Chapter 13: The Strange Boy, Lee Hwi-jun(13)

There are people born with supernatural powers or senses that ordinary people don’t have, what is commonly referred to as “inspiration” (靈感).

Of course, the majority of people who claim to have such abilities are likely to need psychiatric treatment, but even so, there have been a few genuine individuals among them.

“Hah…”

Among these people, Na Seon-yul, a first-year student in Class 3 at Nakwon High School, was one of the genuine ones.

In fact, she was one of the few who could actually make use of her abilities.

Although such individuals were extremely rare, there were things that only they could do, and because of that, a group of such people had formed an organization.

It had a different name in the past, but as of the 21st century, it was commonly known as the ‘Supernatural Powers Association,’ often simply referred to as the ‘Association.’

Na Seon-yul, who had naturally become part of the Association after being recognized by it from a young age,

“Shit…”

Had recently become unusually angry.

The reason for her growing anger was simple.

It was because her workload had increased.

“These guys never used to do this, but why the hell are they popping up so much now, really…”

Those who were part of the Association were required to take on a district and deal with supernatural phenomena happening in that area.

Solving supernatural phenomena meant eliminating malevolent spirits or wandering ghosts that could harm people, also known as exorcism.

The job that Na Seon-yul claimed to be a part-time job was actually that kind of work.

However, what made the exorcism work different from part-time work, especially when compared to her master’s teaching in Japan, was that…

“Maybe if they paid me more for each one I caught, I’d get it… But seriously, they need to stop showing up.”

In a part-time job, the more you worked, the more money you earned.

But with the exorcism work from the Association, that was not the case.

The Association would pay a fixed salary to the supernatural powers users as compensation for taking responsibility for a district, but that was it.

Unless they were dealing with particularly strong evil spirits with a bounty on their heads, the pay would be the same whether they eliminated 100 spirits or just one.

“Why do I even bother with this if they don’t even pay extra?”

If there were troublemakers in her area, Na Seon-yul couldn’t just leave them be.

“Seriously, if I could just quit this damn shit, I would…”

Despite her complaints, Na Seon-yul, and all the other members of the Association, knew the truth.

If they ignored the evil spirits, it would eventually lead to more troublesome situations later.

And the ones who would have to deal with those problems were inevitably going to be them.

That’s why they all dealt with the spirits in their assigned districts, even though it was a hassle.

Originally, the Association was a volunteer organization founded to efficiently deploy a small number of supernatural users to minimize the damage to the people from evil spirits.

Considering that it had evolved into a form where they at least made enough money to survive as capitalism took hold, the users should be grateful for the income.

Na Seon-yul didn’t grumble because of money, though.

It was simply because she had grown tired and frustrated with the unusually frequent appearances of evil spirits lately.

“These guys never used to show up this often, what’s going on, are they doing this to mess with me?”

In an era where scientific progress had caused belief in superstitions and religion to sharply decline, people would often joke about the idea of ghosts.

Thus, spiritual beings that once thrived on human faith, admiration, and fear had lost much of their power compared to the past.

Because of this, people in the Association often talked about how the appearances of evil spirits, which used to be common, had decreased significantly.

But for some reason, recently, the appearance of evil spirits and ghosts on the verge of becoming malevolent had been increasing in Na Seon-yul’s assigned district.

Even Na Seon-yul, who was regarded as one of the more capable members of the Association, had become quite exhausted from dealing with them every day.

“If I had known, I would’ve refused to be sent here if I knew this was going to happen…”

She began to resent her master, who had sent her to the Nakwon High School district, assuming she would get a better area to work in.

But despite her complaints, she diligently continued to hunt down the evil spirits, even as she dragged her tired body toward the house the Association had prepared for her near the school.

“…What? Why is the barrier activated?”

As she passed by the school, Na Seon-yul sensed that the barrier she had set up near the school had activated, so she immediately rushed to the site.

The barrier was set up to prevent the sight of exorcism when evil spirits appeared in a place where many people gathered.

It temporarily turned the space into a realm beyond, a place not part of the human world.

