The Ghost-Hunting Marine Baton
"…Howw?"
A question so innocently pure popped out of Ha Yuseong's mouth that it bordered on stupidity.
She wasn't just talking about blocking the curse that had shackled her her whole life—she was saying I'd make it so she could wield her full power freely. As if she'd completely forgotten burying her face in the desk from shame just moments ago, she stared up at me with wide eyes.
I leaned back in my chair a bit and opened my mouth.
"You saw me parry that magic before, right? My parrying isn't just about batting away incoming force."
"Reaaally~?"
"It's closer to a physical dispel—hitting the core of the spell, the mana circuit, dead-on to sever the flow of mana itself."
This was something I'd already explained to Seol Eunha before.
"That disaster that forces itself out every time you draw on your mana? It's basically a buff."
"……."
"So what I'm saying is, I'll parry that disaster buff wrapped around your body and dispel it outright."
At my matter-of-fact explanation, Ha Yuseong's brows furrowed.
A realistic question befitting a magic department cadet flickered across her dreamy eyes, hidden beneath her usual sleepy haze.
"Buttt, that buff comes from my own mana, wrapping around my body, righttt~?"
"That's right."
"So if you're gonna sever it with a physical hit like you said, doesn't that mean swinging a weapon right through my bodyyy~?"
Her point was spot-on.
Buffs envelop the caster's body or linger inside it. To smash one with a weapon, you'd have to slice through the body first.
'That's probably why there was never a skill to cancel buffs in the original story.'
That applied to regular weapons, anyway.
The world outside the academy—the hunters' world—was different.
You never knew what bizarre monster might pop out of a dungeon, so hunters always stocked gear for every contingency.
And among that gear were weapons specialized for ethereal monsters without physical form, like ghosts or specters.
"Ever heard of the ghost-hunting marines?"
Jackpot. Time for some modern weaponry.
5 p.m., as the sun dipped low. After-school hours, with all regular classes done.
I headed to a quiet park behind the annex building.
'Come here after school. Let's test it out.'
This was the spot I'd told Ha Yuseong about when leaving the lecture hall that morning.
As I stepped deeper into the eerily silent park—not a single ant in sight—a familiar shock of white hair sprawled across a bench caught my eye.
"……Mmmph."
She must've been waiting a while; Ha Yuseong had dozed off, her oversized white shirt draped way over the bench edge.
Thud, thud.
She jerked her head up at the sound of my footsteps.
"……Dohyuuun~?"
"Sorry, took a bit getting some stuff."
I apologized lightly as I approached and sat beside her.
"Stuuuff…?"
Her sleep-fogged eyes drifted to the long paper box in my hand.
Artifacts I'd swept up from eleven dungeons during Professor Kang Dongsu's class this morning with Seol Eunha.
I'd sold off the useless ones at the shop, then grabbed this via express delivery from a hunter-exclusive site the second school let out.
Riiip—
I tore open the packaging without hesitation and pulled out the contents.
A sleek, hefty chunk of matte black-coated metal.
With a snap of my wrist, I flicked it downward.
Shwing—! A crisp friction sound rang out as the three-segmented rod extended fully.
"……?"
"Mana suppression rod for large ethereal bodies. Folks call it a tactical baton."
Ether Frontier wasn't some outdated fantasy world where sword and sorcery were the only answers.
This was 21st-century Earth, modern science fused with mana engineering.
Of course you could order armor-piercing rounds for monster plating or ghost-busting tools like this online for same-day delivery—if you had the cash.
'Of course, only possible thanks to my academy cadet privileges.'
Civilians needed certifications for this stuff.
"Whaaat're you gonna do with thaaat…."
"Simple. It's made for smashing ghost-type monsters, so it doesn't exert physical force on anything but the handle."
In other words, it passes right through people.
Normally a cheap supply item for chasing off pesky low-level ghosts or poltergeists.
But for me—needing to sever only the mana core inside without harming flesh—it was the perfect tool right now.
I swung the well-balanced baton through the air to test its arc, then beckoned Ha Yuseong.
"Alright, prep's done. Let's start."
"……Reaaally okayyy~?"
She hesitated, unable to shake her anxiety.
"What if your theory's wrong and this stick doesn't workkk~?"
Her worry was valid.
Failure meant an uncontrollable disaster swallowing this defenseless park whole—instantly. Even I, right in front of her, could get wiped out without a trace.
But I just smirked and slung the baton casually over my shoulder.
"I've got Plan B locked down, so quit worrying."
"……Okaaaay~."
At my firm assurance, she didn't argue further.
Instead of probing my confidence, she nodded faintly and slowly closed her eyes.
Soon, mana began to rise from her body.
She looked pitiful, like a scared kid squeezing out mana lest the tiniest spark ignite into catastrophe.
'If it starts rampaging, I'll just cut it off right away. That's why we're here—to test my control.'
If I could be her reliable safety net.
Then today, at least, she could unleash her pent-up power freely.
"Yuseong."
"…Mmm?"
"Don't hold back. Whatever happens, I'll handle it."
"……!"
Her tightly shut eyes snapped open.
Her perpetually drowsy gaze sharpened with disbelief.
