Chapter 5: Escape

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"Before you explain," Jin-woo interjected. "I'm going to check the bus out. To see if anyone's alive."

"There's no need to," Jin-ah replied. "There's only four other people on the bus, all of them killed."

Jin-woo's eyebrows rose. "It won't take long." To confirm what she had said, he quickly vanished before their eyes, the resulting pillar of shadow quickly vanishing. It wasn't just to confirm her words, but to search for clues for what could have transpired to now.

"Jin-ah?" asked Tomochika.

"Yes?"

"Your brother's really cool. Especially the glove on his hand…"

"...Yes, he is very cool," said Jin-ah, proudly showing her grin.

Tomochika decided to not pry into her classmate's brother's glove, trying to not be too invasive. "...Anyways, what were you talking about with him?"

Jin-woo appeared inside the bus, darkness swirling and disappearing around him as he did so. Teleportation was necessary to cut time, since they were already so far from the bus.

Inside, the first thing he noticed was the sheer mess and signs of chaos left behind. Bags, makeup tools, phones, and other belongings scattered everywhere, the window side of the bus and the ceiling with a large hole torn by some sharp object, a bus seat torn out from the floor and many windows shattered. He then saw the bodies, both surrounded by a pool of blood. Two… no, he could make out four, the other two at the front of the bus.

First was a boy, hair dyed blond and with a large hole exposing his innard, lying on the floor. Being closer to the windows, he could see that the boy was impaled from the side of the bus. Then there was a long blond-haired girl, bearing the same injury as the boy. She was laying right below the hole from the ceiling, indicating where she was impaled. Jin-woo paused for a moment, looking at her with curious eyes.

Then, stepping around the blood, he saw two bodies. Well… he saw a headless body and sensed an essence of the soul left on the driver's side, due to being the Shadow Monarch. On the driver's side, all that was left of it were some warped metal, and a stump that used to have a steering wheel on it, metal around it warped and missing a window. Looking at the headless teacher, he saw the corresponding splatter of blood. An area of the seats splattered with blood were clean, indicating that there were students there when their teacher was killed. The driver was killed from the inside too, seeing that the fire that destroyed the driver's side lacked an entry point from the outside. The two victims were possibly the work of the summoners. The holes in the bus and the subsequent deaths came later, owing to the dragon. Whether the driver or the teacher died first, he couldn't tell. But seeing how dry the blood was and how the driver's seat wasn't giving off any heat, much time must have passed before the dragon attacked.

When he looked at the door, he noticed something odd. He went over to the only surviving part of the driver's side, a door latch, and pulled on it. With his strength, the door eventually swung open. However, the latch was also pulled from its place.

Interesting.

With most of what he needed to know about the bus victims gathered, he left the bus through the door, briefly inspecting the door. There were dent marks on where the door and the bus would part to open, indicating that someone with great strength shut the door so that none of the students inside could leave. Since only four students would have been inside the bus, a strong explanation would be that the four were left as bait for the dragon while the rest escaped.

Before he teleported back to where his sister and her classmate were, he thought back to his most perplexing moment in the bus. The long-haired girl. She looked human, and there certainly was a large pool of blood around her, like the boy and the headless teacher. However, the reason he paused while looking at her was…strange. Calling it strange would be an understatement, but close enough to how he felt.

Jin-woo could not sense the girl's soul.

As he was about to teleport, he noticed something weird. Where the two girls were, there were three people surrounding them. Though they were far away, Jin-woo felt… hostility. Not from himself, but from the shadow currently with his sister, Beru.

My Liege, the shadow called.

What's going on there? Jin-woo telepathically asked.

The three boys… they do not have good intentions for your sister, Beru explained. May I slay them?

Jin-ah was in danger.

I'll deal with them.

While they were waiting, Tomochika noticed three dots coming their way through the air. She identified them as Higashida, Fukuhara and Hanakawa.

"How are they flying?" wondered Tomochika aloud.

"How do you see them?" retorted Jin-ah, now barely able to make out three dots. After a brief pause, she asked, "Should we bring them with us?"

Tomochika pondered on this. Though they, along with the other students, had abandoned their four classmates to die, she thought that they still should be able to return when they want the chance to. Though still upset, she could understand the choices everyone made. She herself wondered whether would have done the same.