The fact that the barrier had been activated meant that a supernatural being with ill intent toward humans and another supernatural user like herself were present.

Who could it be?

With this question in her mind, Na Seon-yul entered the barrier and saw a small bus-shaped evil spirit and two people collapsed in front of it.

‘Damn, urgently, like the law of the heavens!’

Crackling!

Huh?

Huh?

Huhhhhh??

Seeing the two in danger, Na Seon-yul quickly took out a talisman and recited an incantation in her mind.

Then, feeling a rush of energy leave her body, she unleashed a blue lightning bolt.

After temporarily dealing with the immediate crisis, she walked toward the two people lying in front of the evil spirit and muttered to herself.

“I came here because I felt the barrier activate near the school, and now I find this… what the hell happened here?”

“…Na Seon-yul?”

Yoo Da-hyun, who called her name in surprise, and the transfer student, Lee Hwi-jun, who was staring at her from the front.

Na Seon-yul gave them a brief glare.

‘Yoo Da-hyun, and the transfer student. Did these guys cause the barrier to activate?’

Only spiritual beings or people with spiritual abilities could enter the realm beyond.

The fact that these two were inside the barrier meant they possessed spiritual abilities.

But Na Seon-yul wasn’t surprised.

‘I already knew Yoo Da-hyun had this ability. The transfer student… So I wasn’t mistaken after all.’

She already knew that the two of them had some degree of supernatural ability.

Yoo Da-hyun, who hadn’t realized she had this ability, had been under observation ever since she enrolled.

As for the transfer student, Lee Hwi-jun… though she couldn’t exactly identify his abilities, she had sensed something about him.

Ah??

Rather than focusing on them, Na Seon-yul decided to pay attention to the evil spirit, who was now surrounded by lightning and screaming.

‘That thing, it’s the one I saw earlier near the school gate. There were so many people watching, I didn’t pay much attention to it then…’

Upon closer inspection, she realized it was the same entity she had seen standing at the gate earlier.

At the time, she had dismissed it since more dangerous evil spirits were already detected elsewhere.

“This is what I passed on earlier.

‘He didn’t look like the kind of evil spirit that could endure something like that. What happened?’

Most of the remaining energy was gathered and released, and despite being hit by a talisman that would have burned away most average evil spirits, it still hadn’t fallen.

The strength and the malevolent aura it gave off seemed entirely different from what I had seen earlier at the school gate.

“Seon-yul, did you do that…?”

“I’ll explain later. First, tell me why it’s like that. It didn’t look like the kind of spirit that would try to kill someone when I saw it earlier.”

Na Seon-yul asked as if requesting an explanation, but was interrupted by Yu Da-hyun who was looking at her in confusion.

The one who answered, however, was not Yu Da-hyun, but Lee Hwi-jun.

“That one used to hang around the bus stop near our neighborhood, and it seems to be obsessed with Yu Da-hyun. It came here because it was following her.”

“Y-Yeah…! That ghost tried to push me into the oncoming car to kill me! Can’t you do something about that ghost—?!”

Na Seon-yul, in agreement with Lee Hwi-jun’s explanation, quickly covered Yu Da-hyun’s mouth to stop her from speaking loudly.

“Stop. Using the word ‘ghost’ like that is not a good practice. It carries both admiration and fear. Names have power, you know. Especially for someone like you, Yu Da-hyun, who has some spiritual sensitivity, you should be careful.”

“Ah, right…”

Yu Da-hyun nodded awkwardly, as if she were embarrassed by her mistake.

Calling a minor spirit a “ghost” could turn it into something more dangerous, but since she didn’t know any better, Na Seon-yul didn’t scold her further.

‘In that case, did the transfer student know about this? Or was it just a coincidence?’

Na Seon-yul glanced at Lee Hwi-jun, who referred to it as a “ghost,” and then shook her head, deciding not to dwell on it.

At least now she understood why it didn’t seem as dangerous earlier.

It had been fixated on Yu Da-hyun, so there hadn’t been much malevolent energy.

However, pushing her toward the oncoming car meant that the evil spirit had physical strength to act without possessing anything.

‘This is troublesome.’

