Nymphs and Clichés # 2
Looking back now, I'd been a thrill-seeker since way back in the day.
Or maybe I should say I just loved scary things.
So it was only natural cause and effect that a guy like me bought those ghost-story anthologies sold at the stationery shop in front of the school, or searched up creepy tales on MeTube.
It went without saying that I'd devoured every horror film ever made.
In other words, a man so thoroughly tempered by fear was practically a master of terror itself.
And standing before this paragon of fright was my little sister Ha Irae, clinging upside-down to the ceiling, growling like a wild beast.
"Grrrgh, grrrgh…!"
Can a human being really hang upside-down from a ceiling?
Let alone a college girl barely into her early twenties?
Her eyes had rolled back until they were pure white, and foam was bubbling out of her mouth.
At the sight, Barbaru the imp piped up.
"Hyeeek…! Who are you supposed to be, comrade…!? The Princess Irae I knew was never like this, I tell you…! Her Princess Power is draining away by the second, I tell you…!"
I had no idea what "Princess Power" was supposed to be, but I could tell perfectly well that Irae was sliding deeper into an increasingly abnormal state.
Keongkeongi the dog-squirrel was rumbling low in his throat, fur bristling on end.
Angangi and Kwangkwangi had bolted behind my back in a flash.
"I am the Legion…! I am the Blade Queen itself…!"
She'd even apparently forgotten who she was.
"Hey! Irae! What do you mean you're the Legion and the Blade Queen!?"
Even as I shouted that, my brain was quietly reaching a conclusion.
There was only one thing this situation could mean.
And I knew what that something was better than anyone.
"Hey, Ildo… you've figured it out, haven't you…!?"
Jina, apparently grasping how serious this was, jabbed me in the ribs. She must have caught on too.
"Hyeeek…! Kore Irae is spinning her head a full three hundred sixty degrees, that's what's happening…! How such a thing is even possible, this Oinoi cannot begin to fathom, that's what it is…!"
"I don't know what's going on, but this Coris thinks the best move is to just beat her senseless, that's what it is…! Hurry and drag Kore Irae down off that ceiling, that's what it is…!"
While the nymphs ran around in a panic, I organized the situation and drew my own conclusion.
"A sudden spike in appetite. Hearing voices, losing fine control of your body, spraining an ankle for no reason. And, most tellingly, pulling off feats no ordinary person could—."
One answer.
And I and Jina both said it at the same time.
"Possession—."
"It's an awakening, duh."
Huh?
We'd said two completely different things.
I'd been dead certain some ghost had possessed her, and here was Jina talking about awakening.
"An awakening?" I asked.
Awakening meant, literally, opening your eyes to some new power or ability. Those who completed the process were called awakeners, and I and Jina were both among their ranks.
"Ildo, you went through something similar when you awakened, didn't you? Your metabolism suddenly kicked into overdrive and you were starving all the time. Your mana spiked and your body control went to hell."
"Now that you mention it…."
"Plus, fresh awakeners are about as mentally stable as a cola bottle you've just shaken up, so hearing phantom voices is pretty common too."
Oh.
Her reasoning actually held water.
But wait—awakening was supposed to happen in your teens, wasn't it?
Irae was well past twenty by Korean age reckoning.
Did people really awaken out of nowhere in their twenties?
Ordinarily, anyone destined to become an awakener showed early signs—prodromes—back in their boyhood and girlhood years.
That was why potential awakeners got scooped up at the national level for all manner of tests and put under thorough management long before anything happened.
"I'll get her down first."
Shweep—.
I pulled Irae off the ceiling and strapped her arms and legs down to the bed.
"Arrrgh, grrrgh, arrrgh…!"
A newly awakened berserker who couldn't control their own body could cause any kind of accident.
Restraining them was simply the wise move.
"It is certain that a demon has taken hold of her, that's what it is…! I, this Barbaru, am a lesser imp…! And lesser imps know all about demonic and ghostly possession, that's what it is…! We must drive it out at once, that's what it is…!"
But Barbaru kept insisting on the demon-and-ghost theory.
Shweep—.
From somewhere, she produced a cross made of iron.
She breathed a gust of fire over it until it glowed red-hot, then thrust it right up close to Irae's face.
"Hiii…!"
"Behold this, that's what it is…! People possessed by demons and ghosts writh in agony before a holy cross like so, that's what it is…! This here is the proof, that's what it is…!"
Uh, wouldn't anyone writhe in agony if you held a searing-hot lump of iron an inch from their face?
Also, I had my doubts about whether a lesser imp should be toting a cross around in the first place.
"I don't know what's wrong with her, but let's all just beat her silly for now, that's what it is…! Fellow nymphs, let's clench our fists tight and do our best for Kore Irae's sake, that's what it is…!"
