Chapter 10: “The Japanese Genius Middle School Girl”

A dawn street in Japan, with only houses and no apartments.

It was the end of the month, and the crescent moon was peeking out from under the covers of the night sky.

Nevertheless, unlike the sky in Korea, which is full of fine dust, the stars scattered here and there were lighting the way.

-Step, step.

Maybe because I hadn’t cut it during the winter and spring breaks,

my pure white hair kept getting caught in my hands and tickling my thighs whenever I walked.

When it was bright, there were so many incidents that I couldn’t even properly recognize it.

Looking at it like this, I really have become a woman.

And that too,

―Floating~, floating~

a Japanese middle school girl with a Japanese middle school girl ghost next to her.

And since both of us were ‘Shizuko’, she probably felt like she was constantly following a mirror, since she was used to her own face.

Me?

I still feel like something is missing.

Especially between my legs.

“………So it’s like this. In other words, from a purely physical perspective, Jinzuko could just be a hallucination seen by Shizuko’s eyes.”

[What?! I, I was a hallucination……?]

“What’s with that reaction? You’ve heard it from me often. That, schizophrenia.”

[Ah, schizophrenia was a disease that makes you see hallucinations?]

“You were angry without even knowing what it was……”

[Well, I didn’t know what it was, but it’s a disease, and I felt like you were teasing me.]

Jinzuko pouted and turned her head away from me.

But she was still floating right next to me.

I chuckled and continued to explain, fiddling with my only black bang, which swayed in front of my eyes whenever I walked.

“Similarly, conversely, I’m also like a hallucination. Hmm, no. Rather than that, like a second ego created by this body, ‘Shizuko’?”

[After the molding whatchamacallit disease, is Shizuko now a split personality…………….]

[Hmm, so…………… I still don’t quite understand it…………….]

[You and I are actually like a dream created by Shizuko’s thoughts, right?]

-Step.

I unknowingly stopped walking for a moment.

Right after hearing those words, I thought I might suddenly wake up,

I was scared for a moment.

[………Ahjussi?]

I felt a warm sensation in my hand for a moment.

And I saw it.

The face from dozens of minutes ago in Shizuko’s room, the face that comforted me when I was sniffling like a middle school girl.

Jinzuko was holding my hand tightly with both of hers.

Then, like a lie, my anxiety disappeared.

[Ah.]

I reassured Jinzuko with a slightly awkward smile and looked up at the night sky.

A color like the deep sea. Midnight.

Since my hair color was also the opposite of hers, it was like Jinzuko’s hair color.

And it was also the color of my school uniform now.

“A dream…………….”

Yeah, maybe that’s right.

A dream, a hallucination, an illusion, in the end, like my nickname Gazuko, it was no different from a fake.

At least dreams were sweet and cozy.

Rather than being vain, it was faint.

“Yeah, a dream. To simplify, you could say that. Autonomic dreams, sleepwalking, and then you can define it by giving it the name reality dream. If any non-physical phenomenon is a fantasy and hallucination created by a reality dream, there is actually no theoretical problem in physics.”

[……… No, you suddenly stopped and made a face like a middle school girl who overcame a breakup, and then suddenly started explaining at a rapid pace. It’s too fast, I can’t understand a single thing?]

“Well………… I just like the expression. Calling it a dream.”

Give me a break.

Even though my body has become a woman, it’s still a male instinct inside.

I don’t want to show weakness.

[Wow, really?!]

[Wow~ I got praised by ahjussi for the first time~♪]

[Hehe♬ Looloo~]

Jinzuko was happy like a child who had been praised for the first time in her life.

Since she’s a ghost and has no physical limitations, she’s spinning around me and making a fuss.

Then she floated a little next to me and looked up at the night sky like I did a moment ago.

[That’s right, I think it’s good too. A dream.]

[A hallucination and an illusion…………. That’s too sad.]

[Because today, when I met you, ahjussi, is the happiest day for me.]

Jinzuko kept looking up as if she was looking for something in the peeking crescent moon.

