Vengeful Spirit (1)
Baek Seol-hwa’s reaction to the post by the high-rank user “Tiger Great Demon King” was something I couldn’t just brush off. At first I thought she had to be joking, so I denied it outright.
“...Don’t talk nonsense.”
“You already know there are yokai that eat people, right?”
“I do, but how would you know if this one does?”
“Well, I’m not completely sure. But it’s seriously suspicious. Want to check out their gallery log?”
Who the hell keeps their gallery log open while using a high-rank nickname? I followed her suggestion and clicked into Tiger Great Demon King’s log. A long list of post titles filled the screen.
“……What the hell is this?”
Every single title was like that. They all mentioned people of various ages, talking about “having a good time” or commenting on how they “tasted.”
“It’s extremely suspicious. All they ever talk about is how tasty someone was.”
I couldn’t deny it. And thanks to Seol-hwa, I was forced to remember something I’d briefly forgotten: yokai are fundamentally harmful creatures. That’s why the word “yokai” itself carries the meaning of something sinister and demonic.
The unpleasant feeling made me close the gallery log and shut the entire gallery window in a hurry.
“...I shouldn’t have looked.”
“Hey, you just don’t have to read their posts.”
“There are probably more like them. Actually, most of the yokai on this gallery are probably the same. You’re the weird one.”
She couldn’t refute that, so she shut her mouth. Instead, she puffed her cheeks in clear dissatisfaction at not being able to browse the gallery at all.
“...At least eat first. I can’t look at this on an empty stomach; it’s ruining my appetite.”
“Ah, right!”
Her expression cleared up instantly. She really was easy to please. Still, it was obvious that Baek Seol-hwa was an outlier. Most yokai hadn’t changed at all. That high-rank user Tiger Great Demon King was proof enough… and if even the regulars on the gallery were like that, I didn’t want to imagine what the countless anonymous users were doing.
‘Even now…’
Even while I was enjoying this peaceful daily life, somewhere out there people were probably being devoured by yokai without a trace. The thought didn’t exactly put me in a good mood. It wasn’t pointless meddling; it felt like the damn fate I’d tried so hard to ignore was creeping back toward me again.
Honestly, once you hear that some creature is eating people, how are you supposed to just let it go?
…Should I tell my parents, or should I handle it myself?
I was deep in serious thought when Seol-hwa spoke up.
“Oh, isn’t that our order?”
“...Yeah. Just hand them the ticket and they’ll give it to you. Go pick it up.”
“Okay.”
Seol-hwa grabbed the order slip and quickly headed off to collect our food. While she was gone, someone tapped me on the shoulder.
“Hey, Yoo Se-hwan.”
“……Oh, Ju-hyuk.”
It was Bae Ju-hyuk, the poor guy I’d ditched and left to eat alone.
“You abandoned me… and now you’re on a date…?”
“...What date? She just threw a tantrum saying she wanted me to buy her food, so I’m treating her.”
“Is she the same age as us?”
I almost blurted out “Are you insane?” How could anyone compare a thousand-year-old yokai with a fresh-faced twenty-four-year-old guy?
“...Yeah.”
…Still, claiming we were the same age seemed safer. It would also explain why we spoke so casually to each other without raising suspicion. But even after I gave that vague answer, the idiot wouldn’t drop it.
“What school does she go to?”
“She doesn’t.”
“Oh, then where does she live?”
“Why the hell would you need to know that? If you’re done eating, get lost.”
“You’re not actually dating her, right?”
“Are you crazy? There’s nothing between us.”
Who in their right mind would date a yokai? When I made a face of genuine disgust, even the suspicious Ju-hyuk looked confused.
“Really?”
“...Yes, really.”
Bae Ju-hyuk seemed to think for a moment, then suddenly plopped down in the empty seat next to me.
“What are you doing?”
“You said there’s nothing between you two. So can I talk to her a bit?”
“Are you insane?”
There was nothing good about letting a normal person get involved with a yokai. I was seriously worried and told him to leave, but the stubborn idiot wouldn’t budge.
“I want to talk to her too!!”
“You damn water buffalo, if you’re that desperate for a girl, go hit on someone from our department!”
“...There are no girls in our department.”
“……Don’t ever say that in front of our classmates.”
“Do I look crazy? I’d get beaten to death.”
At least he knew that much.
“Huh? Who is it?”
Just then, Baek Seol-hwa returned with the food and tilted her head in confusion. …In the end, I couldn’t chase him off in time. I gave up and gestured for Seol-hwa to sit down.
“You saw him briefly at the bus stop earlier. He’s my friend.”
“This morning? Ahhh…”
Seol-hwa remembered the Ju-hyuk we’d left behind at the stop and apologized with a guilty look.
“I’m sorry about this morning. The bike is only a two-seater.”
