Chapter 16 - Cleaning Up (2)

The Special Response Section’s conference room.

The team leaders, their faces weary, were discussing the recent surge in uncanny incidents.

Uncanny incidents were a fact of life. Even so, Korea had been relatively safe compared with other countries. Dangerous incidents involving casualties were fewer, and incidents in general were less frequent.

Lately, however, anomalous phenomena had increased far too much. And that was not all.

The presentation displayed a photograph of a stern-faced elderly white man in black walking down a street.

The operative conducting the briefing gave a low, troubled hum before speaking.

“Edward Coffin. A British magician and a wanted necromancer. We’ve detected his arrival in Korea.”

The operatives’ expressions darkened. Team Leader Park grimaced.

“... What the hell is that lunatic doing here?”

“We suspect there may be a connection to the recent sharp increase in uncanny incidents.”

Listening to the discussion was a black-haired woman with a composed air: Shin Sion, the leader of Division Three. She brought her fist to her lips, considering something.

The other operatives’ gazes drifted toward her. Team Leader Park looked at her and asked,

“Do you have any ideas?”

“... No. At this stage, it’s nothing more than a wild theory.”

“We don’t have any answers anyway. Let’s hear it.”

Sion rose from her seat and spoke calmly.

“This may not be the right analogy, but do you know how a black hole forms?”

“Let’s suppose this table is a flat sheet of cloth. Right now, the cups in front of each of you balance it out, keeping it taut. But—”

She picked up the cups in front of the people on either side of her and set them before herself. Three cups now stood together.

“What happens when three cups gather in one place?”

“Well, the balance would collapse. The weight would concentrate there and make a depression.”

Sion nodded.

“Yes. And the other cups would be drawn into that depression.”

“That means...”

The operatives understood what she was getting at, and their brows tightened.

“Lesser mysteries have been drawn in by great mysteries that suddenly gathered in one place.”

Continuing in her calm voice, Sion took out a document.

“Following <The Book of the Angel Raziel>, which was kept at the Vatican, another grimoire, this one held by rabbis, has recently gone missing.”

“Reports say that <The Eighth Book of Moses> has disappeared. The rabbis denied it, but judging by the confused accounts emerging, it appears to be true.”

An operative cautiously raised a hand.

“What is The Eighth Book of Moses...?”

“It belongs to a set of ten books. Through the fifth, they are ordinary books chronicling Moses’s life. From the sixth onward, they are grimoires containing the plagues and miracles Moses performed, divided among the volumes.”

“Hold on. Save the explanation for later.”

Team Leader Park broke in, aghast.

“So you’re saying two grimoires have found their masters and appeared somewhere in Korea?”

“No. At least three.”

“... What?”

Sion spoke cautiously.

“It’s speculation, but... I suspect the culprit behind the university professor’s murder may also be the master of a grimoire.”

At that, a government official interrupted.

“No, leave that for now. Things have been quiet on that front, and it isn’t important to the current situation.”

“... Is that so?”

Sion narrowed her eyes briefly, then concluded.

“I believe the increased frequency of uncanny incidents is a natural phenomenon caused by their being drawn to grimoires possessing powerful magic. It should resolve itself with time, but...”

The operatives turned their eyes to the photograph of the elderly magician on the presentation screen.

“The problem will be the magicians coming here to claim those grimoires.”

‧

‧

‧

After the meeting, Sion was resting in the break room when a newly recruited female operative approached and handed her a coffee.

“Team Leader Sion! Thanks for all your hard work!”

“Oh, thank you.”

With a faint smile, Sion accepted the coffee and took a sip, then resumed reading the documents she had left on the table.

“Are those the meeting materials?”

“No. They concern the recent evil-spirit possession at the mansion of a painter named Smith.”

She showed the operative the documents.

“The case is resolved, but something about it has been bothering me.”

“There were casualties, but wasn’t it an ordinary evil-spirit incident?”

“Yes, it was. But putting Mr. Smith’s statements together, I wonder whether it was a boogeyman rather than an ordinary evil spirit.”

“A boogeyman—that’s the one, isn’t it? There haven’t been any recorded appearances in Korea yet, but abroad, they say the damage is severe whenever one appears...”

Reading through the documents, the operative tilted her head slightly.

“Some people were killed, but if a nun’s prayers were enough to defeat it, wouldn’t that mean it wasn’t a boogeyman after all, but just an evil spirit? If it really had been a boogeyman, the losses couldn’t have been this small.”

