Public Enemy (6)

Public Enemy (6)

“Aaargh!”

In that moment of carelessness, this madman lunged at me.

Park Tae-jun fled in terror. It’s not like I needed him around anyway, he’d just be in the way.

I slightly tilted my body to avoid the guy rushing at me with a knife, and fired a weak magic wind that hit its mark.

“Ugh.”

With a retching sound, the guy rolled on the ground. The evil spirit that bounced off his body was instantly pierced by my twisted shadow and annihilated.

“Ah, these evil spirits have weak defenses. If they haven’t fully merged after possession, it should be easy to remove… Wait, how?! You’re not a medium, so how?!”

“Idiot. Psychic abilities are ultimately the same as magic.”

Clicking my tongue, I kicked the knife away from the staggering guy’s hand.

According to the explanation, even if possessed by an evil spirit, it’s useless unless there’s a trigger in the person’s own mind.

In other words, the fact that he was rampaging with a knife was this thug’s true nature.

“You, you won’t kill me, right?”

“I’m considering it right now.”

With my hand in my skirt pocket, I stepped over the fallen guy and approached Kang Jin-su, who had also fallen.

Kang Jin-su had already been watching everything.

“How, how did you do that?”

“What do you mean how did I do it? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t, don’t lie! The moment you flicked your hand, that bastard collapsed!”

“He just tripped and fell.”

I lied with a straight face. There was no evidence or way to prove it anyway.

Knowing this, Kang Jin-soo’s wavering eyes slowly settled.

“People will be here soon, so shall we get up?”

“Ah, alright. Just… step back a bit.”

Kang Jin-soo, who had been looking up at me, grunted and then flinched, lowering his eyes.

I clicked my tongue and grabbed my skirt. Honestly, it’s still difficult to move modestly since I’ve been moving around carelessly after transforming.

“Su-young…”

“Explain first. What exactly happened?”

Then, someone I had momentarily forgotten about appeared.

Hong Su-young, who had fallen after breaking the empty classroom window, stumbled into the hallway, clutching her arm.

“It’s nothing. When I ran into that bastard in the hallway, he was spouting nonsense as usual from the morning, but it was… different.”

“Different?”

“He crossed the line. It was bad enough that even his usual gang tried to stop him and ended up getting knocked down.”

Kang Jin-soo’s testimony, as he scratched his head, was identical to an eyewitness account of someone possessed by an evil spirit.

A kind of anger management disorder, or perhaps a truth serum that makes people honest.

“What on earth is this…?”

“To be honest, this doesn’t seem like a normal situation.”

Both of them, perhaps due to their respective pasts, questioned this matter more seriously.

And their doubts were somewhat justified.

“Anyway, this incident won’t be easily overlooked. A knife rampage, you say?”

“…Hmph, is that really so?”

Hong Su-young snorted while tending to Kang Jin-su’s wounds.

Even though there was demonic intervention, since that fact wasn’t publicly disclosed, honestly, by my common sense, this incident shouldn’t be taken lightly at all. But it seemed her thoughts were different.

“You think they’ll just bury it? It’s a knife rampage, with blood spilled and everything?”

“I’m sure. I’m close with the English teacher, so I heard everything. If you think about it, that monster girl Hong Su-young also jumped in.”

That afternoon, Park Tae-jun cautiously shared the story.

“Of course, from the school’s perspective, they’d like to get rid of that punk Oh Jong-su too, but they won’t want this to blow up. They’ll definitely cover it up as a mutual conflict.”

“I can’t understand at all. Dozens of students witnessed the scene, how can that make sense?”

“So what if the kids saw it? You think journalists will write articles about it? Even if they face some criticism, do you think people will bat an eye at such things?”

Park Tae-jun shook his head with a smirk. My face naturally hardened. It seemed my common sense was wrong once again.

“I hope you don’t take this the wrong way. You should be careful too. After all, you’re also…”

“Know my place, you mean?”

“That’s right. Honestly, you don’t have any backing, unlike them.”

Seeing my hardened expression, Park Tae-jun, misunderstanding something, regained his confidence and nodded while puffing out his chest.

‘What a crazy world.’

I smiled, looking at the scenery visible through the window beyond his face.

I couldn’t tell if this world was particularly insane or if my past self was just a naive frog in a well, unaware of the world’s darkness. The Demon Realm might be better at this point.

“Speaking of which, I have a favor to ask.”

“What is it?”

