NOVEL ONLINE FREE In a dark whoosh of a hallway…
A girl walks down the corridor when a small child zooms past her.
“This way, sis!”
The child confidently guides the girl through the complex maze of intersections, just like the time when three others were rushing away from a pale face.
The child was leading the girl towards the exit where they had escaped.
“Huh, it looks like they had quite the dramatic exit.”
The girl glances around, wearing a slightly awkward expression, taking in the chaotic mess of items scattered around and debris that seemed to have been launched like bam!
Now, the girl couldn’t help but picture the frantic expressions of those who had run through here.
“Uh, sorry…”
“No worries, seems like no one got hurt too badly,”
One good thing was they had successfully escaped this place. Despite the plethora of weapons scattered about, the hallway showed no signs of any body parts or even a drop of blood. The child had mentioned they made it out with their limbs intact.
‘These guys are way more capable than I thought.’
The girl scans the surroundings again. The walls and floors are marked with scars as if they had been hit by wham! The mere sight of the damage was enough for her to grasp the fierce assault they had faced.
An unrelenting bombardment that no human body should have been able to withstand.
Yet, against all odds, they passed through this lengthy hall without anyone being left behind, reaching the exit.
Having achieved something beyond the limits of the human body, the girl, who was once an ordinary human herself, couldn’t help but admire their abilities.
“By the way, when I meet them later, I’ll definitely need to apologize, right?”
“Yep, I’ll say I’m sorry for throwing stuff around…”
Maybe realizing her earlier foolishness, the girl’s comment was met with the child’s soft response.
It was questionable whether they could resolve everything with just an apology, but for now, that would have to do. An apology meant recognizing one’s mistake, and that was a step towards social awareness!
At least from now on, it shouldn’t occur that things get flung around just because the other party is an adult.
Of course, if you think about it from the perspective of the ones receiving the apology, it’s fortunate if they don’t soil themselves the moment they see their source of terror again…
But anyway, it’s all good, right?
“Good job, Revi!”
The girl ruffles the child’s hair.
Not quite used to such affection, the child flinches a little but soon seems to enjoy it enough to lower her body, making it easier for the girl to pet her.
After walking down the hallway for a bit…
Finally, they arrived at a certain wall.
“We’ve arrived! Right over there!”
The child points ahead.
There, at the end of the multitude of discarded objects, lay a small heap of rubbish. Suddenly, the pile starts moving on its own as if swoosh, splitting in two, revealing a neat door within.
“If you go in here, you’ll meet the people you’re looking for!”
The girl steps forward towards the door. Unlike the cracks and marks on the other walls, this door appears brand new.
In contrast to the suspiciousness that most ordinary folks would feel, the girl reaches out her hand toward the doorknob without hesitation.
“…Sis, you’re really going in?”
From behind the girl, the child’s voice sounds, tinged with considerable disappointment. But the girl couldn’t afford to waste any more time now.
The moment to part ways was truly upon them.
“Yup. It’s really time to go.”
The girl grasps the doorknob.
Creek, it turns smoothly.
With a bit of strength, the door opens lightly, and she moves towards what lies beyond—
“Be careful! There’s something weird up there…”
At that moment, a curious word from the child makes her turn her head instinctively.
“…Something weird?”
The girl asks, curious about the child’s vague warning.
Hearing her tone of concern only adds to the strangeness coming from the child’s words.
‘Something weird’ coming from a ghost who should be transcendent of the physical laws of this world was a pretty rare occurrence.
“I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s super dangerous.”
The first thought that popped into the girl’s head was the existence of a nuclear weapon supposedly present in this facility.
Didn’t some history book say that firing cannons at ghostly places calmed the spirits?
Ghosts don’t come out in light, and their power creates light, so perhaps bombs might work against ghosts too?
“Are you talking about a bomb?”
“A bomb…? Can bombs talk?”
What came from the child was not a definition of a bomb but rather a completely unexpected fact that it could talk!
“No, bombs usually don’t talk.”
“Then it probably isn’t a bomb. It just mutters the same thing all the time.”
The girl might have shown a hint of disappointment, but the child didn’t care and continued with another characteristic.
“What does it say?”
When the girl probed more, the child tilted her head, trying hard to recall and finally said,
“Umm… I think it said something like ‘it goes back’…”
This only deepened the mystery and added to the girl’s confusion.
“…”
For a moment, silence enveloped the space.
Something that can speak, isn’t a bomb, and goes back every day—what a puzzling puzzle.
With so few clues that didn’t help much, the girl decided to stop pursuing this issue and hasten down her path.
“Well, thanks for worrying. But I’m fine. I’m tough!”
Considering the girl’s unique physique, it wasn’t really a big deal. At the very least, she understood that it could speak.
If it ever wanted to harm her, there was bound to be just one thing it could say!
Something like, ‘Help me!’ would come out of its mouth.
“Yeah, seems true! How are you so tough? Did you take some experiments or something?”
The child asked with sparkling eyes, eager to know the girl’s secret.
The girl could only manage an awkward expression, unsure of how to answer.
Partly because she was still hazy about how she even died.
Yet, she couldn’t just blurt out, ‘Getting hit by a truck in another world’!
“…”
A brief silence tinged the air.
The girl held onto the doorknob, considering something and letting out a soft sigh.
“I eat lots of vegetables.”
Finally, like most others faced with similar questions, she offered a very formal and plausible lie.
“Wow, so the adults were right…”
The child responded in awe, as if she couldn’t imagine that, while the girl’s expression showed a flicker of guilt.
—Creeeak!
“Well then, take care, Revi.”
“Yep! You too, be careful!”
The door swings open, and the girl moves inside.
The child gives a little farewell wave.
As the girl steps fully across to the other side, she lets go of the doorknob, but glancing back, she can still see the child waving goodbye cheerfully.
“Sis! See you next time! Promise? We’ll definitely see each other again?”
Waving more strongly, the child watches the closing door.
In the narrowing gap, the girl’s figure gradually shrinks, and just before disappearing completely, a small smile seems to hint at her lips.
—Thud!
With that, the door shuts completely, and she vanishes from sight.