“…ghost.”

“Hm?”

“…out.”

“Why? There is something that you don’t want me to see again? Are the bullies going to come again? Don’t worry, as long as you show some guts, I won’t hurt them!”

Mir shook her head. “…clothes.”

She raised her gym clothes. Looking at the gym clothes in her hand, the ghost understood. They were in changing room. Mir held the gym clothes in her hand. That could only mean one thing.

“Ah, sorry for being inconsiderate. Well, I’m not a male, you know? Isn’t it alright to show your body to a non-male living thing? No, I'm not even a living thing... just think that I am a cat or a pebble… ahaha, I was joking, joking.” With a laugh, the ghost floated away from Mir.

Mir sighed. She really didn’t know what to do with the ghost. The ghost was following her closely. It also helped her when she was bullied earlier. But it also threatened her to do something she didn’t want to do. Well, she thought that it was doing it for her sake though, so she didn’t complain about it. Only… it could be said that the ghost might be the first friend she ever had. And for someone without a friend from the beginning of her life, she didn’t know what to do to her new first friend.

She changed her clothes quickly and walked out of the changing room. The ghost was not in front of the changing room, so she looked left and right. But she couldn’t see it. Thinking that the ghost had gone, she walked without looking for it… was not happen. As she planned to go without the ghost, in the corner of her eyes, she found the ghost was floating behind a gloomy guy. It seemed that the guy was reading something and the ghost was reading behind him.

“…” Mir stopped and looked in the direction of the ghost. She was pondering whether to approach the ghost or to wait for it. In the end, she decided not to approach the ghost.

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for the ghost to notice her. It immediately floated back to Mir and greeted her.

“Hey, Mir, done changing? Oh, you tie your hair? This way, your damaged her can’t be seen, huh? Well, still, want to go to the salon right now?”

“…nn.” Mir nodded and started walking again.

“Well, I found out about an interesting guy earlier. You see, I know him from a few days ago. He has a little brother, perhaps in elementary school. Or middle school at most. They both love comics, you see. I sometimes read with them…”

The ghost kept talking as they walked out of the school. Mir sometimes responded with a nod or a shake of her head. Sometimes, she let out a sound to show that she listened to the ghost. But most of the time, she silently listened to the ghost.

Unlike her, the ghost really had a lot of things to talk about. Although none of the information was needed, she liked hearing someone talking to her like that. After all, even her parents never talked a lot with her. Not that they didn’t love her though. They were just a bit busy, so they couldn’t accompany her all the time. And in addition to that, she couldn’t answer them like the other girls could, so she felt a bit guilty about that and she avoided having too many conversations with them.

While listening to the ghost, Mir finally finished getting a new hairstyle in the salon. Because of the damage to the hair, she couldn’t help but get short hair. Her previous hair that reached her waist, now it only reached her shoulders. In addition to that, because of the hairdresser’s passion and Mir's hesitant nature, she cut her bangs as well.

“Woah, beautiful! Amazing! That hairdresser is really amazing! She can change your gloomy image in an instant! You know, previously, you look like a ghost that crawls from television, and now, you look like a ghost that accompanying girls in the toilet! Cough, I mean, your gloomy image change into something cute!”

“…”

…and in the end, I still look like a ghost, Mir commented inwardly.

“Oooh! I can’t wait for the reaction of the boys in your school tomorrow!” The ghost jumped around excitedly.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Mir shook her head. “…Saturday.”

That one word stopped the ghost from getting too excited. “Ah, that’s right. You don’t go to school on the weekend, huh? Oh, by the way, you know, in some countries, students still have to go to school on Saturday. Their only free time is Sunday, and even so, there are a lot of students with their club activities on Sunday! They are sure diligent, huh?”

“…” Mir nodded. She was thinking the same thing. People that went to their club activities, even on the weekend, were sure diligent. As for her… well, she also went outside on the weekend. That was because she didn’t want to worry her parents.

In the past, she hated going outside on the weekend. It was because she might meet her bullies, so she didn’t want to go out of her safe place. However, because of that, her parents were getting worried. Seeing them getting worried was worse than getting bullied, so she decided that every once in a while, she would go on the weekend.

Naturally, she avoided popular places like movies theatre or shopping districts. She would rather go to a library, opened her books, and studied until the day ended. Studying, even though it wasn’t fun, she wouldn’t feel sad, anger, or any negative emotions, so she always studied whenever she had free time.

As they were talking, suddenly the ghost stopped talking. Mir stopped walking and looked at the ghost. She was wondering why the ghost stopped talking. No, it was not only stopped talking, but it also stopped moving as well. It was looking at an alley.

