The Mixed One (1)
A single KakaoTalk message waited for me from early in the morning. It was from none other than Jang San.
Post? “Ah.” Right. I had asked her to write something on the Ghost Gallery saying I wasn’t suspicious. I should check what she actually wrote. I opened the app right away.
> Logging in......
> Welcome to the one and only community for yokai, monsters, and ghosts — the Ghost Gallery.
It seemed like the little welcome message at the bottom changed slightly every time. They must rotate through a few random ones. “Let’s see…” I searched for posts by TigerGreatDemonKing. Sure enough, there was one written in the early hours of this morning.
Since they lived in Busan, I went to meet them. Just an ordinary weak yokai that gathers spiritual energy from spirits. Nothing special. The suspicious IP was nothing more than a simple error, and they were a completely plain yokai with no distinguishing features. The only slightly unusual thing is that they help spirits pass on and collect the energy that way, but that type shows up on the gallery often enough that it’s hardly unique. They weren’t even worth eating, so we just had a meal and parted ways.
It was a short post. Almost too short, but the reactions in the comments showed it had made quite an impact. There were over a hundred replies…
Maybe the bait had already gone cold, or maybe Admin’s explanation had helped, but even with over a hundred comments, no one was raising any real issues. If anything, the lack of interest was almost impressive. People seemed more curious about the fact that TigerGreatDemonKing had gone in person and hadn’t eaten them, and that they’d written such a long post, than about 100.100 itself.
“…Thank god.” The topic looked like it would die down quickly. The most annoying thing after nearly getting exposed was having the fire constantly rekindled, but the reactions suggested that wouldn’t happen. Admin’s notice must have worked better than I expected…
Though I still didn’t understand how a notice that basically said “if you don’t like it, leave the gallery” was received so positively. Curious about their usual style, I skimmed through some of Admin’s other posts. Most of the notices showed them taking pretty heavy-handed measures. Yet people still kept the Admin badge, and the regulars only grumbled for a moment before moving on. In any other gallery, there would have been an uproar demanding the badge be taken away. Why was it different here?
“King of Steel…” Who could it be? Most of the people who used fixed nicknames on the Ghost Gallery tended to pick names that reflected their traits. SnowFlower had clearly taken theirs from their name, and TigerGreatDemonKing had chosen theirs because they were actually a tiger spirit beast.
“When I think of steel, a few things come to mind…” Steel had always carried the image of something hard and strong, so there were plenty of yokai and divine beasts connected to it. There was the iron-eating Mac, the Bulgasaari, creatures whose entire bodies were covered in steel… Even the divine beast White Tiger that I had briefly suspected might be Jang San’s true identity governed over metal. There were many yokai tied to steel. A ghost using the nickname King of Steel didn’t seem likely, though…
“Seeing how no one dares talk back to Admin, they must be some powerful entity…” Still, there was no need for me to dig into it. I was curious, but it genuinely had nothing to do with me. No connection at all.
“Anyway…” I sent Jang San a reply first, thanking her for the post. The response came back instantly.
“?” I glanced at the door. Only then did I notice the incredibly powerful energy coming from the other side. I stood up. “When did she…”
The moment I opened the door, Jang San greeted me with a bright smile. “Good morning, Se-hwan. Sleep well?”
“Ah, morning.” For some reason, Baek Seol-hwa was standing right beside her. “…Why are you here?”
“Am I not allowed to be?” Seol-hwa asked, puffing her cheeks slightly.
“You didn’t even tell me you were coming.”
“It’s not like I wanted to come or anything.”
“I invited her~” Jang San said cheerfully. I tilted my head. Hadn’t she said she wanted to check something alone?
“It doesn’t matter if more people come along,” Jang San answered, as if she had read my thoughts. When I stared at her, she smiled sweetly. “It was written all over your face. You were wondering why I didn’t come alone, weren’t you?”
“Uh… yeah, I was. Was it that obvious?”
“I’m not sure…” Seol-hwa murmured, staring at me intently as if trying to read my thoughts like Jang San had. Of course, that was impossible. What a silly nine-tailed fox…
“So what did you want to check?” I asked.
“The reason you were able to access the Ghost Gallery. If this kind of error had happened before, there should have been at least a few similar cases, right? Strange IPs or something. But there haven’t been any. Not once.”
Jang San glanced at Seol-hwa as she spoke. “Ah, yeah. I’ve never seen anything like it either,” Seol-hwa added. She must have wanted to emphasize that even a long-time gallery user like her had never witnessed it. I would have believed her without the extra proof, but I guess it was a habit she’d picked up from the gallery…
Anyway, that meant I was apparently the first human to ever successfully log into the gallery. Why had it happened to me?