[It really feels like a dream.]

Finally, Jinzuko turned her head towards me.

Her eyes were slightly red with tears.

Nevertheless, Jinzuko was smiling brightly.

[I thought I would never be able to smile so happily again.]

The opposite of me, who is pure white with only one black.

Her navy blue night sky-like hair was full of moonlight.

Instead, as if to give all that light to that swaying silver bang.

Shining brightly.

[This is all thanks to you, ahjussi, right?]

Jinzuko’s smile was shining more brilliantly than any time in Shizuko’s memory that I knew.

[Thank you for appearing in front of me.]

[Thank you so much. For taking on difficult tasks for me and helping me.]

[How can I ever repay such a great favor?]

Ah, I see.

I’m probably hearing it for the first time.

From someone, from the bottom of their heart.

A sincere thank you.

But I knew.

[……………Ugh, heh………… sob………….]

The dew that formed in her eyes was perhaps a foreshadowing.

The reason she kept looking up at the night sky was to stop the tears that were about to burst out.

The reason why her smile, which was brighter than ever, was so brilliant was because tears were hidden beneath it.

[Sob, sob…… I’m sorry………… I’m sorry, ahjussi…………… Because of me, because of me………….]

The mask made of joy and gratitude collapsed in an instant.

Engulfed in guilt, at a loss for what to do, no matter how much she wiped and wiped with her sleeves, the tears wouldn’t stop.

Her eyes, which were only being rubbed, were already swollen and red.

[I actually saw it….. Sob, when I was lying down… you searching on your phone and laptop…………… Sob……………]

[Actually, I knew it from the beginning…………… I was afraid to ask………… Just, just…… I just kept calling you ahjussi………….]

[Because I called you………… Because I was having a hard time and brought you here…………… You, you……………!]

It’s going to end up like this.

If I had been TSed into a Japanese middle school girl, to be frank,

if I had been something like the Northern Grand Duchess Maria Theresia Astroreban, it wouldn’t have been a big problem.

Because that was a fantasy world, not reality.

Unless it’s a returnee, I can’t go back to Earth.

[I’m sorry…………! I’m sorry…. Sob! I’m sorry…………… Ahjussi, sniff…… It’s because of me sniff………… It’s just like I did sniff
it’s no different sob………….]

But this was Japan.

That is, Earth.

For reference, the date, period, time,

I also checked everything through the internet.

And I saw it.

“The Korea Daily”

My news.

『(Breaking News) KAIST graduate student dies mysteriously.』

『Found dead suddenly in dormitory……………』

『Police are considering the possibility of suicide, is the death of KAIST starting again?』

That I died.

[…………It’s all my fault that you died!]

I knew.

[Why aren’t you saying anything…………!]

But I didn’t mention it.

[Tell me! It’s my fault you died……………! Yell at me, scold me, hate me, resent me, please hate me, loathe me, don’t forgive me………… Just take my body………… mine…………]

But in the end, Jinzuko realized it.

No, she must have known it from the beginning.

Because she never once asked to have her body back.

Even with the bathroom incident, she just had to say one word.

Get out of my body.

Why did re-possession keep failing?

Isn’t it obvious?

Because there were two minds trying to be in one person’s body.

If that were possible, why would she have greeted me as a ghost?

They could have just shared Carla in the same protoss-like psyche.

[Just steal it………… Just like what happened to you………….]

[Kill me]

ᅳSmack!

I slapped my cheek.

[······?!]

“Ouch…………….”

Not Jinzuko’s cheek, but my own.

“There, I gave you. Punishment.”

[Why, why………… That wasn’t even me……………!]

“What nonsense. It’s all Shizuko.”

I pointed at her with my index finger.

“Jinzuko, you too.”

Then, I pointed at myself with my thumb.

“And me, Gazuko.”

And me, standing with a needlessly cool expression and stiff shoulders.

“Right?”

God gave Shizuko a flawless SSS Ex-class face,

but He probably judged that giving her a body too would make her too perfect and threaten His position as God.

