In the classroom, chalk dust hung motionless in the air.
Outside the window, the shadow of a bird was pinned against the curtain, and even the sunlight had stopped flowing.
This was some ability of the reaper Tessa's.
However, Ian could only smell that pleasant fragrance.
He could not see her anywhere.
"Playing hide-and-seek? I'm not into that."
Just as Ian was looking around,
"It's been almost a full day. How come you don't seem anxious at all?" Reaper Tessa frowned as she stepped out from behind the frozen teacher at the front of the room, passing straight through the teacher's body.
She seemed to have changed clothes today. She was still dressed entirely in black, but now it was glossy leather from top to bottom.
Ian suddenly found himself desperately wanting to know whether reapers farted.
"Hm?"
Tessa noticed his strange stare.
"Who says I haven't done anything? I've already prepared an excellent plan. Do you know what it is?" Ian carefully probed the female reaper.
"Hm?"
Tessa frowned.
"What makes you think I'm watching you every second of the day? Don't flatter yourself, little one."
Her tone was sharp, but Ian's smile brightened instantly.
"You're right. I think so too."
His smile was pure sunshine, the smile of a genuinely cheerful, open-hearted teenage boy.
Only, seeing it made Tessa frown even harder.
"I really didn't expect school to matter more to you than your father's life. For a student, I suppose that makes you exceptionally qualified."
There was obvious exasperation in Tessa's tone.
She glanced around the room. The physics teacher's mouth was still frozen in the shape of saying F1l1 = F2l2. Poor guy had no idea that something blatantly violating physics was happening right in front of him.
"This is part of the plan."
Ian blinked.
"What plan?"
Tessa narrowed her eyes. It was as if she had picked up flash-stepping from those evil spirits. In a blur, she appeared right in front of Ian, yet not the slightest breeze came with her movement.
"I can't tell you. That's part of the plan too. Trust me, I really do have one. If I tell you, it might stop working."
Ian tossed in a little sci-fi joke, but sadly, among everyone in the room, moving or not moving, there probably was not a single person who could appreciate his terrible humor.
"If you still want to save your father, you'd better move faster."
Instead of pressing further, Tessa demonstrated very clearly what a proper threat looked like.
However,
"Maybe you could help me a little? You know... I'm just an ordinary person."
Ian was not trying to play pitiful. He genuinely had a very accurate understanding of his own strength.
At that, Tessa frowned again.
"And what does that have to do with me? Do you think I care?"
She looked slightly irritated, arms folded across her chest, like an untouchable delinquent girl warning everyone to stay away.
"If it really had nothing to do with you," Ian said, tapping the desk lightly with his fingertips, "then you probably wouldn't be here."
It really did not take especially deep insight to notice something like that.
"..."
Tessa fell silent.
The temperature in the classroom dropped abruptly, as though her mood had begun affecting the environment itself.
And just as the tension tightened to its limit,
"What a cunning little brat. Fine, you win."
Tessa shook her head as if she had a headache. Her compromise only made Ian feel even more certain that he might truly be Metropolis's god of gambling.
The boy was quietly giving himself a thumbs-up inside his heart.
"Why haven't you started with yesterday's plane crash? Your father hasn't failed like that in a very long time, has he?"
Tessa had finally chosen to offer him a hint.
"I should go to Metropolis General Hospital, right?" Ian answered instantly. That matched the line of thought he had already been following. Maybe he really did have the makings of a great detective.
"Mm."
Tessa's brows lifted just slightly.
"So you actually did look into things."
Her tone softened quite a bit, proving once again that she was not monitoring Ian's progress around the clock.
Fair enough. Reapers probably had plenty of work-related business to deal with.
"I told you, I have a plan."
Ian emphasized it again.
Just as he was about to ask for a few more clues, he suddenly saw Tessa raise a long, elegant finger.
"Let me save you some time so you can put that plan to work."
Then she snapped her fingers with that pale, beautiful hand.
The black-and-white frozen world peeled away like a torn canvas.
Ian felt the world spin.
When his vision cleared again, the smell of disinfectant was already filling his nose.
Under those harsh, pale hospital lights, the sign reading METROPOLIS GENERAL HOSPITAL hung before him. Rainwater still pooled in the pavement outside, reflecting the two of them.
At some point, the world had returned to color.
And yet time still did not seem to be moving.
Ian stared at Tessa's hand in surprise. There was no gem on it, no Infinity Gauntlet, and yet one snap of her fingers had completely changed heaven and earth.
"Is that a reaper's power?"
He really knew very little about beings like reapers. The only reason he knew reapers existed at all was because of that old American show Supernatural, and that also made him more aware of what his [Deathrider's Thrall] status really implied.
"If you want to become a reaper, I can file the paperwork for you. You could start early."
Tessa sounded deeply unimpressed by the curiosity of teenage boys.
There was a faint, hidden irritation in her tone.
"Relax. No need to panic." Ian lifted his eyes to the name of the hospital building, deep in thought. That, in turn, drew another question from Tessa.
"What are you staring at up there?"
She tilted her head, puzzled.
"I think the hospital's name sounds bad."
Ian answered honestly.
"???"
Tessa took a deep breath.
"If I ever get interested enough to become mayor, I'm definitely renaming this place Metropolis Central Hospital..."
Ian kept muttering to himself.
"Stop."
Tessa could not take it anymore.
"Has anyone ever told you there might be something wrong with your head?" A woman who prided herself on her patience and high standards of refinement was genuinely beginning to lose it. She was even starting to regret her choice.
"Yes. I've even got a doctor's note to prove it."
Ian rummaged around inside his school uniform and pulled out a slightly crumpled diagnosis slip. It had originally been stored in the living room drawer along with the medicine the doctor had prescribed.
The medicine was all gone now.
But the diagnosis was still there.
"??????"
Tessa was already starting to wonder whether she could return him for a refund.
"Hurry up."
She took another deep breath.
"This is the only help I'll be able to give you after this."
With that, she jabbed a finger hard into the center of Ian's forehead.
Before he could even react, the female reaper vanished from the spot as if she were rushing to clock out at the end of a workday.
The next instant,
the world roared back into motion.
The sirens of ambulances, the rattle of gurney wheels, and the shouts of medical staff all slammed into his ears at once.
Ian realized that, even though people were hurrying back and forth everywhere around him,
not a single person noticed the boy who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
[Temporary Curse: For the next twenty-four hours, you will be immune to death.]
On his status bar,
the clear icon was blinking.
It looked like a negative condition, but in reality it was a beneficial one.
The absurd effect was so outrageous that Ian nearly could not stop himself from stabbing himself twice on the spot.
(End of Chapter)
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