Chapter 1: Transfers

It was homeroom and the class was loud with whispers and excited giggles. Today, someone from Korea was transferring.

With the rumble of the door sliding open, the teacher entered the classroom and everyone standing up sat back down, their voices slowly stopping. Whispers of amusement and curiosity ensued upon seeing an unfamiliar girl following the teacher.

It was her, the temporary foreign exchange student. She and a classmate named Takatou Yogiri swapped countries for a joint foreign club program, chosen by way of a mandatory lottery. Both schools found host families for Takatou and Jinah using applications, promising monetary benefits to drum up interest. Mysteriously, the foreigner Carol Lane and Ryouko Ninomiya also went to Korea, but that was none of their concerns as they had their own accommodations there.

"Alright, everyone, quiet down," commanded the teacher as he took his place in front of the podium. He was a middle aged man, at least in his late 40s or mid 50s. He looked scary at first, however once you know him, he is quite the "chill" person. "As you can see, we have a new transfer student here. Can you introduce yourself?"

The nervous girl started clearing her throat and then started moving her lips, as if to rehearse lines for a play. Not long after, she took a deep breath and spoke, this time with more confidence.

"Hello, I am Jinah Sung and…uh… I am from Korea! I hope we get along."

Sounds of excitement and chattering quickly took over. It didn't take long for the teacher to bang her palm repeatedly onto the podium to quiet them down.

"Everyone, please quiet down! As you can see, Jinah is from Korea so she will have a bit of a hard time understanding the way we do things here along with the language barrier. She will only be here for three months, so, as students of this school, I fully expect you to be understanding and to look out for her during her stay here, am I clear?"

"YES!" the class answered.

Following the claps, Jinah followed the teacher as she led her to her seat.

Right as the bell started ringing, the teacher yelled, "Oh, right! Everyone, the school trip application is due tomorrow! Jinah, can you please follow me?" and walked out of the classroom to prepare for the first period with Jinah following her.

In the Teachers' Office, with the help of the school's Korean club advisor, Jinah's homeroom teacher explained that the class would go to a ski resort two months later. Before Jinah left, the teacher gave her the school trip application slip, reminding her that it was due tomorrow.

When she returned from school to her host family's home, she attempted to understand the contents of the application before asking the host family's daughter for help (who also went to the same school, though a grade under). Using their awkward English (the only somewhat common language they could communicate with), Jinah managed to understand the paper's content and get it signed by the host mother.

—-

Jinah was at first overwhelmed by her classmates as well from other classes surrounding her and barraging her with questions and compliments.

"What's your favorite K-pop idol?"

"You're so good at Japanese for a Korean! Did you study?"

"You're so pretty! Were you a model or something!"

"I like kimchi!"

Over the next few weeks, she would start becoming quite popular herself, her sociable demeanor and slight humor drawing others towards her. She was also a fast learner, picking up phrases and slangs from her peers while they were talking though it would take a bit more time for her to catch up with her classes. Despite studying Japanese in preparation for her visit to Japan and during her stay there, catching up with classes and quick conversations was still an impossible task.

After school, when she was in her host family's home, her brother would call her a few times a week to make sure she was doing well in school. Knowing her, he was quite relaxed about her being in another country though he did try to offer advice on some things, but it's not like she took it too seriously.

A few days before her school trip in late November, her brother called her to check up on her, asking about school, her host family, the food, and her school trip, which she told him about some time before. She asked him about his newly acquired job and how her parents were (they were all doing fine).

"Come on, Oppa," she groaned. "You don't need to be worried about me, everyone here's nice. The students are loud, but nice. The teachers are considerate, everything's fine. You don't have to call me this often!"

"Well," he replied. "It's just that I want you to make sure you know some important things, especially when traveling in another country."

"Woah, who made you the expert in traveling, hahaha! You've never stepped a foot outside Korea in your LIFE!"

There was a slight pause. "Anyways, just be careful, alright? Have fun with your imaginary friends."

"THEY'RE NOT IMAGINARY!" Jinah jokingly yelled before he hung up.

Though she wouldn't openly admit it, she somewhat admired her brother ever since she was younger, even now. But, there was the incident where he went missing when she was in elementary school, but they don't talk about it anymore. He was back, and that was that. And now, he recently got a job as a detective in the violent crimes division two weeks ago; what was there for her to not be proud of him?