“I’m curious too. Why could I even get in?”
“Then, if you’ll excuse me.”
“Huh?”
Jang San slipped off her shoes and walked straight into my room like she owned the place. She casually scanned the space, then suddenly started sniffing around.
“…What is she doing?” I asked Seol-hwa.
“I have no idea…” She didn’t know either. Not helpful at all.
“The smell is so strong it’s hard to find the source,” Jang San muttered.
“That smell?”
“You know, that unique smell that builds up in a guy’s room~. You should really empty your trash can more often. It would have been less noticeable then.”
“Wh-what?! What the hell are you talking about!” I hadn’t had time to clean lately because I’d been so tired. What was she on about?!
“Just kidding~.”
“…I’m kicking you out.”
“Pfft, sorry. I just wanted to tease you a little.” I really wished she would stop with those terrible jokes. I let out a sigh and turned my head, only to find Seol-hwa standing there. “…Seol-hwa?”
“Ah, y-yes?!” Her face was bright red, as if she had a fever.
“Are you sick?”
“N-no! I’m not!”
But why was she acting like this…? “……Are you embarrassed because you heard what she said?”
“No! I’m not embarrassed at all?!” Just how little immunity did she have? Even back when she had hidden in the cabinet and we’d been forced to press against each other, she had reacted the same way. It really felt like she had zero resistance to anything involving men as a species.
If she were an ordinary woman, I could understand it, but… She was a gumiho, for crying out loud.
“Ah, um. Right. Yoo Se-hwan.” Seol-hwa suddenly spoke up, apparently trying to hide her embarrassment by changing the subject.
“What?”
“You know what today is, right? With me and…”
“Yeah, I know.” It was Saturday. The day I was supposed to start that sweet short-term part-time job she had suggested. Twenty thousand won a day, forty for two days… enough to cover my monthly rent.
“I actually woke up early because of that.” I couldn’t afford to miss it. Seol-hwa’s eyes widened for a moment, then she slightly turned her head away.
“Th-that’s good. Very responsible.”
“Of course, boss.”
“…Why are you suddenly being so polite?”
“I’m always polite to people who pay me.”
“You’re surprisingly materialistic…”
“What can I say? Living alone does that to a person.” Seol-hwa suddenly jerked her head up as if startled. “…Then why do you live alone?”
“Huh? Oh… I guess I never told you.”
“Are your parents perhaps…”
“They’re perfectly fine. Let’s not turn me into an orphan for no reason.” From the way she was looking at me with those round eyes, she had clearly misunderstood. Seol-hwa tilted her head.
“Then why do you live alone? For university?”
“Well… that’s part of it, but there’s a bigger reason.”
“What is it?”
“I didn’t want to do exorcisms anymore.”
“…Huh?” Seol-hwa looked completely caught off guard by the answer.
“I wanted to live normally without doing exorcisms. So I ran away from home. And yet here I am, five years later, doing it again.” A bitter laugh slipped out on its own. I had tried so hard to escape that fate, only for it to come back around once I got tangled up with yokai. And the funny part was, I wasn’t even being forced this time. It had taken me far too long to realize that exorcism wasn’t just about destroying things. Guess the saying that you never really know what life has in store for you isn’t just empty words.
“…S-sorry.” She suddenly apologized from beside me. I looked over, startled, and saw her fidgeting with her fingers, head lowered in a genuinely remorseful expression.
“I didn’t know… I’m sorry for forcing you to do something you hate.”
“What?” Her drooping ears and tail said everything about how she felt. Guilt, and a touch of sadness.
“You can just use a temporary account on the gallery from now on, so you don’t have to help me anymore. I’ll figure it out on my own…”
“No, no. That was in the past.”
“…It was?” Her big blue eyes widened as she stared at me. This pure-hearted idiot. I had no idea how she had survived this long.
“I ran away because of that back then, but it’s different now.”
“…It is?”
“Yeah. I’ve more or less realized what it means to help spirits pass on, and the value it holds…” I knew it was ironic to say this after running away because I didn’t want to get involved with the supernatural. I hadn’t wanted to bring it up, but if I didn’t explain, this innocent gumiho would keep misunderstanding.
“I don’t hate it anymore.”
“…Really?”
“If I really hated it, would I have kept in touch with you? I would’ve just slapped a talisman on you and exorcised you on the spot.”