Knowing full well what destruction her power wrought, blindly egging her on to let loose? I was probably the first lunatic to try.
Finally, she drew a short breath and nodded lightly.
"……Got ittt~."
No sooner had her drawling reply faded into the air—
Vrrrrm—! Vast, pure mana, suppressed for years, erupted from her pale fingertips with unstoppable force.
Crackle—!
For a split second.
The once-clear mana twisted into an ominous ashen hue.
The sound of the world's logic being forcibly warped.
Rumble—! No warning.
The peaceful park ground cracked like a spiderweb as massive earth pillars surged up. Vacuum tornadoes tore through the sky, slamming down like lightning bolts.
"Grk… grk…"
From the fissures, rotten bone fragments—no business being in the academy's heart—clattered as they crawled out.
Earthquake, storm, and a random undead horde spawn.
Logic be damned. A true disaster.
'…Still insane firepower.'
I shook out my flapping clothes and let out a short whistle of admiration.
This was still subconsciously restrained by instinctual fear. Compared to the "First Disaster" full power in the original? Just the tip of the iceberg.
Whoooosh—!
Soon, the swelling disasters shifted trajectories en masse. Locking onto the only lifeform nearby—me.
Instead of backing up, I readjusted my grip on the tactical baton.
Drew a breath, focusing my eyes.
'God's Dynamic Vision.'
My sight tinted blue as the bones and tornadoes rushing me slowed to taut slow-motion.
I kicked off without hesitation, charging forward.
Tap—!
"Grk!"
First up: a sloppy mob of undead lunging with pieced-together bones.
'These have physical form, huh.'
I didn't slow, folding the baton and drawing a spare sword from my subspace pouch at my waist.
Clang—!Crunch!
Parried their crude bone strikes off my blade, then rammed a counter through the gaps in their hollow frames. Trash mobs spawned from logic glitches anyway.
The rotten bones shattered at my single slash, crumbling to dust.
'Next.'
No sooner had I smashed the undead than a massive sand tornado barreled in.
It bore down to grind me to paste, but I didn't even need to twist its path.
Boom—!
As the vacuum blades neared, a faint teal glow emanated from deep in my subspace pouch.
'Good thing I charged the four-leaf clover and never used it.'
The Blue Four-Leaf Clover in my pouch activated.
For an instant, my body shimmered like a mirage.
Whish—!
The storm blades that would've shredded my skin passed harmlessly through like a lie, slicing empty air.
Riding that brief absolute invincibility, I strolled through the tornado's heart and landed lightly.
But no time to relax. The earthquake had split the ground wide between Yuseong and me—a chasm too vast for a jump.
'Perk: Copy.'
I recalled the lightning spell I'd parried from Professor Kang Dongsu that morning.
Overlaid its explosive trajectory and speed onto my legs.
Crackle—!
Blue sparks erupted around my legs.
With a ground-shattering boom, my form shot like lightning.
The cracked earth fissure was no obstacle. In a flash of vision, I'd closed the distance and reached the storm's eye.
"…Dohyuuun, can't you use manaaa~?"
Her drowsiness gone, she gaped in shock right in front of me.
"I heard your mana stat was zerooo…."
"Something like that."
Perks let me copy without mana.
No need to spill system secrets, though. I brushed it off and raised the tactical baton.
Focus now: Ha Yuseong's pure mana. And the nasty disaster shell clinging to it.
I swung the hefty rod at her body without pause.
Whoosh—
The special-coated ethereal suppression rod ghosted through her shirt and skin without resistance.
Deep inside her.
The moment its tip kissed the foul spell core twisting causality—
'Treat this energy as an attack—and parry!'
Claaang—!
Though it struck intangible mana shards, a clear, ringing metallic clang echoed across the park.
The parry, channeled through the baton, forcibly deflected and shattered the disaster spell overlaying her mana.
Fwaaah—!
That single light strike.
And with it, every rampaging phenomenon poised to devour the park halted like a lie.
The savage sand tornadoes scattered like spring breeze; the quaking earth stilled.
The bone shards crawling from cracks crumbled like powerless toys, oxidizing to dust.
As if someone yanked the power plug—every disaster vanished cleanly in an instant.
"Whew."
Theory proven. Success.
I exhaled lightly and collapsed the baton.
Then gazed at Ha Yuseong, standing blankly amid the settling sand in the park's center.
She alternated between her hands and the restored calm around her, lost in awe.
"It's really goooone…."
Her half-lidded eyes gaped wide in disbelief.
The horrific curse that tormented her lifelong had melted away like magic from one whack of my marine baton—and she couldn't process it.
"Remember I said I'd help you control it?"
"……Y-yeah."
The root cause? Lack of experience. She'd only ever suppressed her mana out of fear, never building control.
'In the original, Ha Yuseong's rampage never even caught her in it.'
She wielded those horrors like limbs, nearly dooming the world.
Dodging and countering those insane AoE patterns? I'd wiped dozens of times.
Those vivid, bullshit memories proved she had the potential to master this power.
I pressed the baton's handle firmly atop her white crown as she stared up blankly.
"If it feels like it'll spiral, I'll keep cutting it off like just now."
"……."
"How about we practice properly handling that curse while we're at it?"
Time to make her fully mine.