Chapter 13: Chapter 12

The rest of the day’s lessons were interesting, and Yuuji enjoyed the peaceful school atmosphere with the light chatter of his classmates.

He couldn’t help but wonder what his life would have been like if he’d grown up this way; the brutal deathmatches replaced with playground scraps, lonely pilgrimages turned to goofing off with friends, and bitter goodbyes becoming young love.

He’d missed out on so much there was to see of life, but it wasn’t too late to start now. The girl who sat beside him had shown him as much.

“...And looking at the time, that’ll be it for today. Let’s see… Hibiki, Dr Natsumi has asked if you could see her before you leave, please. And Hema, wake Ji-Hye up on your way out.”
“Yes sir!”

Hibiki barely managed a nod as her face paled, and she turned to Yuuji wide-eyed, who could only return a quiet ‘Good luck!’ to her worries.

He felt bad for her, certainly, but if they showed up together he’d just be asking for trouble, and the thought of what schemes the sly beauty behind those doors might have been cooking up put him on edge.

Instead, he had other plans for the afternoon.

After being gently shaken awake, Ji-Hye groaned and stirred for the first time since they’d arrived at the classroom. With the others now filtering out of the room, it was only the two of them left, so Yuuji walked over to her with a sigh.

“You really did sleep through the whole day.”
“Mmm… Yuu!!”

Still half asleep, she stretched her arms out towards him again with an innocent smile, but he had tactically stayed just out of her reach.

“I’m not carrying you anywhere.”
“Coffee~! Yuu~!”
“I’m not getting you coffee either!”

The world was surely doomed if one of the most advanced technological researchers had the mental process of a toddler.

She puffed up her cheeks and pulled her hands back, before yawning and pushing away from her desk. Stretching steadily upwards as she rose to her feet, her slender arms lifted up her jacket lightly, revealing a glimpse of pale white skin above her waist which caught Yuuji off guard.

He blushed and turned towards the outer window, quickly trying to erase the memory from his mind as he coughed awkwardly.

“...Are you busy tonight?”
“No~pe! I saved it for some Yuu time!”

He didn’t bother to ask what ‘Yuu time’ was supposed to be, but instead continued as if he hadn’t heard a thing.

“Do you work in the academy labs? Or are you back at the dorms?”
“It’s at the dorms, but I have a special room. First, coffee time~!”
“Right, right.”

She drifted slowly through the hallway beside him like a ghost as they made their way to the canteen. Grabbing an iced drink from the vending machine outside, she quickly cracked it open with practised movements and drank it all in a single gulp.

“I am reborn! Ji-Hye’s HP and MP were restored to maximum!”
“...Why did coffee restore HP…?”

Her leisurely and easygoing atmosphere had disappeared, and she was like a whole new person. With a fire burning in her eyes she crushed the empty can and threw it into the bins beside them, being sure to add extra dramatic flair as it rattled noisily.

“Don’t worry about it! Coffee works in mysterious ways. I’m all charged up and ready to go!”
“...Ready to go for what exactly?”
“Didn’t I say it earlier? It’s Yuu time! I finally get to show you around the workshop now we’re able to meet in person again.”

She stuck to him like glue as they walked, making it somewhat difficult to move, but he matched her pace well.

Even after chasing away her sleepiness, she had dark circles under her eyes, but he’d never seen her without them, so it was almost part of her trademark look. Snow white skin and lack of sleep caused her to have a somewhat zombie-like impression, but with her natural beauty and gentle features, she gained an entrancing charm that was hard to ignore.

She was the closest thing he’d had to a long-lasting friend while growing up, as he would often hear her voice while out hunting demons, and it would be welcome company. It wasn’t exactly the time for small talk so it was rare to have a real conversation together, but he soon felt she was someone he could trust with his life.

They had met in person once or twice before, but only in passing, and they were very young at the time. The girl who was raving enthusiastically about cutting-edge technologies before she’d even reached her tenth birthday left an impression, after all.

“It’s just down these steps here.”
“I should have guessed your room would be the basement.”
“Hey! It’s got good built-in soundproofing!”

Stepping inside the thick metal doorway that looked more like the entrance to a sci-fi spaceship, the view beyond did not disappoint.

It was a sprawling nest of cables and electronics, with fascinating machines of peak engineering whirring busily at every turn. Prototypes of bizarre technologies never before seen littered the worktables as he stood in awe at the entrance.

“What the hell… Do you moonlight as a crime-fighting superhero?”
“Well, it’s to fight demons, so I guess you’re not too far off?”

He stepped inside as the door shut behind him, eyes darting from left to right as he tried to take in the wonders he was seeing.

*...*

The pitter-patter of little footsteps scurrying came from the machines in front of them as something flickered on the monitor, before the sound grew louder and louder, coming from the half-connected cable below their feet.

Suddenly, a bundle of fur leapt out at Ji-Hye, wrapping around her neck and shoulders in a flash, nearly knocking off the headphones still hanging on her collar.

“Pajeon! I missed you too!”

She hugged and cuddled the creature as it squeaked with joy, rolling over in her hands in excitement.

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“Haha, little Jeon, it’s been a while.”

