Public Enemy (6)
"Kyaaah!"
In a moment of distraction, this crazy bastard lunged at me.
Park Tae-joon yelped and bolted. It didn't matter anyway since he was right next to me; I didn't need him.
I swung my knife and dodged the guy by leaning slightly, then shot a weak mana blast to hit him.
"Cough."
With a retching sound, the guy rolled on the floor. The evil spirit that flew off his body was pierced by my momentarily bent shadow and instantly erased.
"Eek, evil spirits have weak defense. If not fully fused after possession, it's easy to rip off... but how? I'm not a medium!"
"Dumbass. Psychic abilities are basically the same as mana in the end."
Tsking, I kicked the wobbling guy's hand holding the knife.
According to the explanation, even if possessed by an evil spirit, if there's no trigger in one's heart, it's useless.
Meaning, the guy who was causing trouble with the knife was this delinquent's true nature right now.
"You're not going to kill him, are you?"
"I'm checking right now."
I put my hand in my skirt pocket and approached the fallen strong guy lying on the ground.
Gang Jin-su had already been watching everything.
"Eh, how did you do that?"
"How did I do what? What are you talking about?"
"D, don't lie! The moment you touched him with your hand, that bastard fell!"
"He tripped and fell."
I put on a poker face and retorted. After all, no evidence and no way to prove it.
Realizing this, Gang Jin-su's wavering eyes slowly calmed down.
"People will be coming soon, so get up."
"Ah, got it. So, um... back off a bit."
Gang Jin-su, looking up at me, made a sound of hesitation and lowered his eyes.
I clicked my tongue and grabbed my skirt. Since transforming, it's hard to act gracefully because I'm still at the end of the road.
"Soo-ya..."
"Explain first. What the hell happened?"
At that moment, someone I had forgotten for a bit appeared.
Hong Soo-young, who had broken the classroom window and fallen.
She came out to the hallway, holding her arm and staggering.
"It was nothing. That bastard ran into me in the hallway, and as usual, he's been spouting nonsense since morning, but it was a bit... different."
"Different?"
"He crossed the line. The surrounding gang members were about to stop him, and he almost fell off."
Gang Jin-su's testimony, scratching his head, was exactly like a witness report of someone possessed by an evil spirit.
A kind of anger control disorder, or perhaps the truth potion that honestly makes people.
"What the hell is this? This is..."
"Honestly, it doesn't seem like a normal situation."
Both of them had some kind of past, so they took this incident more seriously.
And that doubt was somewhat confirmed.
"Anyway, this can't be easily overlooked. It's a knife-wielding rampage?"
"...Hmph, I wonder if it will be."
Hong Soo-young looked at Gang Jin-su's injured wounds and smirked.
No matter how much the evil spirit's intervention, since it wasn't publicly disclosed, in my common sense, this incident was definitely not something to be lightly dismissed, but her thoughts seemed different.
"Just asking? A knife rampage? Blood was seen?"
"Exactly. I was friendly with the English teacher, so I heard everything. When you think about it, that monster girl Hong Soo-young also jumped in."
That afternoon, Park Tae-joon casually gave me a hint while observing.
"Of course, that bastard Oh Jong-su is a delinquent who wants to expel him from school, but he doesn't want the matter to escalate. He probably wants to cover both sides."
"I can't understand at all. There are dozens of people who saw the scene, and that makes sense?"
"What can kids do. If reporters write an article? Even if they get scolded, people would be shocked by such a thing?"
Park Tae-joon chuckled and shook his head. My face naturally hardened. My common sense seemed wrong again.
"Um, I hope you don't hear it too strangely. You should be careful too. In the end, you're..."
"Want to know the topic?"
"Yeah. You're honest, you don't have anything behind you. Like them."
Seeing my hardened expression, Park Tae-joon, thinking I had misunderstood, regained his confidence and patted his chest and nodded.
Mad world.
I looked at the scenery visible through the window beyond his face and smiled.
I couldn't tell if this world was particularly crazy or if my past self was a pure frog in the well who didn't know the world's darkness. Rather, the Demon Realm was better.
"Speaking of which, there's one favor I need to ask."
