episode_0034

“But if you serve evil spirits, is it possible to display superhuman strength like that? You said you were fine when you were shot by a gunman.”

“Not everyone who serves evil spirits becomes a superhuman. If you serve a mischievous ghost, all you get is wealth or a slight increase in physical ability. If you are okay even after getting shot, you must be serving a famous demon.”

It was an interesting story. According to Sarah, the power given to a medium varies depending on the type of ghost. Even after being shot, the gunman quickly stopped bleeding. The power given to the gunman was assumed to be strong physical ability and resilience.

“I’ll look at my notes first.”

“Let’s see together.”

I opened the notebook where my father’s story was written. As a father who exorcised a variety of things, including ghosts, monsters, and demons, there were naturally records of engagements with psychics. In the note, it was written how the psychic was subdued.

[…] There are psychics who cast spells. Among the mediums, those who were weak could be easily suppressed using firearms or cold weapons. However, there were cases where psychics who served magical ghosts could not be suppressed with ordinary weapons. This was because they had special abilities.]

[To subdue special spirit mediums, you must burn the sacred object containing the ghost. For example, in the case of shamans, they are weapons such as fans and bells, and other items that possess ghosts. If the spiritual object is destroyed, the mediums lose all their power and lose consciousness.]

Sick of it.

It was literally an object with a god in it.

Sarah, who was reading the note next to her, nodded.

“If we burn the sacred object, we can definitely subdue it. It’s like forcibly breaking the link between the spirit medium and the ghost.”

“What if a ghost inhabits the body of a psychic? So should we burn the psychic?”

“The possibility of that is slim. Because the human body cannot withstand the presence of a magical ghost. Shamans also use weapons instead of their bodies as a connection to spirits. Even the masked criminal must have a weapon or something similar.”

The stronger the ghost’s power, the less the human body can withstand it. It was trustworthy because Sarah personally verified it. Quite a long time has passed since the masked man began his activities. However, since his body and mind were fine, he was said to have possessed a divine object.

“I’m sick of it… .”

“It could be a mask, a knife, or a coat. Anyway, you have to meet him in person to know the identity of the new creature.”

“I guess so. Let’s go on patrol too.”

I spoke to Sarah first.

Sarah looked at me with a smile.

“Didn’t the class leader tell you not to walk around at night earlier?”

“The more you tell me not to do it, the more I want to do it.”

“Hehe.”

Sarah’s smile deepened.

“Jinwoo is not a good kid.”

“I ate it.”

“So I like it. Come do something bad with me.”

He was also a childhood friend. He wasn’t forced to follow me because I asked him to go on patrol. If I hadn’t said it, Sarah would have said it first. Because she was also a girl who, when she was curious, tried to solve it somehow.

There were times when I imagined something like this.

I was wondering what would have happened if we hadn’t met in the third grade of elementary school. Still, I felt like I would meet Sarah someday. Like encountering a haunted house with a story in your neighborhood while exploring it.

“I’ll take the right amount of equipment.”

“It would be better to bring your school bag. Duffel bags are noticeable to police officers.”

Sarah and I put on our bags containing a sword and a lump of rock salt and went outside.

From that day on, we started patrolling late at night.

*

About three days passed and it was Friday.

Almost a week had already passed since the stabbing incident occurred at the campsite.

However, the masked gunman has not yet been caught by the police.

Now, rumors like ghost stories were circulating among the residents of Seungcheon-gu. There was a rumor that a pure white mask was seen passing outside the house. A female student in the same class as us also said she saw a pure white mask.

In the classroom, the girl told the kids around her what she had witnessed.

“I saw it yesterday! I saw this when I went out to take out the trash at night.”

“What?”

“A masked murderer! That person was standing in the parking lot of my apartment building.”

The female student wearing glasses opened her mouth with a frightened expression.

“The masked criminal was pointing at the apartment. I was going to report it to the police right away. But the criminal gradually pointed upward with his finger.”

A masked man had appeared at the apartment complex.

The gunman said he pointed to the apartment with his finger.

“At first, I couldn’t understand what the criminal was doing. But the finger that was going up suddenly stopped. Uh, do you know where it stopped?”

“Where?”

“It was on the floor where our house was! My finger stopped there! It turns out I was counting floors… .”

The female student immediately reported it to the police. However, the masked gunman disappeared before the police arrived. There were quite a few residents who said they had seen a pure white mask like this. The unfortunate thing was that I did not witness it myself.

I spoke to Sarah who was sitting next to me.

“… It’s Sarah. Why can’t we see the monster? They’re even patrolling on purpose.”

“I don’t think the timing is right. Well, I guess the gunman hasn’t left our neighborhood yet.”

Three days passed, but we did not see the masked assailant. Even though I was deliberately patrolling at night, sightings were coming from the wrong direction. The good news was that no murders occurred for three days.