"This Coris agrees with that plan, that's what it is…!"
Fists raised high, the nymphs began wailing on the Irae strapped to the bed.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud—.
"AAAAGH~"
Irae screamed.
Then, as if her senses had snapped back into place, she spoke up.
"O-oppa! Help me out here! Why am I tied up? Untie me!"
"Do not lend her your ears, that's what it is…! The evil spirit has not yet fully departed…! She is trying to beguile the living…! I, this Barbaru, your Prime Imp comrade, can see through it, that's what it is…!"
Not a shred of sanity there.
I was just starting to think I should rein the nymphs in before they beat my sister to a pulp when—
━Kyeng…!
Something shot out of Irae's body with a sharp cry and a pop—!
It was wispy and translucent, like smoke.
For a second I thought Irae had hacked up a plastic bag, but on closer inspection it had four legs, a plump fluffy tail, and was honestly kind of cute.
Seeing it, Oinoi exclaimed:
"Aaah—! That creature is a Nightmare Raccoon, that's what it is…! A rare subspecies of the Chili Raccoon, so dreadfully difficult to find that it is named after nightmares themselves—a most precious and exceedingly rare raccoon, that's what it is…!"
A Nightmare Raccoon.
A raccoon whose discovery difficulty was, apparently, nightmare-grade.
It was also said to be a ghost-type animal drawn to people's bad dreams. Now that I looked, it really did look like a raccoon.
━Kyeng-kyeng…!
"Hiii…! Something just came out of my body! What is that thing!"
Irae freaked out big time.
Startled by her scream, the Nightmare Raccoon jolted its translucent body with a pop and tried to slip out of the room.
Watching it, I called to Keongkeongi.
"Keongkeongi! Grab it, quick!"
━Krrrgh…!
Pop—!
Tail fur puffed out, Keongkeongi launched himself into the air.
But his attack passed straight through the translucent Nightmare Raccoon and smacked into the wall instead.
"The Nightmare Raccoon has no physical form, that's what it is…! It cannot be caught or knocked down by ordinary attacks, that's what it is…!"
I'd heard that formless, spirit-body type monsters popped up now and then in Britain and other parts of Europe.
I'd even seen it on Kira's channel!
But I'd only ever known them through videos and word of mouth—seeing one in the flesh for the first time was both startling and honestly thrilling!
━Kyeng-kyeng…!
The Nightmare Raccoon wailed.
Even its bristling fur made it look genuinely pissed off.
Seeing that, Oinoi said:
"A Nightmare Raccoon can possess a person, that's what it is…! But it can only possess those who carry mana, that's why…! The master of this house must be careful, that's what it is…!"
So it could only possess awakeners?
Pop—!
Just then, the Nightmare Raccoon lunged at Jina.
"Whuh—?"
Caught completely off guard, Jina scrambled.
But she recovered instantly, raised her fist, and brought it crashing down on the raccoon's body with all her strength.
"The hell is this thing."
Weren't ordinary attacks supposed to be useless?
And yet the Nightmare Raccoon took that knuckle sandwich square on the head and flopped flat onto the floor.
Watching it, Coris said:
"Junior Kore Jina is the wicked, delinquent type of Kore, that's what it is…! And sometimes wicked, delinquent people don't fear even ghosts, that's what it is…!"
Living long enough, you'd meet people who got told, "What's a ghost gonna do? It wouldn't dare drag off someone like you."
Those were the delinquent humans who feared neither gods nor spirits, and apparently for such people, it was the ghosts and phantoms who ended up on the receiving end.
It actually made a weird kind of sense.
Apparently the Nightmare Raccoon had settled into this house—Jina's new place—and had been living there for quite some time.
The previous owners had been ordinary folks with barely any mana, so seeing the raccoon had been impossible for them.
An invisible thing moving around, knocking stuff over, making footsteps in the night… how terrifying must that have been?
"No wonder the price was cheap. It was a haunted house all along. Well, a haunted house with a raccoon that's only ghost-adjacent, but whatever. Cheap is cheap. Heh heh."
Either way, she'd scored a jackpot, and Jina clenched her fist tight.
Soon Irae came back to her senses and shuddered all over.
"What's with this raccoon?! It's actually adorable!"
Irae scooped the Nightmare Raccoon up off the floor where it had faceplanted.
Even though it was the thing that had just possessed her body, she didn't seem scared in the slightest.
That's when a question occurred to me.
"A Nightmare Raccoon that only possesses awakeners… possessed you, Irae. Did you actually awaken?"
"Beats me?"
Hmm.