"What?"
"Let's go play together."
To change the atmosphere, the guy redirected the topic.
Although it was a favor, according to the conversation just now, I couldn't refuse. How dare he?
*
"Damage cases suspected to be caused by Mammut's evil spirits are increasing. As of today alone, thirty cases... or perhaps more."
"Um, Director. Should we suggest to the President to make this public to the citizens?"
"It probably won't happen."
Underground emergency headquarters. The director sat in the meeting room, head in hands.
The evil spirits scattered by Mammut were causing big and small problems all over the country. To solve them, police were mobilized en masse, but even the mobilized police and ordinary citizens didn't know the cause yet.
"Think about it. Invisible evil spirits are roaming around making people crazy. But don't worry. Right now, magical girls are trying to solve this.... Is this what the government is supposed to say now?"
The director laughed dryly and shook his head.
In fact, the director himself thought it was right to disclose the information, but no politician would openly say that they are powerless and just watching the butts of magical girls.
"It's not like there's no hope. Oh, Chief! Current status?!"
"Currently, we're tracking them continuously!"
Oh Yun-seo, in the command control room, reported the progress.
Now, two large groups of magical girls were searching for Mammut.
The first group was Aria and magical girls affiliated with Aria's company. They continued searching in close cooperation with the Management Bureau.
The second group was a kind of company alliance. They were not cooperating with the Management Bureau but gathering together to search.
However, whichever side found him first, it wasn't time to count merits yet.
"But Chief. If we continue like this, it will take at least a few more days to find him."
"Can't be helped. It would be good if all magical girls actively cooperated with us..."
Oh Yun-seo sighed and rubbed her tired eyes. Probably had to stay up all night again.
"Here too, only evil spirits. No trace of Mammut."
"...There are unusually many evil spirits."
"Of course, this kind of entertainment district is where human desires, pleasures, and black hearts are bubbling. From the evil spirits' perspective, it's a place to choose hosts to eat."
Oh Yun-seo and Han Eun-seo, a magical girl named Aria, crossed the late afternoon entertainment district with mascot fairy Lulu.
Here, only three evil spirits were found and killed, but I didn't know how many innocent people had already been possessed.
"How about the others?"
"Same here. Only faint traces of that Mammut guy remain with the evil spirits, no important clues at all. Honestly, it's weird!"
Lulu was bouncing up and down above her head.
"Weird?"
"Too few traces. This doesn't make sense. Evil spirits scattered like this and erasing all traces? That's not Mammut's way."
"..."
At that moment, she hardened her face and ignored Lulu's nagging, moving her steps to some place.
An evil spirit was slithering into the building wall from inside.
She hurried her steps.
"...Convenience store?"
The floor had a few customers in the convenience store. She cautiously opened the door and entered.
"Eh?"
"You..."
But she met an unexpected opponent there. Jeon So-hyun, fiddling with the POS machine, looked up and her eyes widened.
"Why are you here..."
"Part-time. Here, check out."
But they couldn't immediately pretend not to know each other. Because a burly middle-aged man barged in and dumped the items on the counter.
Tsking, Aria turned her body to investigate the convenience store interior.
"Why, why are you doing this!?"
"Eh! It's because you're my daughter, my hardworking daughter!"
But at that moment, there was commotion at the counter.
Aria instantly jumped to the counter. The customer was grabbing and pulling Jeon So-hyun's hand with his strong hand.
"Lulu...!"
"Too late. He's already possessed. This requires a medium with psychic ability!"
Aria first hit the knee behind the rational man to knock him down, then grabbed his hand to remove it.
No way to remove possession. To avoid creating a victim, she had to restrain him until another colleague arrived.
"Kyaaah!"
At that moment, a sparkling spark flashed from the hands they were holding each other.
Jeon So-hyun, who lost her grip, fell with a clatter behind the shelves, and Aria gasped at the evil spirit that had burst out from the customer's body.
"Grab it!"
"Kyaah!"
Not caring about the other customers' surprise, Aria flew her body and sent her power wind towards the evil spirit.
The evil spirit with poor defense was shredded by the power wind.