The flying trio first noticed the large crater, the dragon in the center of it. Then they saw the two surviving classmates who were quite a distance away from the site.

"Wah! They're both still alive!?" shouted Hanakawa in confusion.

"I told you there was a chance some of them would survive," said Higashida. "Charm up doesn't last forever."

"There goes my dreams of a zombie harem!" moaned Hanakawa. Upon hearing this, both girls scrunched up their faces. Jin-ah was currently having second thoughts on bringing Hanakawa back home.

"Isn't this for the better?" said Fukuhara in a mocking tone. "Zombie puppets are just disgusting!"

"EXCUSE YOU-"

"Boys, boys," said Higashida. "We can have this discussion later. And yes, I also agree that killing someone just to make them into a zombie sex slave is plain stupid."

"HEY…!"

"However," Higashida interrupted, "can we talk about the DEAD DRAGON!?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Fukuhara. Glancing at Jin-ah and Tomochika, he gently questioned, "How did you kill that thing!?"

"Fukuhara-dono, it could only have been Jin-ah. Dannoura does not have the system installed," Hanakawa pointed out.
"But Jin-ah's only a Level 1 fighter class!" said Fukuhara. "There's no way she beat the dragon herself, especially the damage the dragon has!"

"Let's surround them," suggested Higashida. "If they try to attack us, we'd have an advantage like this."

The boys, using their flight, quickly surrounded the girls. Curiously, Hanakawa brought out a large ring… a collar.

"Well, now that my dreams of a zombie harem are gone," Hanakawa started. "I came prepared with this! A slave collar! No, two collars!"

"Finally, something decent out of you!" chuckled Fukuhara. "If they do try to fight it and eventually give in, that's a two-in-one deal!"

"I apologize, I'll leave that to the two of you. I'm more into being the cuckolded boyfriend."

"Both of you, stop!" Higashida laughed. "They look extremely disgusted!" Even with her slightly limited Japanese, she could more or less understand their plan. And it made her wrinkle her face. Tomochika was more horrified than disgusted.

Jin-ah put up a fighting pose. However, Higashida suddenly warned her, "I would advise you not to move. Or else…" Higashida raised his hand towards a nearby forest.

However, he never got the chance to show off.

Right when he was about to release his power, Higashida suddenly collapsed, face first! He fell so hard the ground around him cracked, as if he was pushed down by an invisible force! The boys looked around, and saw someone behind them. The girls' eyes were opened wide, they're jaws slightly agape in surprise. It was Jin-woo.

While the boys were distracted, Jin-ah punched Fukuhara behind the head. He was instantly knocked out.

"Wuuaaah!?" Hanakawa shouted in panic. First, a stranger telekinetically slammed Higashida-dono into the ground (if he had that power, he would have used it for… other means), and now the transfer student knocked out the party's Necromancer. As a mere Healer, he had no way of fighting nor escaping the current predicament.

"P-please, I beg of you!" pleaded the Healer as he performed a deep dogeza. "At least let Tomochika-dono be the one to beat me. Preferably, to stomp on a lowly pig like myself!"

The atmosphere suddenly chilled. Jin-woo was listening to Beru translating, Jin-ah was almost finished processing the sentence, and Tomochika was in a state of shock due to her current elevated levels of disgust. Jin-ah, once finishing, joined in with Tomochika, even gagging a bit. Jin-woo knitted his eyebrows, at a loss for words.

"Oppa," Jin-ah started. "Should we take them home… or just leave them."

"Uhhh…" A sweat dropped from his face. "I guess we should. Ask him."

After Jin-ah asks the pervert, Hanakawa replies, "No, Sir! Please, let me live out my days here!"

Jin-woo, looking at the male student for a moment, says "Jinah, tell him to grab his friends and go." Jin-ah followed, and Hanakawa, grumbling and whimpering throughout, started dragging his companions away. It was going to be a long way for Hanakawa, but that's for another story.

"Have any of you gained powers, or have a system installed?" Jin-woo asks, eyeing the boys. Since the three had powers, he needed to make sure of something before taking the girls home.

After whispering to Tomochika, Jin-ah responds, "I do. She doesn't. Why?"

The older brother raised his eyebrows. "Is it in the form of… a display of sorts? Do you see your stats and abilities on a screen?"

"Yeah," responds Jin-ah. "What about it?"