…………Hah, originally I wanted to say it more coolly, like in a Japanese manga, like “Hehe, it’s the name Shizuko, right?☆”

The Only only a middle school girl who brazenly shows off her meager chest, as if there’s anything there.

Well………… the silver hair, which looks like a star was taken from the night sky and dyed into her hair, is unnecessarily pretty and manga-like.

But still,

[Why, why……… why aren’t you angry at all….. As if you’re okay as long as I’m okay…………… As if you don’t care about yourself………….]

Even if it’s this small and slightly rounded meager chest, it provided a shelter for someone to lean on for a while.

This time, in a situation opposite to that in the room earlier, I patted Jinzuko’s back, as my mother once did,

“Second year of middle school.”

I presented an irrefutable piece of evidence that a middle school student could not refute.

About the ‘why’ she questioned.

[Yes………?]

“You’re still 13 years old, right?”

That is, in Japanese age.

“So what can you do?”

And in Japan, you can’t be held accountable for a crime until you’re 14 years old.

“The world is like that, so do you really need to bear the burden?”

Even if there is a sin.

[Ah, no………… Still, that and this………… So absurdly……………]

Jinzuko didn’t seem to be convinced.

She even felt a little absurd.

“Come here!”

Okay!

[………Kyaak?]

I smiled mischievously, and pulled the ghost, who looked just like me but with different colors, to my side as if to put my my arm around her shoulder.

Certainly, since I’ve become a woman, it’s nice not to have to be careful about every little skinship like this.

Skinship

Hmm, maybe…………… west to north…… Is the east sea direction around here?

“But listen to my wish.”

Looking at the end of the night sky hanging on the end of the horizon, I said.

[Wish………?]

“Yeah. Right now. It’s also until tomorrow.”

At the expression of a deadline like tomorrow, Jinzuko could only be more puzzled.

“Besides, I made up my mind thanks to you, Jinzuko.”

Sigh~ Originally, I was just going to live here in Japan.

Just forgetting everything, pretending not to see it, not knowing it.

“I have to face it too.”

But, no matter how bad my life was, and how hard it was to live,

I used to say things like I want to go to another world, I want to be TSed, etc.,like a habit.

But I never said I really wanted to die.

It was just that it was so hard that I was just saying it.

“KAIST.”

My dormitory room.

Laboratory. And so on.

And……… my home.

Where my parents are, who failed to draw gacha and even ruined their child farming,our parents who have a severely unfilial child.

“Let’s go together. Together.”

To Korea.

“Since it’s come to this, a middle school student who skipped grades, an international student, a college student…………… Hmm, the name doesn’t feel right. Ah.”

Then, a perfect name came to mind.

“『Japanese Genius Middle School Girl』.”

Of course, I omitted the TS in front.

Anyway,

“Haha! It’s good, isn’t it? Jinzuko. Because you and I have lived really hard until now. Me in my own way, and you in your middle school way.”

[Ah………..jussi…………….]

“So let’s go and live while enjoying the luxuries that we couldn’t enjoy before, so that it’s known all over the town, huh?”

[I………… I, I don’t have the………… right……… to……….]

“Then, as punishment,watch. If that’s what you want, let’s make this your atonement.”

[Watch………… you? Ahjussi……………?]

“Yeah.”

I spoke as if I had made up my mind, no longer avoiding it.

“How I live as a TS Japanese genius middle school girl. What do you think?”

Right next to you.

The closest.

-Tap tap!

“Hurry up! The deadline for late admission is tomorrow!”

[………Ah, Ahjussi?!]

“Academic documents, and since I’ll be an international student………… Ah, right. Proof of excellence! What should I submit? Ah, I don’t know! In my personal statement,

I’ll just submit everything I was researching before I died, which I couldn’t publish as a paper yet! It’s mine anyway! Hehe~♬”

[Wa, Wait a minute― Le, Let’s go together, ahjussi…………!!]

I felt like I was going to be busy from now on.

The very next day.

And

A heavy document arrived by quick service to the KAIST admissions office team from Japan.