"This is..."
"Point... Zero."
Koru's eyes darted toward a shadow that slipped from one classroom into another. It moved too fast for a normal human. His eyes immediately glowed a pale blue as his glasses reflected sharp light. He gritted his teeth.
"There's a corrupted soul! Prepare!!"
Nki panicked but quickly reached up and yanked her red thread from her hair. She wrapped it around her hand like a ribboned gauntlet.
"But I haven't learned anything yet!" she cried out, her voice trembling.
"It's not time for that just—"
Koru's words were cut off as he turned toward her and that's when he saw it.
A barrage.
Dozens, hundreds of dark pencils, floating eerily in the air, began to spin violently like drills. The grinding noise they made echoed like a swarm of angry insects, and within an instant, they launched toward them.
Koru threw his arm up, stepping in front of Enix. A blue barrier flashed into existence, blocking the spinning projectiles. On the other side, Nki was also shielded by the same glowing shield, her red thread pulsing, turning faintly blue.
Enix's eyes widened. "What...?"
That's when they heard it.
A laugh.
Soft.
Shrill.
Wrong.
They turned, and what they saw made their breath stop cold.
A boy, around the size of a middle schooler, stood at the end of the hallway.
But he wasn't human.
His neck was twisted completely backward, the bones jutting from the skin like broken ivory branches. His eyes were missing, just hollow sockets dripping with black sludge. The skin was pale grey and stretched unnaturally thin, some parts hanging like melted wax. The lower jaw was fractured, making his smile crooked and open too wide. From his knees, the bones had pierced outward, sharp and bloodstained.
"W-what the...?" Enix whispered, frozen in place.
Nki couldn't even speak, her eyes locked on the horrific creature before her.
Koru's glasses flared again as a leather book with glowing words appeared in front of him midair, flipping pages by itself.
"I need time! Nki, help out—!"
"I'll... try!" Nki said, swallowing her fear.
The boy opened his twisted mouth even wider, an unnatural cracking noise echoing through the hall. From his throat, a long black rope slithered out, the top curled into a noose.
Nki's feet rooted in place. Her breath caught.
"Don't freeze! Focus, Nki!" Koru barked, his eyes not leaving the book. "Try to use your power!"
Her mind surged. And suddenly, she remembered.
Her grandfather, in a shrine beneath a mountain. He was dancing, his feet steady, his back hand raised in rhythm. He spun once, then punched the air in a fluid motion.
Nki didn't think.
She moved.
One step forward, spin, hand curled into a fist.
"HYAAAH!"
She struck the air.
From her fist, five glowing blue birds burst out with a brilliant cry, streaking like arrows toward the boy.
The boy's rope swung, catching one bird and ripping it clean in half. The others swarmed toward him, but with a sharp shriek, dozens of pencils erupted from the ground beneath him like spikes, stabbing each of the birds with perfect precision. The birds vanished in flickers of fading light.
Then the boy screamed.
"PLEASE! Don't bully me!!!"
His voice was distorted, broken, half sobbing, half monstrous.
Then he vanished.
"Where'd he go!?" Nki cried out, spinning around.
Enix stood frozen, staring at her. In his head, a single thought pounded.
("Nki's fighting alone... what should I do? What can I... do...?")
Koru's book finally vanished in a flash. He looked up sharply.
"It's a 2-star corrupted soul! Its core is hidden in the bathroom, end of the hallway!"
"Huh?! Where?" Nki asked in panic.
Suddenly, a blue zigzag line of light sparked out of Koru's head and streaked down the hallway like a glowing string leading to the bathroom door at the very end, and only Nki could see it.
"That's the way?!" Nki gasped.
Nki didn't wait. She sprinted forward, chasing the light.
But before she could make it—
The boy reappeared, right in front of her, grinning with that crooked, shattered smile.
"Please, it hurts... Don't bully me..." he whispered.
Pencils erupted from the ground again, surrounding her.
"Shit!" she gasped.
Then Koru came flying behind her. He was running on the wall at a slanted angle, defying gravity through sheer speed.
From his coat, he pulled a small glass bottle filled with yellow glowing liquid.
"Divine Potion!!"
He hurled it toward her. As it flew, the bottle exploded in midair, showering the corrupted soul in glowing droplets.
SSSSSSSSSS!!!
The boy screamed, his skin steaming, cracking apart where the drops hit.
"IT HURTS!! IT HURTS!!!"
Koru landed beside Nki and grabbed her hand.
"GO!!" he shouted.