“What?! I’m not that easy to deal with, you know!” Her previously drooping ears and tail suddenly perked straight up. The speed of her emotional shifts was honestly impressive. I couldn’t help but smile.
“…You’re not just forcing yourself to be okay with it because of me, right?”
“Would you really go that far just for yourself?”
“Yeah, that’s true… but somehow that still sounds insulting.”
…Her glare was pretty intense. Was she going to hit me?
“Mm, I think I get it now.” Jang San, who had been wandering around my place and inspecting everything, suddenly muttered as if she had found what she was looking for.
“Get what?”
“What exactly were you looking for?” Seol-hwa and I asked at the same time. I had thought she had come along because she already knew, but apparently not.
“The reason Se-hwan was able to access the Ghost Gallery. I have a pretty good idea now.”
“What?”
“I brought Seol-hwa along specifically so I could compare.”
“Compare what? Wait, you said we were just coming together!”
…As if I would believe that.
“Seol-hwa slept here once before, right? So I compared her yoki directly to make sure I wasn’t mixing anything up.”
“So what is it?”
“Your yoki.”
“……What?”
This was the part where everything started to go off the rails.
What the hell was she talking about? Why would I have yoki?
“It’s extremely faint, but I can sense yoki coming from you. I noticed it when I brought you to my house. After you left, there was yoki in my home that didn’t belong to Seol-hwa. At first I thought it was just the normal yin energy humans carry, but I was wrong. Now that I’ve looked around here, I’m certain.”
Jang San continued, “There’s yoki in your house that isn’t from Seol-hwa. It’s exactly the same as what was left in mine.”
“…What the hell are you saying?!” My voice rose without me realizing it. Of course it did. She had suddenly started treating me like a yokai. Even though I had grown somewhat used to being around people like Seol-hwa and Jang San, I still carried trauma from that world. I hated it. The phrase “visceral rejection” felt perfect for this moment.
When I suddenly raised my voice, Seol-hwa flinched back in surprise. The sight helped me regain some composure. I let out a long sigh to calm myself.
“My parents who gave birth to me are alive and well. I don’t need spiritual energy like a yokai does. And you’re calling me a yokai?”
“Se-hwan, you need to listen properly.”
“Listen to what? You came to my house just to spout this nonsense?”
“That’s not what I mean. I never called you a yokai.”
“……?” What was she saying now…?
“You’re not a yokai. You’re human. If you were a yokai, you’d need to absorb spiritual energy periodically like you said, but you don’t, right?”
“…Then what exactly are you trying to say?”
“I’m just saying I can sense yoki on you. You’re clearly human, yet you have yoki.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I know it doesn’t… but it’s true.”
“I don’t feel anything like that.” If I really had yoki, why hadn’t Seol-hwa reacted at all? She should have noticed something strange from the very beginning.
“She can’t sense it.”
“Why not?”
“It’s an incredibly tiny amount. You know how sensitive spirit beasts are to yoki, right?” That was obvious. Spirit beasts and divine animals were basically natural enemies to yokai.
“Even I, a spirit beast, can barely detect it. There’s no way an ordinary yokai could.”
“…So you’re saying I have an extremely tiny amount of yoki, and that’s the key that let me into the Ghost Gallery?”
“Yeah. That seems to be it.”
“But…” It still didn’t make sense. “Why would I even have yoki? I’m just a normal human.”
“…Well, maybe.”
“What.”
“Did one of your ancestors happen to be a yokai?”
“That’s a low blow.”
“I was just considering every possibility… Hmm, if not that, then…”
“There’s more?”
Jang San looked at me. “Have you ever been seriously injured?”
“……Huh?” How did she know that?
“Looks like you have. Something like severe damage to your body or internal organs… to the point where you needed a transplant?”
“…How could you possibly know that?”
I was nineteen. Back when my parents had dragged me into the exorcism business against my will. The ironic reason I had been able to escape that life and take the college entrance exam was because of an exorcism job. During one, a great yokai had pierced my lower abdomen, destroying several major organs. I had nearly died. Of course there had been a massive surgery. The doctor had said they barely saved me thanks to a timely organ donor. That was how badly I had been hurt.
I suddenly understood why Jang San was bringing this up. The story about me carrying yoki. The speculation about the cause. The mention of an organ transplant… It was impossible not to see where this was going.
As my expression hardened, Jang San delivered the final blow without mercy.
“It looks like something that wasn’t human got mixed in back then, doesn’t it?”