“Ah, it’s fine. I understand. Three people on a two-person bike would be dangerous. Couldn’t be helped.”
…Why was he suddenly acting so gentlemanly? It was gross enough to kill my appetite.
“Um, I’m Bae Ju-hyuk, Se-hwan’s friend. I heard we’re the same age. Should we introduce ourselves properly?”
“Same age…?”
Seol-hwa shot me a look that asked what the hell I was talking about. Well, what else was I supposed to say? I couldn’t exactly tell him she was a thousand years old. Seol-hwa seemed to catch my intention and let out a small sigh.
“Yes, we’re the same age. I’m Baek Seol-hwa.”
“Whoa, even your name is pretty.”
…His lines had been unbearable from the start. I really couldn’t eat like this.
“Ju-hyuk.”
“Yeah?”
“Please just leave.”
“Why?”
“My appetite is completely gone and my throat feels tight. We’ll talk later, so go away for now.”
“You… you rotten bastard. I was just trying to get to know her and you keep interfering… Haah, and you call yourself a friend…”
“Ugh, seriously.”
I was trying my best to shove him away when Seol-hwa suddenly called out to me in a hurry.
“Hey, Yoo Se-hwan. Wait a second.”
“...What?”
“Over there.”
Seol-hwa pointed somewhere with her finger. She was pointing at the restaurant entrance, where a female student was just leaving. Other than looking extremely tired, there was nothing particularly strange about her. Plenty of college students looked half-dead from assignment overload, so I thought nothing of it… until she spoke.
“That girl… something’s possessing her.”
“...What?”
As soon as I heard that, I lightly touched the necklace around my neck. The previously invisible spirits came into view, making my head spin a little. But I could clearly see what Seol-hwa was talking about.
“!”
Just as she’d said, some kind of spirit was clinging to the student’s back.
‘…Vengeful spirit.’
A ghost born from deep resentment. Their goals differed, but they all had one thing in common: they were the souls of people who had died unjustly or met sudden, tragic ends before fulfilling their purpose. Like regular spirits, they would disappear once their grudge was resolved, but the problem was that their resentment usually led them to harm the living.
The fact that this vengeful spirit was clinging to the girl without hurting her meant the student had nothing to do with its grudge. It was probably planning to use her body to settle its score. She wasn’t fully possessed yet, but if we left it alone, the spirit would soon take over completely.
“...Let’s follow her.”
“Okay.”
“Where are you going? Want me to come too?”
“Ju-hyuk.”
I pushed the two bowls of black bean noodles that had just arrived toward him.
“You can eat all of this. So don’t follow us.”
“For real? You’re not gonna ask for money later, right?”
“I won’t.”
It was a good thing the guy loved free food. Ju-hyuk’s attention was completely captured by the two free bowls of jajangmyeon, and he seemed to have completely forgotten that he wanted to talk to Seol-hwa just moments ago.
Seol-hwa and I left the restaurant and looked for the female student who had left first. The problem was that, because I needed to see the spirit, stepping outside meant even more spirits entered my field of vision. They didn’t seem to notice that I could see them, but the thought that any one of them could turn hostile at any moment made me slightly anxious. It wasn’t that I was afraid of spirits themselves. I’d been seeing them since I was a child, so I was used to them. It was just that they brought back unpleasant memories.
That was when Seol-hwa spoke.
“Hey.”
“...What.”
“If it’s hard for you, you can stop looking. I can watch for you.”
“Ah…”
She was right. Thanks to her, I tapped the necklace again and stopped seeing the spirits. But how did she know I was struggling…?
Whether I found it strange or not, Seol-hwa paid no attention and pointed in one direction.
“That girl is over there. Looks like she’s heading somewhere.”
“...Let’s follow her secretly. The vengeful spirit might notice us, so we should hide our presence as much as possible.”
“Right now I’m disguised so humans can’t see me anyway.”
“That only works on humans. Spirits can sense yoki. So hide any parts where yoki might leak out. Like your tails or ears. Transform them away.”
“Ah, that’s what you meant.”
Seol-hwa nodded in understanding. Her nine tails gathered together and merged into one before vanishing, and her ears disappeared as well.
“What are you going to do?”
“I brought a few things just in case.”
I had originally prepared them to deal with spirits when I met up with Seol-hwa in the afternoon. I’d planned to stop by my place first, but I wasn’t sure I’d have time. I hadn’t brought everything, just a decent number of talismans, so I felt a bit underprepared…
‘…This girl will probably cover for the rest.’
She might not have gathered proper spiritual energy, but she had lived for a thousand years. As the saying goes, many grains of sand make a mountain. Even the small amounts she had collected over time would have accumulated into considerable yoki. At the very least, she would be far more useful than me, who was useless without talismans.
“Let’s go after her.”
The girl was heading toward the humanities building. That area was crowded with people, so it would be awkward to do anything there.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“Are you really going to let her go like that?”
