your critique.
“I guess a photo just can't capture all of my beauty.”
“I doubt that.”
“You should try being more honest with your feelings.”
“Stop saying weird things.”
Anyway, that concluded the photoshoot.
Of course, these weren't ordinary graduation photos.
On both my photo and Dayeon's, two black lines were drawn diagonally across the top.
What we had just taken were funeral portraits.
“We can use these photos when we die.”
“But you can't die even if you wanted to.”
“...That's true.”
Dayeon spun around on the spot and then handed me the photo she'd just taken.
“Here. It's not like I'll ever use it, so you can have it. You can look at it whenever you're bored. Just don't do anything weird with it behind my back.”
“That will never, ever happen.”
I couldn't understand what she expected me to do with it.
Still, I took the photo just in case.
[You have acquired Dayeon's Photo.]
It wasn't to look at whenever I was bored, as she suggested, but to be prepared for anything.
You never know, it might come in handy somewhere.
“By the way, what are we supposed to do now?”
We took the photos as instructed in the guide, but nothing happened.
I expected a hidden area to appear, but there wasn't even an item, let alone a secret room.
I was staring intently at the film, wondering if there was a code written on it, when...
“Look at this.”
“Huh?”
Dayeon tapped the table where the camera sat. At her fingertip was the discarded film.
It was the film that hadn't developed due to the camera malfunction.
“What, did it finally develop?”
“It's a picture that's even weirder than that.”
Puzzled, I checked the film. Dayeon in the photo looked just as she had when it was taken. But she wasn't alone.
Behind Dayeon, who was making double peace signs, stood some woman.
With long, disheveled hair, she was glaring at Dayeon as if she wanted to kill her.
“...What the hell.”
“Weird, right?”
No such woman was there when we took the picture.
And even if she had been, there's no way I wouldn't have noticed.
“Was there someone else in the annex room with us?”
“I'll check.”
Dayeon spun around in place. Then she spoke immediately.
“Nope.”
“I see...”
Right now, there was no one else in the annex room. Which meant the woman in the photo wasn't a real person.
“Does that mean it's a ghost?”
“A ghost?”
It was what you'd call a spirit photograph.
Of course, most spirit photos are fakes or simply errors from a bad shot.
But this school at dawn was different.
Anyone could see that was clearly a ghost.
The tangled, wild hair, the unfocused eyes, and even the white mourning clothes she wore.
She was the very picture of a classic maiden ghost.
“This is a bad omen. Should I tear it up?”
“No, you don't need to do that...”
As Dayeon made a motion to tear the photo, I barely managed to stop her. It was a heartfelt warning born from experience.
A chill ran down my neck just thinking about it.
The pain of my flesh being torn without any resistance was no small thing.
The mere thought made me grimace.
“To get rid of a ghost, I think we'll need to use something other than physical force.”
Based on my experiences so far, it wasn't something that would disappear with simple brute force.
We had to find the hidden solution somewhere in this annex room and use it.
“But there's nothing to search, even if we wanted to.”
I glanced around the annex room.
Aside from the camera, it was completely empty.
You couldn't even call this an investigation.
“Then maybe there's a hint in the photos.”
“The photos?”
I opened my item window and took out the picture of myself. And in a corner, I discovered the presence of someone who wasn't there before.
“...There's a ghost in this one, too.”
In my first photo, a ghost had been added at some point.
It was the same with the other photo.
The last photo we took, of Dayeon, also showed the maiden ghost.
Dayeon stared at the maiden ghost in the picture, looking fascinated.
“Heeh, who's prettier? This woman or me?”
“Is that really what you should be saying right now...?”
Anyway, this definitively proved the ghost's existence.
The fact that we could only see it in photos was a bit of a drawback, though.
‘The problem is how to get rid of it.’
To call it a puzzle, the given items and clues were ridiculously scarce.
The only clues we had were three photos.
I was at an impasse, forced to rely on intuition to solve the puzzle.
First, hoping something would turn up, I just stared at the ghost in the three photos.
As I switched between the photos, staring so hard my eyeballs could have popped out, I noticed a subtle difference.
“The position is different, isn't it?”
The ghost's position in each photo was slightly, faintly different. I immediately laid out the three photos in order.
Sure enough, when compared in sequence, the difference became clear.
In my photo, the ghost was at a slight distance, but in the other photos, it was noticeably closer to Dayeon.
“The ghost is getting closer.”
“We should probably take one more picture.”
Before I could even finish my sentence, Dayeon ran to the camera and turned it on.
“Get ready to pose.”
She showed her passionate desire to be the photographer. I was just dumbfounded. Reluctantly, I went in front of the camera and sat in a formal pose.
“Hurry up and take it.”
“Cheese.”
-*Click!*
The flash went off, and the film was ejected.
I waited anxiously for the photo to develop.
‘I'm not going to die, am I?’
Soon, the photo slowly developed, revealing my image. As expected, the ghost was there again, right by my side.
Maybe because it was the fourth photo. It was definitely closer than in the very first one.
Moreover, it was holding something in its hand.
“A kitchen knife?”
The ghost was holding the knife in a reverse grip, aiming it at me. It was clearly in a swinging posture.
“That looks brutal.”
“...You can say that again.”
“Don't worry, I think we can just use this one as your funeral portrait.”
Dayeon poked at the photo of me, just moments away from being stabbed by the knife.
Truly, it was the least comforting encouragement ever. I forced myself to ignore her and studied the ghost.
The ghost in the photo was aiming the knife at me.
If we took one more picture, I would definitely be stabbed by that knife and die.
‘Because if the me in the photo gets hurt, the real me gets hurt too.’
I was sure of it, having experienced it firsthand when I tore the photo.
If this continues, I'm dead.
So I had to find a way to dodge the incoming knife and get rid of the ghost.
But the ghost was hiding in a photograph, a place without physical substance, so there was nothing I could do.
‘It's not like I can just grab the ghost out of the photo and beat it up...’
I muttered absently, then paused.
Grab the ghost and beat it up?
I mulled over the words I'd said so casually.
And I came up with a hypothesis.
‘What if it's not just me, but the ghost is also linked to the photos?’
Wouldn't it be possible to hit the ghost, at least indirectly?
It was a logic that wasn't easy to accept, but it didn't seem impossible either.
After assessing the situation, I immediately called out to Dayeon.
“Get ready to take a picture.”
“For a funeral?”
“No, not that. I'm going to count down from three, so take the picture on my signal.”
With that, I quickly sat down on the chair in front of the camera.
I glanced at the photo to figure out the ghost's current position.
Now, all preparations were complete.
I raised my hand high to give the signal.
Three, two, one.
I counted down with my fingers, and as I folded my index finger,
“You fucking bitch!!”
I threw a punch into the empty air.
-*Click!*
Dayeon captured the moment perfectly, pressing the shutter right as I threw the punch.
A moment later, the camera made a loud noise and spat out the film.
“Did it work?”
Half hopeful, half worried, I carefully checked the film. The photo slowly developed, revealing the scene from moments before.
In the photo, the ghost hadn't even had a chance to stab with the knife; it had been struck squarely by my fist and was flying through the air.
“It worked...!”
The maiden ghost's caved-in face and her slender body flying through the air were dynamically depicted in the photograph.
“This camera has great performance.”
-*Crash*
Upon successfully defeating the ghost, the camera shattered, sending fragments flying everywhere.
Something gleamed amidst the broken camera parts.
[You have acquired the School Store Key.]