Jin-woo quickly glided to Jin-ah and clamped his hands on the sides of her head. He needed to be quick. With the system in her, the installer would know her every move. No matter how lax he or she was, if someone were to blip into another world, there was a possibility that if they were able to summon people from another multiverse, then they could also track people from another multiverse.

"What are you doing-"

"Jin-ah, this is going to hurt a bit." Coursing his mana through his arms, he concentrated it into her soul. He needed to find a source of mana inside her to uninstall the system. It didn't take long for him to find it. Throughout this, Jin-ah winced as an unfamiliar energy flowed into her body, which was not accustomed to handling it.

"Done," said Jin-woo. True to his words, she couldn't summon the pop-up. "Now, we need to go, now." said Jin-woo as he prepared a gate for back home.

"What's with the hurry? What about the others?" Jin-ah asked.

"We don't have time right now. Get in." In front of the man, a purple portal was present.

"Let's go," Jin-ah said to Tomochika. Jin-ah entered first. As soon as she went in, she saw the tunnel where the bus had been summoned from. She didn't know why she was so surprised. She expected the experience to feel a little weirder. But, well, a portal is just a gateway. After Jin-ah, Tomochika followed. Finally, Jin-woo practically rushed in and closed the portal. Tomochika noticed that there were several men in black suits surrounding them, along with some cars. But most surprising, she saw Jin-ah's brother sweating slightly more than before. As if his calm act was at its edge. Jin-ah seemed to have noticed too.

"Alright," said Jin-ah. "I have lots of questions. Who are the black suits, how did you know where I was, and who are you? And why were we in such a rush?"

Jin-woo wiped some sweat beads and answered, "First, the men around you are avatars for powerful beings existing outside our world. They helped me break through the multiverse barrier. Second, I knew where you were because I had one of my shadows look over you for the duration of the case, in case you were in danger."

"The ant guy?"

"Yeah, Beru."

"That's kinda creepy though. Kind of like installing a tracker on my phone."

"But, importantly, it saved the two of you." Jin-ah couldn't argue with that. "The third question, I'll answer later when we get in the car. It's a long story."

"But you are my brother, right?" Jin-ah asked. Seeing the person she grew up with having a variety of powers that should be fiction, she felt tense. Was he really Sung Jin-woo?

"..." Jin-woo paused for a moment. This was also complicated to some degree. But, in the end, he had decided long ago that: "Yes. I am."

Relief washed over Jin-ah. Tomochika watched the tense moment. She had no idea what was happening.

I'll ask her later, thought Tomochika.

Jin-woo sighed and asked, "Alright. Jin-ah, well let's get in the car. Follow me-"

"Wait." Jin-ah grabbed at Jin-woo's coat sleeve. "You still haven't answered one thing. Why were you in a rush?"

Jin-woo knitted his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Oppa," Jinah countered. "I saw your face as soon as we got out of there. You were sweating. Like you were anxious. Why did you uninstall the system, and why were you rushing?"

Jin-woo looked at her. This time, Jin-ah felt uneasy. His face was mostly straight. But she could see it in his eyes that he was slightly nervous. He breathed out a sigh. "Let's continue in the car. It'll take some time before we arrive at the nearest police station. But before I answer your questions, tell me your story first."

Hello, it's been a while. I was going to upload at a faster rate, but creativity can't be forced lol. I had a lot going on too. Loss of motivation for basically everything, studying for the SAT and other stuff were obstacles I had to push through first. And, well, this chapter's finally out now. In case you're wondering, no, this is not the end. Nor is it going to end without a Sage appearing. I do still plan on having Sion appear. She should be the most concerned as the one in charge of the Sage recruitment program, since one of the candidates uninstalled the system and disappeared. And a massive mana presence could've been detected, though I'm sure Jin-woo masked his presence and mana amount well. Anyways, I do still have plans for this story, so rest assured. The one problem i would have with Sion appearing, however, is that Sages have the power to alter the laws of space to fit their will. And along with a HOST of other crazy powers. And that's not including the difference in power system and possibly the difference in mana itself. Themselves? Anyways, another problems would be that the only way Jin-woo could possibly match would be to drag her to his realm, or make up some Ruler technology BS. But Sion should be able to break out of his realm too... or maybe she can't. Dunno. But, I'll let future me handle that. Until next time, end of long note.