Chapter 96

Breakdown X

Cheon Yo-hwa's ghost monster collection progressed quickly. By the end of summer vacation, her collection rate was already approaching 80%.

Victory was already assured.

The only problem was that every time a ghost was imprisoned in an hourglass (used as a substitute for a monster ball), the world seemed to become a bit more distorted.

“What? The world is shrinking?”

“Yes. It’s easier to show you directly.”

I took Cheon Yo-hwa on a flight.

It was a modified Savioa S-21, the seaplane flown by Porco Rosso, now with a backseat. Originally a Japanese anomaly, I brought it over whenever I felt bored.

“Wow, double wings! So cool!”

“You know a thing or two.”

“Hehe. Yes! My mom taught me to lavish praise if someone proudly shows off something that's actually quite mediocre!”

“...?”

The aircraft flew over Jeju Island and reached the East China Sea. Cheon Yo-hwa, who had been chattering excitedly, suddenly pointed at the horizon and exclaimed.

“Ahjussi! What is that?”

Where she pointed, a giant wall of fog loomed.

It was a fog so dense it could have been from the movie "The Mist." It covered the sea and sky entirely along the horizon.

“That is the boundary of the world.”

“B-Boundary?”

“I realized it not long ago. My guess is that every time you take control of a ghost from the Infinite Void, the world itself shrinks a little.”

“Hieeek…”

“Let’s get closer.”

Tr-tr-trr! The engine hiccuped.

My aircraft approached the 'fog wall.'

“Wow. You can't see anything...”

“I already tried entering it, but you can’t go through. It feels like hitting an invisible wall. A few days ago, we could go farther, but since you sealed another ghost, the range has shrunk to here.”

“Wow. But how does trade work? You order international deliveries all the time, but the news hasn't mentioned anything.”

“That’s the interesting part. Look.”

Sss—

A massive ship’s bow emerged from the fog. It was a container ship, gliding smoothly out of the fog wall’s edge.

“Eeeek?”

“See? Everything in this world, except for us, functions without any issues. It’s just within the 'fog wall’s' confines.”

“Uh, I'm a little confused... So, this world inside the fog wall is the only one that actually exists, but it’s made to look like the outside is functioning normally?”

“Probably.”

The aircraft skimmed the fog wall.

“This world is similar to the illusion created by the Infinite Void.”

The ghosts of the Hyakumonogatari that Cheon Yo-hwa was sealing weren't just separate anomalies. They were fragments of the Infinite Void.

Taking them from the Infinite Void was like taking parts of its existence.

“For a human, it's like taking away memories; for a computer, it's like stealing data. My interpretation is that the resources the Infinite Void uses to create this world are gradually depleting. Now, only the area around the Korean Peninsula remains.”

“I see...”

“It also proves that everything in this world is just shadows imitating true existence.”

“......”

Cheon Yo-hwa became quieter. Seeing such an anomaly was naturally overwhelming for people.

“...Let’s go back, ahjussi. It’s cold.”

“Wait a bit. There’s one more thing to show you. You’ll regret not seeing it.”

“...?”

“Now.”

I pointed to the sky.

The sun was setting. The sun descending in the west was likely not real, but an illusionary sphere visible only in this confined world. As the false sun tried to cross the fog wall, the sky and sea turned entirely red, stained by the sunset.

A short gasp came from the backseat.

“...It’s beautiful.”

The sunset, instead of a few scattered clouds, used the entire boundary of the world as its mirror. It was magnificent. The fog wall drank in the blood shed by the dying sun.

The western world was entirely sunset.

And within five minutes, the sun completely sank beyond the fog wall. The sunset disappeared as well.

Those who witnessed the sun's quiet suicide were left with a lingering feeling, like a vapor trail.

“Why does such a sunset occur? The fog wall isn't real fog, just an object.”

“Who knows? Even in this illusory world, the sunset on the fog wall is particularly unreal. But it’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“...Yes, very.”

“One illusion is merely a dream but dreaming within a dream is something we humans find beautiful.”

“......”

The engine roared. Cheon Yo-hwa remained silent on the way back to Baekhwa Girls’ High School, lost in thought.

She only spoke once we returned to the dormitory.

“...Thank you, ahjussi. I think I know which ghost I need to capture last.”

It was summer.

The cicadas in the trees fell and died. Anonymous birds and insects picked up their corpses scattered on the ground. In the slow, dying summer, the world was a crime scene of mass murder.

It was autumn.

Over the corpses that died in the summer, maple trees shed their blood-red leaves like shrouds. We promised to call this season autumn, this grand funeral.

And then.

“Delivery—”

I went to the school gate to receive the delivery food in a plastic bag.

The delivery man, who had probably priced his day's work, adjusted his sky-blue helmet and got on his motorcycle.

Brrrr—

The engine purred as the motorcycle slid onto the road outside the gate. And disappeared.

Beyond the fog wall.

“......”

The world was now the size of the school grounds.

Wherever I looked, the sky was wrapped in white fog. In the morning, the teachers’ cars slipped out of the fog wall, and in the evening, they vanished back into it.

A day later, the distance from here to there, from samsara to nirvana, was the size of the school playground.

The end of space. The stilling of time. There should be nothing there. All things appeared and disappeared silently on the surface of the water, splashing about.

For a moment, the water droplets splashed by a child’s hand were the weight of existence. In each splash, the sunset of the world was embedded.

I stood silently for a while, staring out the student council room window, looking at the white glass wall separating me from nirvana.