There in the alley, there was a boy surrounded by some bigger boys with a scary face. Mir looked at the smaller boy and realized that it was someone that she saw recently. It was the boy from her school, the one that the ghost followed because of some comics he read. And from the situation he was in, Mir guessed that it was another bullying case. Or perhaps, the other boys tried to borrow money from him. Naturally, the time for returning the money was indefinite.

“…ghosts.”

That was right. Besides the bullies and the boy, ghosts swarmed them as well. It was almost similar to when Mir was bullied earlier. Even though the number of ghosts was significantly less than the ones that swarmed Mir, there were still a dozen ghosts surrounding them. After all, ghosts were attracted by negative emotions to get the negative energy so that they could exist in this world.

Right now, the ghosts were not only surrounding the boy, but also the bullies. However, it seemed they were more attracted to the boys than the bullies. Mir could guess it easily. It was because the boy’s negative emotion was far bigger than the bullies’ negative emotion.

“Ah, he’s going to be broken. Sorry, Mir, but I’m going to help him a little.” The ghost said as he moved forward. Meanwhile, Mir was watching from the outside of the alley.

Previously, she didn’t know how the ghost could shoo the other ghosts away because she closed her eyes when she was swarmed by the other ghosts. This time, however, she watched how it made the other ghosts away. No, it didn’t make them go. As it came closer and warned the ghosts, the other ghosts instead attacked it.

The ghost easily evaded those ghosts before a whip-like tentacle came out of its body. It coiled around the ghosts that attacked it before pulling the ghost into its flaming body. And then… there was no 'and then'. It was as if the existence of the ghosts that attacked it disappeared instantly when it touched its body. To be eaten… no, they were not eaten. They were burned without leaving a single speck of ash behind.

…

Everything felt like a dream for Orion. The reality was a dream. No, it was not a dream. The reality was a nightmare for him. And the only way to escape this nightmare was the fantasy world he could only imagine by reading comics, watching movies, or playing games.

That was right. For Orion, those works of literature were the only way to escape from the nightmare called reality. After all, in those imaginary worlds, he could be anything he wanted to be. Whether it a Hero or a Sage, he could become one. At least, he wouldn’t embarrass his name, which meant something like a great God in some cultures.

Meanwhile, in reality, Orion was not as strong as other boys on his age. He was not as smarts as other boys. And he was not as handsome as other boys. Because he rarely went out of his room, his skin was sickly pale. And he always had bags under his eyes because of his sleepless night of gaming.

That was why he thought that he would be just an ordinary high school student in his new school. He tried his best to stay off the radar. Well, it worked. Only for a few weeks.

One day, someone in his class noticed his background. His father was a president of a game company and that company was extremely successful. That meant, he got money. His normal classmates only felt jealousy towards him. However, some of them decided not to stop at jealousy. Instead, they started asking him for some money almost every day.

In the beginning, it was not a big deal. But lately, the amount they asked was ridiculous to the point that he wouldn’t have any money left to buy comics or games. However, when he refused, they beat him and took all of his money all the same. Just like today.

Today, he was pulled to a back alley by those delinquents. Just like usual, they asked for money from him and threatened him that they would beat him up if he didn’t give them the money they asked for.

Naturally, Orion refused. He was thinking that it would be the last time they bullied him. There wouldn’t be the next time. Rather than giving them money, he would rather hire a hitman… no, just some thugs to teach these delinquents a lesson… that should be enough.

Just as he thought something like that, something weird happened. The trash can behind the delinquents suddenly pop out and the lid hit two of the delinquents. After that, the nearby backdoor of a restaurant opened suddenly without anyone opening it and hit another delinquent. One thing happened after another, and before he knew it, all of the delinquents were unconscious.

He wasn’t sure what happened, but when he looked around, his heart skipped a beat. There, at the end of the alley, a beautiful girl was standing while looking at him expressionlessly. The girl turned around and started walking. But in that instant moment the girl turned around, he felt like time slowed down and he could see every detail of the girl.

The uniform she was wearing… was a gym uniform from his school. The expressionless face that she had… although he was proud of his memory to remember all the faces in his school, he felt like he never saw this girl before. Maybe, she only borrowed that gym uniform, was what he thought.

It was a common setting in comics he read. A mysterious girl, wearing the same school uniform as the main character and saved the main character. However, the mysterious girl was not a student at that school. She only borrowed the uniform because monsters appearing in the vicinity of the protagonist's school.

Thinking of a setting like that, Orion's mind came to one conclusion. The girl was not a student of his school. She was only borrowing the uniform for ease of movement. For disguise. That meant, he might not see her again in school. In this boy met girl situation, he could only think that it was a fateful encounter. And before he knew it, he started running chasing after the girl.