I knew we couldn’t, but the question was how to get her to come with us. She wasn’t possessed yet and was moving of her own will. How were we supposed to drag away a student who was clearly on her way to class?
“I’ll bring her.”
“...What?”
I looked up in surprise at Seol-hwa’s confident declaration, but she had already vanished from sight.
Oh.
“Hey! If you get too close……”
“Excuse me~!”
She was already talking to her. Getting that close would obviously let the vengeful spirit sense her yoki. What was she thinking? I tapped my necklace again. The spirits came back into view, and I quickly checked on the vengeful spirit’s condition.
“Huh? It doesn’t know?”
The vengeful spirit remained still. It was as if it hadn’t realized Seol-hwa was a yokai.
‘Is it not that sensitive to yoki? Or maybe…’
If not, it meant Seol-hwa had hidden her yoki perfectly… but the single fluffy tail still swaying behind her suggested otherwise. Among younger spirits, there were some who had never encountered a yokai’s aura before, so this was possible.
“That’s lucky.”
It was fortunate for us in many ways. Now the only question was whether that confident idiot could actually bring the girl over…
Seol-hwa wore a gentle smile and spoke to her about this and that. When a beautiful person smiles and starts a conversation, people tend to respond favorably. Of course, some might treat it as a scam these days, but that’s exactly why cults always use attractive people for recruitment. Even though Seol-hwa talked for quite a while, the female student didn’t look annoyed at all.
And finally, Seol-hwa and the student turned and started walking together.
“!”
I didn’t know how she’d convinced her, but it was good news. Seol-hwa glanced in my direction and gave a small nod of her chin, signaling me to follow. I kept a reasonable distance so I wouldn’t look suspicious and trailed after them.
Seol-hwa was skillfully guiding the girl toward a less populated path. She was handling it perfectly without me having to say anything; her sense was definitely good. Checking the time, we had about twenty minutes until class started. It would be nice if we could finish this quickly.
“…Hm?”
While Seol-hwa and the student were walking together, the vengeful spirit attached to her back suddenly twitched. I watched to see what it would do, and then it abruptly whipped its head around. Normally, unless the spirit turned its whole body, it shouldn’t have been able to turn its head in my direction. But it deliberately rotated its head 180 degrees and stared straight at me. With eyes that had no eyeballs, only pitch-black hollow sockets.
“……Shit.”
The sudden grotesque change in the vengeful spirit’s face was because it had noticed me and was showing me an illusion. The proof was that the eye sockets that had been staring at me suddenly vanished.
The moment I realized that, I urgently shouted at Seol-hwa.
“It’s running! Catch it!”
“What!?”
Seol-hwa immediately reached out toward the vengeful spirit at my words, but the creature had already prepared to flee. It slipped nimbly out of the female student’s body. Her hand grabbed only empty air, and the sudden departure of the spirit made the student stagger dizzily.
“Ah, are you okay!?”
Seol-hwa quickly caught and supported her, but because the vengeful spirit had been attached for so long, the student fainted on the spot.
The spirit that had broken free immediately tried to flee into the distance. At this rate, neither I nor Seol-hwa would be able to chase it.
“We’re going to lose it! I can’t follow!”
“...Haa.”
Spirits are originally ghosts. They aren’t bound by man-made obstacles and aren’t greatly affected by terrain. Unless they are bound to a specific location, spirits can move more freely than birds.
“Hey, what do we do!?”
“……Let it go.”
“If we lose it here, it might cause another accident…”
“I know that too.”
There was no human who could chase a spirit that was dead set on escaping, and even yokai couldn’t do it unless they could fly like birds. The same went for exorcists. To chase a fleeing spirit, simply running on foot wasn’t enough; you’d need some form of transportation. The problem was that driving while chasing a spirit was extremely dangerous.
That was why exorcists usually used one particular method.
Se-hwan reached into the inner pocket of his coat and pulled out a single talisman. It wasn’t the commonly known yellow paper with red writing. This one was white paper with black ink characters. The characters read “Thunder Beast.”
This was how exorcists pursued souls.
Se-hwan lightly blew on the talisman. It burst into flames, leaving behind a single small piece that floated in front of his eyes.
Clap!
He covered it with both palms.
“Manifest.”
Crack!!
With Se-hwan’s short command, a large weasel-like beast appeared from somewhere and snatched the fleeing vengeful spirit out of the air. The spirit struggled, but it couldn’t escape the creature’s jaws. When the spirit’s thrashing grew more violent, the weasel-like beast let out a low growl and…
Crackle—crackle—crackle!!
It released a powerful burst of electricity that instantly knocked the vengeful spirit unconscious.
Seeing the creature’s cute face contrasted with its rather terrifying ability, Seol-hwa stared in blank amazement.
“A… shikigami?”