“How many are left now?”

“Two.”

It was winter.

Snow fell for the first time. Since this world was created in summer, this snow was the first snow.

Thud, the snowflakes hit the window. The quietest knock. Looking out, the view was already entirely white with snow fog.

The world's area was now the size of a 10-pyeong studio apartment.

The universe’s size had shrunk to the student council room, where two people barely breathed.

-......

-Groan... groan... groan......

-Oooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.

Clatter. Occasionally, the sound of ghosts thrashing came faintly from the shelves. The remaining space of the world, covered in fog, was confined within 98 hourglasses.

The last remaining ghost.

Cheon Yo-hwa stared at it.

“You must obey me.”

-Sorry, but that kind of brainwashing doesn’t work on me.

The same voice as Cheon Yo-hwa's.

The voice came from the full-length mirror opposite her. In the mirror sat a being with the same hairstyle and school uniform as Cheon Yo-hwa, sitting properly in a chair.

-You know. No matter how much you try to brainwash me, it ends up as you ordering yourself to obey.

A doppelgänger.

An anomaly that could only live as someone’s shadow. That was the last fragment of the Infinite Void left by Cheon Yo-hwa.

“Why are you me? You’re just a ghost trapped in a mirror. I’m outside. You can't move around, but I'm free.”

-Ah. Nowadays, do people call moving around in a 10-pyeong world freedom? Sorry. I didn't realize. I thought the freest place on Earth was a prison.

“Are you stupid? A 10-pyeong room in prison would be a luxury hotel.”

-Ah, right. Enjoy your 5-star hotel stay. So jealous.

“I don’t like you.”

-I don’t like you either. We’re the same after all.

Cheon Yo-hwa sighed. Maybe it was time to intervene.

“Take a break and have some coffee.”

“Oh! Did you make it yourself, ahjussi, instead of ordering it? Wow. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. It’s my little hobby.”

Among my many hobbies, being a barista was my favorite.

Nothing was more satisfying than perfectly capturing someone’s taste and bombarding them with caffeine.

After many trials, it was clear that Cheon Yo-hwa’s tongue struck a balance between the ‘coffee should be bitter’ camp and the ‘coffee should be sweet’ camp.

Espresso? Is this coffee? It’s herbal medicine. Macchiato? It’s sugar water.

Cheon Yo-hwa declared the great unification of left and right camps and founded a new party.

Naturally, she was doomed to be criticized by both sides, but like all third-party advocates, she brimmed with baseless confidence. The party’s name was ‘Double Espresso Cream Latte.’

Ice cream-like cream. Thinly sliced chocolate on top. Chocolate with at least 70% and less than 90% cacao. She mixed the cream while drinking, so a straw or spoon was necessary. Done.

“It’s delicious...”

Cheon Yo-hwa smiled with the world's happiest expression.

“When coffee is made well, it feels so fulfilling... Ahjussi, can you make this for me every morning? Lately, if I don’t have your coffee, my head feels foggy by lunchtime.”

“Thanks for the high praise. I’d love to, but it’s not easy.”

“Why?”

“Here, civilization is intact, so it’s easy to get beans, cream, and chocolate. Once we return to reality, I can only make it occasionally.”

“Hing. Another reason I don’t want to go back to reality...”

-Hey. How good is it? Can I have a cup too, ahjussi?

“Shut up.”

Cheon Yo-hwa snarled.

The room’s temperature dropped a notch.

“Before I really kill you.”

-......

Clatter, clatter, clatter.

The 98 hourglasses on the shelf shook slightly. In the center of the table, the stainless electric kettle boiled water, trembling.

Hooo. Cheon Yo-hwa blew on the coffee-warmed breath, quietly restoring the room’s temperature.

“Thank you, ahjussi.”

“Hm? Making coffee is my hobby...”

“Not just the coffee. Everything.”

“......”

“I know you have many secrets. But one thing is certain. No matter what happens to our school, you could have ignored it and left us alone.”

Snowstorm raged.

“I sometimes imagine what would have happened without you. With time to spare, I often indulge in such fantasies.”

“I see.”

“I’ve been afraid of ghosts since I was young.”

From the white fog, white snow emerged and struck the white window. After striking, the snowflakes were swept by the wind and disappeared beyond the fog. They existed because they were white, and they disappeared because they were white.

Existence was a white flower (白花).

“My father is like the leader of a cult. Actually, he is a leader.”

“......”

“Did you know? Our house is really big. There’s a facility like a church in the basement. Hundreds of people gather there monthly, chanting strange incantations... My family name is Yeongyang Cheon, but my father insisted I use the character Cheon (天) for 'heaven' both at home and school. Weird, right?”

“......”

“Ahjussi, you saw those strange talismans at our school, right?”

“Yes. I saw them.”

“This school is run by our family. The chairman is a relative, but it’s practically my father’s. Most of the kids here are from the cult.”

“......”

“So when the sky turned red and ghosts appeared, I just... somehow accepted it. Ah, it’s divine punishment.”

Snow stuck to the window, blooming into snow flowers repeatedly.

Existence was a white flower (白花).

“But I couldn’t let the kids die.”

“......”

“This is probably my family's fault. I don’t know how it happened, having half-run away, but still... I’m the student council president. They called me ‘lady’ in the cult. I have to take responsibility.”

In a 10-pyeong room enveloped in the scent of white flowers, Cheon Yo-hwa’s story flowed.

Footnotes:

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