Although it was a rare level of evil spirit, it wasn’t something she couldn’t handle without too much trouble—if she were at full strength.

But she had already exhausted her energy after several days of continuous exorcisms.

She only had one more talisman like the one she just used, the Thunder Talisman.

Aaahhh!

Seeing the evil spirit about to rage again after withstanding the lightning, Na Seon-yul gave a wry smile.

‘I have no choice. I’ll have to bear some loss this time, unlike usual.’

Normally, the energy she offered in exchange for borrowing power would be replenished, but in this case, she had no choice but to accept a loss if she wanted to borrow the strength of those following her and watching over her.

While Na Seon-yul was thinking that, Yu Da-hyun, who was beside her, seemed to panic as she saw the evil spirit trying to shake off the blue lightning.

She grabbed Na Seon-yul and shouted.

“Ahh…! It looks like it’s about to break free?! What should we do, Seon-yul? Is there a way to bring it down?”

“There is. But it’ll take some time.”

To perform a ritual to borrow power, even in a simplified form, it would take time.

However, Yu Da-hyun, startled, asked,

“Time? It looks like it’s about to break free any moment!”

“You guys buy me some time. It won’t take long.”

“W-What do you mean? How are we supposed to buy time? We can’t use lightning like you, Seon-yul…!”

“You can. Here.”

Na Seon-yul handed over the last remaining talisman she had.

It was the Thunder Talisman containing the power of the Thunder God, Nine Heavens Responding Thunder Lord (九天應元雷聲普化天尊).

As seen, the talisman could summon lightning.

Since it was the god of virtue who punishes sin, it wasn’t a picky power, and it became more powerful when infused with spiritual energy.

Na Seon-yul herself often used this talisman.

Yu Da-hyun, who received the talisman, looked confused and asked,

“H-How do I use this?”

“It’s simple. Just think of infusing your energy into it.”

“Energy? Is that all? Can I even do that?”

“It would be better if you have a strong will to do something, without being afraid of the enemy in front of you.”

“Ah…”

As soon as she heard the words “don’t be afraid,” Yu Da-hyun’s expression immediately turned uncertain, and the confidence she had vanished.

Seeing this, Lee Hwi-jun took the talisman from Yu Da-hyun’s hands and said,

“I’ll give it a try. So I just have to do what you said, right?”

“Right.”

Na Seon-yul said so, but honestly, she didn’t have high expectations.

Though she had said it was simple, it wouldn’t be easy for someone who had never practiced controlling spiritual energy to infuse their own energy into the talisman.

Moreover, if they could only see the evil spirit, even if they succeeded in infusing their energy, the power of the lightning wouldn’t be very strong.

Still, if it worked, it would at least bind the spirit for a few seconds.

Those few seconds would reduce the losses she would incur.

With that thought, Na Seon-yul handed over the talisman.

At that moment, the evil spirit finally broke free from the lightning and charged toward them, screaming in rage.

BA-HA-KOO-JOOER!!

At that very moment, Na Seon-yul saw something.

“…I see. You must be very angry for dying because someone pushed you, never getting to have a pretty girlfriend or anything.”

The boy holding the talisman stood in front of the evil spirit.

“…But even so, you can’t drag innocent people to your side.”

The boy mumbled quietly to the evil spirit, and his eyes shone brightly between his hair.

“…Go, back to where you belong.”

Then, the next moment,

KWA-AAAAAANG—-!!!!!

With the roaring thunder, a streak of lightning brighter than his eyes shot down toward the evil spirit.

“Ah?!

“Wha…?!

“What…?!

When the lightning struck, everyone closed their eyes briefly from the cold flash and opened them again.

When they opened their eyes, the evil spirit had vanished without a trace, along with the flash of lightning.

“Wow…”

Yu Da-hyun gasped in amazement as she looked at the scene.

“…The effect is clear. Your talisman.”

Lee Hwi-jun also seemed stunned and muttered as he looked back at Na Seon-yul.

And,

“…Huh?”

The most surprised of them all was Na Seon-yul, who blinked in disbelief.

‘…What the hell is this guy?’

She thought.