After school, it was night.

Sarah and I went on patrol and returned to Hyehwadang around 1 a.m.

“Is today also a waste of time.”

“It’s a shame.”

Today was Saturday.

I felt like it would be a shame to fall asleep like this.

“Shall we watch a movie and sleep?”

“Yes.”

“Sera, I’ll buy some snacks from the convenience store.”

I bought snacks at a nearby convenience store.

I returned to Hyehwadang carrying a bag full of snacks.

It was when I took off my shoes and entered the house.

The kitchen was a bit messy compared to when I just left.

‘huh?’

I saw the refrigerator door slightly open. There was a large apple with a big bite on the kitchen table. There was also leftover ice cream. That Häagen-Dazs was bought by Sarah to eat.

“If you’ve eaten, let’s clean up.”

I closed the refrigerator door and cleaned up the food lying on the table. However, Sarah was not seen around. I wondered where they went after asking to watch a movie together.

“Sera?”

I looked around the house for a moment. As I listened quietly, I heard the sound of water coming from somewhere. It was in the bathroom. Is Sarah taking a bath now? After all, he’s a kid who really likes washing.

“… … .”

no.

I only thought that way for a moment.

I opened the refrigerator door wide again. The refrigerator, which contained a lot of food ingredients, had several empty compartments. Snacks such as fresh fruit, containers of side dishes, and chocolate have disappeared. It was such an amount that it was impossible to imagine that one person could have eaten it in an instant.

‘Are you a thief?’

A masked monster came to mind. Almost a week has already passed since I ran away. Since the gunman was also human, he would have wanted to remove body odor by eating or washing.

━━Shooaaah

The sound of water was faintly heard.

The thing in the bathroom right now could not have been Sarah.

I took out a military knife from the bag I was wearing. While holding the knife, he moved quietly so as not to make any sound.

I walked down the long hallway of Hyehwadang and arrived in front of the bathroom.

I quietly turned the doorknob and opened the bathroom door. The sound of water falling continued to be heard from inside. Now was a good time to attack the intruder. I grabbed the hilt of my sword and walked away.

It was the moment I finally entered the bathroom.

I almost screamed.

“Huh… .”

A shower booth made of opaque glass.

Inside the booth, a silhouette that looked like a girl was taking a bath. Looking at her body, it was clear that it was Sarah. The girl’s silhouette moved beyond the steam-soaked glass.

‘and.’

The prediction was wrong. It was definitely Sarah who was taking a bath in the bathroom right now. The glass was opaque, so I could only see the silhouette, but my eyes couldn’t be fooled.

She had a body like a gravure model. Perhaps because of her mixed Western blood, Sarah, who became a high school student, had an amazing body. It’s not for nothing that the teacher asked me if I was a model on the first day of school. It’s a fact that I knew because we were childhood friends, but Sarah was more amazing when she wasn’t wearing it than when she was wearing it. The silhouette seen beyond the shower booth was fantastic.

‘Anyway, it wasn’t.’

My face turned red for no reason.

That was when I quickly turned my head.

Sarah’s voice came from the shower booth.

“Who is there?”

“Me, it’s me.”

“No, it’s Jinwoo… .”

“I never came here because I wanted to. It seems like there are people other than us at Hyehwadang right now.”

“Someone else? Are you talking about Jinwoo’s lewd devil?”

“Absolutely not.”

I quickly explained why I had no choice but to enter the bathroom.

“Someone stole the food from the refrigerator. There are also traces of having just eaten fruit and ice cream. You didn’t eat it.”

“I didn’t eat anything.”

“That’s why! Get dressed quickly and come out.”

The explanation is over. Fortunately, the intruder never came near the bathroom. Sarah had sharp ears. If an intruder had come nearby, Sarah would have noticed it first.

“Hu.”

I came out of the bathroom and stood guard in front of the door.

I was planning on guarding this place until Sarah came out.

At that time, footsteps echoed from the end of the long hallway. Even though Sarah and I were here, we could hear footsteps in the distance.

A pure white mask appeared at the end of the hallway with the lights off.

I saw a monster wearing a mask.

“Were you there?”

I asked out loud, but there was no answer from the assailant.

The gunman had a heavy backpack strapped to his back. It was a backpack containing food stolen from Hyehwadang.

The gunman looked at me and took out a sashimi knife from inside his coat. An eerie sound rang out from the knife coming out of the sheath.

━━Sereung

The theft of food did not end there.

That guy was planning to steal our lives too.

I took a step forward holding my sword.

A gunman holding a sashimi knife ran toward me. I also ran towards the gunman. In the long hallway connecting Hyehwadang, the gunman and I swung our swords at each other. In the blink of an eye, the martial arts knife and the sashimi knife clashed in the darkness.

The sound of swords clashing echoed through the hallway.