Those killed by the boogeyman were the shaman Park Minhee, Pastor Go Juwon, and the university student Kim Suhyeon.

It was a tragic incident in which three people had lost their lives, but compared with the grotesque accounts of boogeyman incidents abroad, three was too few.

Though unconvinced, Sion nodded.

“That’s true.”

“... Um, I’m sorry for overstepping.”

The operative spoke tentatively, watching her reaction, but Sion shook her head.

“Not at all. You don’t need to worry about that. Rank has nothing to do with offering an opinion.”

After giving her a gentle smile, Sion returned her attention to the documents and examined the victims’ autopsy records.

Park Minhee and Go Juwon had died instantly: the former when the chandelier fell on her, the latter when his head struck the wall with great force.

Kim Suhyeon, however, had suffered more than a broken neck from falling over the railing. His ribs were broken, and his internal organs were damaged.

As though something had struck him hard...

‘Something about this feels subtly different from the other two deaths.’

And above all, there was something else troubling her.

Sion’s gaze settled on the name “Kim Yohan” in the documents.

Spotting that name by chance was the reason she had gone to the neighboring team to obtain the files.

At first, she had thought it might simply be someone with the same name. But it was indeed the person who had been in the lecture hall when the professor was murdered.

Her eyes narrowed, and she lightly brought her fist to her lips.

This was a wild theory... nothing but a wild theory, but...

If Yohan was the master of a grimoire, why had he become involved in this incident after hiding so successfully until now?

“... What could he be thinking?”

Sion murmured quietly to herself.

* * *

Yohan thought as he headed to the café where he had arranged to meet Ellie.

In the end, I’d earned money without undergoing much questioning, but if the people in that secret government organization had any sense, they would soon start finding me suspicious.

Honestly, no matter how much money was offered, it would have been safer not to accept Smith’s request.

Still, it was already done. And I’d learned that magic worked even better than I’d expected.

That was why I intended to work as an exorcist in earnest. Given how things had turned out, it was the right approach.

I needed to get involved in uncanny incidents. After all, wasn’t there a saying about hiding a tree in a forest?

Someone who just happened to be present at successive uncanny incidents under investigation? That looked suspicious.

But what if that person turned out to have been involved in dozens of uncanny incidents? Then they were simply someone who kept getting mixed up in that sort of thing.

Just as a detective wasn’t the culprit merely because a murder happened whenever they appeared.

Well, it might be like covering myself in ink to hide a black stain on my body...

But no better idea sprang to mind. And I needed to earn money quickly if I was going to flee abroad should things go wrong later.

For now, this was how I intended to proceed.

DING!

As I opened the café door and stepped inside, Ellie spotted me and raised a hand slightly. I walked over and sat down.

“Yohan, have you been well?”

“Yes, more or less. How about you, Ellie?”

After a brief exchange of greetings, I got to the point.

“You said Mr. Smith left something for you to give me.”

“Yes. He originally intended to give it to you himself at the airport, but it wasn’t finished in time, so he asked me to deliver it instead. Here you are.”

Inside a small box were a stack of papers and a letter.

‘What’s this?’

I took out one of the rectangular pieces of paper and examined it. It was—a business card bearing a comical cartoon drawing of a startled, frightened boogeyman.

[Ghostbuster, Kim Yohan]

My name and phone number were printed on it.

I opened the letter and read it.

『Yohan, I want to tell you how truly grateful I am. But perhaps because I’m no writer, I don’t seem able to express it properly, so I’m leaving you this small gift.

Once again, for saving Emily, thank you, truly, truly.

Thank you, Ghostbuster.』

I put down the letter and looked at the business card again.

A business card designed by a painter whose paintings sold for three billion won...

That ridiculous boogeyman drawing, and the word “Ghostbuster” printed so solemnly beside it.

“Ha!”

A smile formed on my lips. It was silly, but I didn’t dislike this sort of thing.

“Thank you for delivering these.”

I gathered up the business cards and rose from my seat. Ellie spoke hesitantly.

“Oh, um... Would it be all right to contact you again?”

I knew I would regret it later, but once again, I couldn’t resist a joke.

I handed Ellie a Ghostbuster business card.

“If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?”

Ellie’s eyes widened for a moment, but fortunately, she played along.

“G-Ghostbuster.”

“Haha, thanks for playing along.”

I left the café and walked home, quietly humming the movie’s theme music.