He spun her with force and threw her forward past the soul.
The boy screamed again and turned toward Koru.
A pencil appeared in front of Koru's face. But before he could dodge—
WHACK!!
A noose caught Koru by the ankle and slammed him into the floor.
But he rolled midair and landed with his hands, flipping up safely.
His breath was sharp. He was buying time.
Nki didn't look back. She kept running. The end of the hallway—the bathroom door—was just ahead.
She was almost there.
Just as Nki neared the bathroom door, something shot out from the front wall.
A black rope, as thick as a fist, lunged straight toward her throat with horrifying speed, its noose-shaped end twisting midair to lock around her neck.
"NKI!!" Enix screamed, panic surging through his voice.
The soul boy's head snapped toward Koru and Enix. In a sudden barrage, he launched a wave of pencils, sharp and spinning like drills.
Koru's instincts kicked in. He shoved Enix hard to the side, pinning him against the wall just as the pencils rained down. Twisting his body, Koru flipped and dodged in a blur, narrowly avoiding the attack.
But one pencil scraped just past Enix's cheek.
A shallow, clean cut.
Zzzzt—!!
A sound like electricity buzzing echoed faintly.
Tiny red lightning particles flickered from the fresh scar, crackling along the skin with unnatural light.
The world stilled.
Koru froze.
The Soul boy froze.
Even Nki turned mid-run, eyes wide.
That pressure.
Like standing inside a mountain before it collapsed.
The very air warped around Enix for a moment. Every cell in their bodies screamed with warning.
"Ouch!" Enix gasped, holding his cheek.
Both Koru and the soul boy jumped back, making distance from Enix.
The rope that was about to strangle Nki halted midair, twitching like it had been paralyzed by fear.
"It's my chance!" she shouted, eyes burning with determination.
She pivoted and dashed into the men's bathroom with all her strength.
The soul boy let out an inhuman shriek behind her, his cracked voice warping.
"NOOOOOO!!"
The rope lunged after her, but—
SHINK!!
A silver knife whirled through the air. Koru had thrown it straight from his belt. It sliced through the rope cleanly, sending the noose spiraling backward in midair.
"NKI, DO IT!!" Koru yelled, now standing beside Enix, breathing heavily.
Inside the bathroom, the air was thick with shadow. The smell of old water, dust, and something rotting filled her nose. She followed the glowing zigzag light to the second last stall.
With a burst of strength, Nki kicked the door open.
Her heart stopped.
Inside... hanging from a cracked pipe, she saw the shadow of a young boy, his size no older than middle school. The noose tightened around his neck. His body flickered between transparent and corporeal, as if shifting between two worlds.
Below him...
A glowing pencil stood perfectly upright, its body pulsing with red light.
The core.
Nki didn't hesitate. She rushed forward, grabbed the pencil.
And with a scream, she snapped it in half.
CRACK—!!!
The effect was immediate.
Back in the hallway, the soul boy staggered back, twitching uncontrollably.
His smile twisted in unnatural angles.
His skin started melting, running like wax down a candle.
His bones cracked and twisted the wrong way, his empty eye sockets shrieking with wind. His mouth opened wider than humanly possible as ropes burst from it, each one snapping midair.
Pencils launched around him in panic randomly, like he was losing control.
His neck rotated endlessly, spinning like a broken doll's.
Finally—
He looked at them with his melting face, a quiet, desperate voice escaping from that hollow, dead throat.
"Please don't... bully me..."
Then his head split down the center. His entire body collapsed into ash, and a soft voice—gentle, innocent—whispered.
"Thank you."
The hallway shimmered.
Color returned.
Sound returned.
The air flowed again.
And the lights flickered back on.
Students bustled through the corridor as if nothing had happened. Conversations resumed, laughter echoed, and the ticking of the once-stopped wall clock now resumed, ticking forward without a care.
Koru let out a sigh, wiping his brow.
"She did it..."
Nki stepped out from the bathroom, her hands slightly shaking but her smile wide.
"It's over."
Just then—
Several boys were standing at urinals, staring at her in pure horror.
One slowly turned his head mid pee.
Another dropped his phone.
The third screamed.
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
"WHY IS A GIRL IN HERE?!"
Nki blinked.
Her eye twitched.
Then she screamed louder than all of them.
"AAAAHHHHHHHHH I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS STILL OCCUPIED!!!"
She turned and sprinted out of the bathroom at top speed, face redder than a tomato.
Koru burst out laughing. Enix just stood there... stunned.