“Let’s go out and have fun together.”

He changed the subject, perhaps trying to shift the mood.

Although he called it a favor, based on our previous conversation, I couldn’t refuse. How dare I, given my position?

*

“Suspected cases of damage caused by Mammoth’s evil spirits are increasing. Today alone, there are already thirty cases… there might be even more.”

“Um, Director. Should we suggest to the President that we disclose this to the public?”

“That probably won’t happen.”

In the underground emergency standby area of the Management Bureau, the Director sat in the conference room, holding his head.

The evil spirits spread by Mammoth were causing various problems all over the country. A large number of police officers were mobilized to solve this, but neither the mobilized police nor ordinary citizens knew the cause yet.

“Think about it. Invisible evil spirits are roaming around, driving people crazy. But don’t worry, magical girls are working to solve this right now… Is this what the government should be saying?”

The Director shook his head with a bitter laugh.

In fact, the Director himself thought it was right to disclose the information, but it was obvious that no politician would want to tell the public that they were helplessly following behind the magical girls.

“It’s not like there’s no hope yet. Oh, Chief! What’s the current situation?!”

“They’re still tracking, according to the reports!”

Oh Yun-seo, who was in the command and control room, reported on the progress.

Currently, two large groups of magical girls were conducting search operations to find Mammoth.

The first group was Aria and the magical girls affiliated with her company. They continued their search in close coordination with the Management Bureau.

The second group was a kind of company alliance. They were searching on their own without cooperating with the Management Bureau.

However, regardless of which side found it first, now was not the time to worry about achievements.

“But Director. At this rate, it will take at least a few more days to find it.”

“It can’t be helped. It would be great if all the Magical Girls cooperated actively with us…”

Oh Yun-seo sighed and rubbed her tired eyes. It seemed she would have to pull an all-nighter again today.

“There are only evil spirits here too. No trace of Mamut.”

“…There are unusually many evil spirits.”

“Well, places like this entertainment district reek of human desire, pleasure, and ill intentions. For evil spirits, it’s a place where they can pick and choose their hosts.”

Han Eun-seo, the Magical Girl Aria, who was in contact with Oh Yun-seo, crossed the late afternoon entertainment district with her mascot Lulu.

They had discovered and killed three evil spirits here, but it was impossible to know how many evil spirits had already possessed innocent people.

“How are the others doing?”

“Same as here. There are only faint traces of that Mamut mixed with evil spirits, but no real important clues. Honestly, it’s a bit strange!”

Lulu jumped up and down on her head.

“Strange how?”

“There’s too little trace, even for no trace. This honestly doesn’t make sense. Scattering evil spirits around like this while completely erasing his own traces? That’s not Mamut’s style.”

“…”

At that moment, she ignored Lulu’s grumbling and moved towards a certain place with a hardened expression.

An evil spirit was just slithering into a building through the wall. She hurriedly moved her steps.

“…A convenience store?”

The floor in question was a convenience store with a few customers inside. She carefully opened the door and went in.

“Huh?”

“You…”

But there, she encountered a completely unexpected person. Jeon So-hyeon, who was fiddling with the POS machine, widened her eyes in surprise upon seeing her.

“Why are you here…”

“Part-time job. Here’s your total.”

However, they couldn’t immediately acknowledge knowing each other. A large middle-aged man had cut in, dumping his items onto the counter.

Clicking her tongue, Aria turned around to investigate the inside of the convenience store.

“Why, why are you doing this!?”

“Oh! It’s because you’re like a daughter to me, like a hardworking daughter!”

But at that moment, there was a commotion at the counter.

Aria rushed to the counter in an instant. The customer was grabbing and pulling Jeon So-hyeon’s hand with his strong grip.

“Lulu…!”

“It’s too late. It’s already possessed. We need a Closer with medium abilities for this!”

Aria first struck the back of the man’s knee to bring him down, then grabbed his hand to try and remove it.

There was no way to break the possession. To avoid creating victims, she had to restrain him until other colleagues arrived.

“Argh!”

At that moment, sparks flew from their interlocked hands.

Jeon So-hyeon, who had lost her grip, fell behind the counter with a crash, and Aria gasped as she saw the evil spirit leap out of the customer’s body.

“Catch it first!”

“Kyaaah!”

Not even paying attention to the other startled customers, Aria lunged forward and unleashed her wind fist towards the evil spirit.

The evil spirit, with its poor defense, was torn apart by the wind fist.