The snowy trees and occasional buildings rushed past the bus. The atmosphere on the bus was relaxed; a student was playing a guitar he brought to the music playing from another student's speaker, many students singing to the music while others slept or were focused playing games on their phones or mobile console, Jinah being in the former group. When they were too loud, their teacher would wake up and scold them, but he was pretty much alright with anything happening in the bus.

It was the day of the trip, and since they were stuck in the bus for three hours or so (depending on the traffic conditions) it only made sense for them to have as much fun as they could until they arrived, especially with the mood dampening cloudy sky.

As they passed through a tunnel, the singing students sang louder, the observing students laughing and joking around. As the bus came out of the tunnel, the playing, singing, talking and laughing slowly stopped.

When the bus came out, the landscape outside their windows was a luscious green, the sky a clear blue. There was not a single building nor road in sight, just grass surrounding them. Not even the tunnel they exited was there.

The bus driver, confused, stopped the vehicle and looked around. The murmurs of confusion and panic started as students also looked around, only getting worse as the driver failed to get any signal from his radio communicator. The gamers started cursing for the same reason other students looking at their phones were panicking: they couldn't capture any signal. It was a bit later when they looked outside when they felt real panic.

"What the…?"

"Hey, was it like this outside?"

"There was snow everywhere, the hell?"

"Teacher, isn't this the wrong way?"

"Why's there grass everywhere?"

"Driver!" the teacher exclaimed, getting up and walking towards him. "What on earth…"

"I dunno!" the driver responded.

"Then stop this bus at once!"

""Look, the bus has been driving itself since a moment ago! The brakes won't work!"

"Ayaka-san," Jinah asked her seatmate. "Wasn't everything white?"

Not like she would answer though, Ayaka being Ayaka. However, the scene was enough to silence even the arrogant rich girl, something that surprised Jinah.

The commotion was loud enough to wake up any of the sleeping students who, upon waking up, were also surprised by the grassy background that greeted them.

Suddenly, the bus started slowing down to a halt.

"What… wait, the door is opening itself too…" the driver remarked.

Stepping onto the bus was a long haired and young woman in a white, elegant dress.

Wow, Jinah thought. Is she a model or something? She was beautiful alright.

A pitiful person with a thing for cosplaying as a magical girl, a certain student thought.

The woman's smile was deceptively beautiful and pure, her eyes big and sharing descriptions with her smile. It was frightening. Jinah could feel chills running down her back, her lips tightening. All students could also feel needle pricks down their spines, some gulping in nervousness. The whole bus was silent.

"Greetings, sage candidates," the woman started. Her face was unwavering even as she said this confusing sentence, cementing even more bewilderment into the students.

"My name is Sion," she continued. "Grandchild of the Great Sage."

Jinah looked to her left, and saw a male student about to raise his hand. Hanakawa-kun. She didn't really know him well, aside from the fact that she sometimes noticed him looking her way sometimes. But besides that, he was a bit of a loner, his fellow otakus talking to him only occasionally. Anyways, it was lucky he hadn't raised it sooner, though, as the teacher would soon demonstrate.

"Hey, who do you think you are?!" the teacher angrily yelled as he approached the mysterious Sion. "Are you responsible for this-?"

Sion lazily raised her left arm and grasped the teacher's face.

POP!

In that simple gesture, his head was no more. No, rather, it was scattered: brain matter, pieces of skull and sprays of blood splattering the front row along with the students seated there! For a moment, screams permeated the space until Sion looked at them.

The bus became scarily silent. Hanakawa slowly lowered his arm. The eyes of every student widened in terror, trying to keep in their scream rising through their throat. With their teacher's death, everyone instinctively understood that any mistake would bring death.

"No interruptions, please," Sion nonchalantly said. "The conduct I recommend everyone to take is shaking in fear with chattering teeth. Don't act out of line and pay attention."

The students sat up ever so slightly straighter; some were visibly shaking, their eyes wavering but either never leaving the woman or darting between the woman and the teacher's still body. Jinah gulped in fear and anxious anticipation.

I wish I never came to Japan! Jinah started regretting.

Sion continued, "I do not intend to cause direct harm to any sage candidates, but that only goes for as long as you don't get on my nerves. Make sure you take that into consideration, alright? My power level is over 530,000 after all."