While I was mulling it over, Irae said:
"Can I keep this raccoon? It's way too cute!"
The Nightmare Raccoon sat quietly in her arms.
Living alongside Keongkeongi, Kwangkwangi, Angangi, Myeong-i, Kalinoi, and a whole menagerie of other animals, I considered myself something of an expert on compatibility between humans and beasts.
And by my expert judgment, the compatibility between the Nightmare Raccoon and Irae looked pretty good.
"Come to think of it, Irae, didn't you used to say all the time that you could see weird stuff?"
Back when I was in middle school—
I remembered Irae's elementary school days.
She was always going, "Mom, there's a weird thing floating around in the air!" and trolling our parents nonstop.
And every so often she'd lose her mind entirely, climb a tree, and start hurling acorns at my friends.
Which is why my friends would ask me, "Ildo, is your little sister a deranged monkey?"
She was an embarrassing sister in every possible way.
Back then, Mom agonized over it endlessly: "If a girl is this sloppy, how will she ever get married…. They say she's healthy and nothing's physically wrong, so what on earth is the problem…."
"Didn't she get completely cured after drinking that talisman water, though?"
Mom had heard some nonsense about a miraculous bosalm goddess whose talisman, when brewed into water and drunk, would cure anything—so she'd bought one with money, at a price exceeding three months of Dad's salary. And afterward, Irae really was completely cured!
"Right! Now that I think about it, that's when I started really trusting folk remedies!"
That was before the world turned upside down.
But now, looking back… could it be that had actually been Irae's awakening prodrome?
"Well, how about that. So the talisman suppressed the awakening prodrome? She lived an ordinary life afterward, and then getting possessed by the Nightmare Raccoon finally jolted her fully awake?"
It was only my guess, but it held up pretty well.
Guess that shaman really was the real deal.
I should ask Mom who made that talisman for her.
"So I'm an awakener now? Ooh, shit…! Does that mean I can shoot fire from my hands or lasers from my eyes? Can I become the Blade Queen…!?"
Irae seemed absolutely thrilled at the prospect of being an awakener.
Ten years ago it might have been different, but these days becoming an awakener was a genuinely good thing.
It wasn't like they rounded awakeners up and threw them into the fire lines anymore.
To check on Irae's exact condition, she'd want to get a proper examination at a specialized facility.
Anyway.
And just like that, the Nightmare Raccoon Incident came to a tidy end.
"Come to think of it, I still have to live in a house that might sprout another ghost at any moment. Ildo, come visit sometimes and check whether I'm alive or dead. Got it? I'll give you the door code."
And thus I acquired the door lock passcode to Jina's house.
Yu Ari read through her backlog of messages and the corners of her mouth curled up into a sly smile.
But just as quickly, her lips found their way back to their usual position.
Jingle-jangle—.
The noisy clatter of bells rang through the air.
A shabby house in a run-down residential neighborhood, rainbow banners fluttering overhead.
A familiar incense smell crawled up her body and dredged up memories from long, long ago, and Ari frowned.
She pushed open the iron gate—the same one she'd shoved with all her strength countless times in her school uniform days—and with a long metallic groan, a cramped little courtyard appeared.
Porcelain dolls shaped like buddhas, fairies, and divine spirits crowded every surface in a dizzying array. Ari turned her eyes away from them.
Creak—.
She opened the door and stepped inside, and there sat a woman in the dim interior.
A woman in a hanbok trimmed in riotous colors, wearing a red hat crowned with pheasant tail feathers—her age was impossible to pin down.
Jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle—!
With every step Ari took, the bell grew louder.
Soon, beneath the red hat, the woman opened her eyes.
"Look at you, draped head to toe in all those things. Your body right now is exactly like a car with the key still in the ignition and the door left hanging wide open. Anyone could step on the pedal and drive you off anywhere they please."
"……."
"Is that what brought you to me? I don't have much time left, you know. Even my spiritual power is fading. Ari-ya, your mother rejected the divine spirit and ran, so now you are the last of my bloodline."
"……."
"Ari-ya, the time has come for you to stop wandering and accept your destiny. Our line has served the General God, generation upon generation, since the opening of heaven itself… passing my burden down to you is my inescapable fate."
Ari said nothing and slowly lifted her head.
She had been mortified, ever since she was a child, that her grandmother was a shaman.
It got far worse during adolescence.
The reason I wanted to run away—that was it, right there.
In one corner of the shrine hall was a mural painted with the images of gods.
There, a woman hailed as the mighty General God gripped a shield in one hand and a spear in the other, a helmet pressed down deep over her head.
The name of the General God served by the Virgin Shaman was Athena, goddess of war.
And ever since she was a little girl, Ari had found that fact just a little… embarrassing.