Hearing his voice, the critter froze in its tracks, and its tiny little ears perked up. With a twitching nose, it turned to face him, before rocketing over to greet Yuuji with a fluffy embrace as well.

“Did you get softer than before? This manifestation really is impressive.”
“Naturally. Not just his physical form, his performance output has increased as well.”

“...At this rate no country is safe.”
“They don’t have much interesting to see anyway! Plus most of their really juicy stuff is on isolated networks I can’t access.”

Ji-Hye pouted and held her arm out, which Pajeon quickly scampered onto and sat neatly on her shoulder.

It was a ferret with a sable coat of chocolate and gentle beige, and its big brown eyes looked like they peeked through a dark fuzzy bandit mask.

Its fur was bristly but smooth, and its whiskers twitched when it sniffed the air, but it seemed to have an intelligence to its movements: it certainly wasn’t a normal animal.

“He’s been helping me run some outputs while I was gone. Mostly boring routine tests, but they still need to be done.”

Hearing this, he jumped off her shoulder, straight towards the open end of a cable leading to the main computer… and his head stuck right in.

It was a bizarre sight as it surely wouldn’t fit, but the little creature scrabbled its back legs, gradually squeezing into the impossibly tight cable fit only for plugging into a machine.

Pitter patter pitter patter

In just a few moments, Pajeon’s beady eyes and button nose flickered onto the monitor, before multitudes of windows showing charts and tables filled with data began to appear behind his furry ears.

“...It’s my first time seeing it in person.”
“Oh, that’s right! I guess he just moved wirelessly before.”
“Isn’t it quicker that way?”
“Sure! But this is way cuter. It’s like he has his own little network of passages to scrabble around.”

Pajeon jumped around with excitement on the monitor, seemingly confirming her theory to the sound of ‘Kyaa! Cute!!’ from Ji-Hye.

“I was wondering where he was, I figured he was just in your phone or somewhere else nearby.”
“Spirit manifestations aren’t allowed on campus without permission. Well, Pajeon’s an exception since we run Helios’ network, but Sid’s wolf would be crossing the line.”
“Sid?”
“Oh right, you probably haven’t met her yet. Sidheag’s at the front of the class, she has a manifestation spirit as well.”

The class wasn’t too large, but Yuuji still hadn’t gotten around to properly meeting everyone yet. His time already had been so eventful that it’d somewhat slipped his mind, but he made a mental note to introduce himself and get to know the others properly as soon as he could.

“...Wait a minute, you run the network for all of Helios?”
“Who else is going to do it? And even if they did have someone else to manage it, Pajeon and I would crack it immediately anyway.”
“You know, if you two didn’t try to break into every confidential data bank the first chance you got, you probably wouldn’t have needed to be sent here for safety.”
“The moment Pajeon manifested, that wasn’t possible. The first-ever ‘Logic Based Spirit’ would be too valuable for any country to miss out on.”

Sitting down at a wide desk, she shrugged nonchalantly as if it didn’t concern her while a piping hot cup of coffee appeared from a conveyor belt to her side almost by magic; though the sudden return of Pajeon seemed to explain it as he jumped into her lap and curled up comfortably.

“That’s true, I suppose. I’ve heard of tests run on manifested spirits that have electric or lightning attributes, but no other cases of computer integration abilities have been documented yet.”
“Pajeon is just that special!”

She ruffled his fur as he spiralled around gleefully, exposing his fluffy golden underbelly.

“You are just that special. He’s your spirit.”
“That’s just splitting hairs.”

*Ping!*

A light flashed from beside her as she quickly spun around in her chair to look at the main monitor.

“What’s that light for?”
“It’s a stock alert for a limited edition figurine I’ve been waiting to purchase! Pajeon, all hands on deck!”

The ferret scrambled behind her chair and only moments later appeared on screen again, frantically navigating through windows with his tiny paws. Ji-Hye cheered him on as he went, chanting ‘Buy it! Buy it!’ as if she was possessed.

“...I’m leaving.”
“Ahh! No! Yuu, I have something for you before you go!”

Barely managing to drag her eyes away from the rapidly changing screen, she pulled open a nearby drawer and produced two sleek black objects which she held out towards him.

“You and Hibiki don’t have any personal phones right? I made one for you a while back and copied the design for Hibiki too once I heard she was coming. They’re custom, so just let me know if you need it tweaked at all.”

“Ji-Hye… this is nice. Thank you.”
“Oh, and rest assured I won’t be using it to spy on you or anything. Since I control the network I can already see if you’re visiting any lewd sites whether you use the phone for it or not!”
“That’s a huge invasion of privacy! And don’t just assume that was my first thought!”
“I’ll see you again soon, Yuu! My stamina is almost recharged, so I can get back to grinding…”

Pajeon’s bidding war had been relegated to a side monitor as Ji-Hye entered her own little world once more, spouting lines that Yuuji simply couldn’t follow, so he graciously accepted her gifts and stepped out of the workshop.

The moment the heavy door closed behind him the mechanical whirring and hectic click-clacking of the keyboard turned to silence, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

He was happy to see she was well. Almost too well, if he was honest, but it had been a fun afternoon. Even if it was extremely exhausting.

“I’m going to bed.”

He decided it was best to turn in early for the night.

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