Chapter 23 - Ghostbuster (7)

Grizzly gobbled away.

“Gyaaah.”

After devouring Miryeo’s head, Grizzly gave a satisfied cry, then...

“...”

Looking down at the half-eaten corpse, its head and arms severed, Grizzly finally had a memory of Yohan’s words float into its mind.

[“Grizzly, you mustn’t eat anything until I tell you to.”]

“Gyat!”

The grimoire Mysteries of the Worm had called Grizzly because some strange creature was handling it without permission, so Grizzly had woken up and attacked. It happened to be hungry, too.

And this wasn’t even one of those “people” its master had forbidden it to eat without permission, so it had simply eaten...

“Gyaaa...”

Grizzly looked down at Miryeo’s corpse.

... Still, there was more left uneaten than it had eaten. Maybe it would get less of a scolding?

No! This must be food its master had left for it! ... Wasn’t it?

Grizzly went round and round the room. Then it noticed the CCTV screens monitoring the basement rooms—and found the screen showing the room where Yohan was imprisoned.

“Gyaa!”

Its train of thought shifted from ‘What if I get scolded...?’ to ‘Master!’

It smashed through the locked door.

CRASH!

“Haaa...”

Grizzly emerged into the basement corridor, turning its head to survey its surroundings, then moved toward the presence it sensed from Yohan.

The surroundings were unfamiliar... but Grizzly’s adventure to find its master had begun!

* * *

Inside a room barred like a prison cell, Yohan had been locked up by the farm employees while pretending to be unconscious. A reasonable amount of time had passed, and just as he was about to pretend to wake up, he heard frightened people...

“W-where are we!?”

“I remember eating... then I felt dizzy...”

“D-does anyone have a phone? P-police! Call the police!”

...and a woman’s calm voice.

“Everyone, I understand you’re confused, but please calm down.”

He opened his eyes naturally and looked around. A composed, beautiful woman whose face revealed little emotion was calming the others.

It was Shin Sion, Team Leader of Team Three in the Special Response Section.

“...”

Seeing that Yohan had opened his eyes, Sion hesitated briefly. But to keep everyone from panicking, she showed her Special Response Section identification and revealed who she was.

“My name is Shin Sion. I’m a civil servant with a government agency. I can’t explain the details... but you can think of me as a kind of agent.”

“What? A g-government agency? Really?”

“What on earth is going on here?”

“Is this the time to ask about that? We’re going to be okay, right!? Hurry up and get us out!”

Sion’s calm voice persuaded them to lower theirs.

“Everyone, please keep quiet for now. The people who locked us up might hear us and come.”

The voices subsided, and everyone’s attention focused on her.

Yohan, too, watched Sion from a step away from the gathering crowd and thought,

‘An official title or a badge really does come in handy at times like this.’

If I’d stood in her place, flashed my Ghostbuster business card, and announced, ‘Ahem! This is who I am!’ they would have immediately treated me like a lunatic.

Not that I’d had any intention of doing that.

Anyway, a government employee...

Was she with the same organization as the officials who had come to Smith’s mansion instead of the police? A government organization that handled uncanny incidents.

If that was true, I would have to revise my plan: meet up with Grizzly when it woke up hungry and came looking for me, then find the magician behind this and get information out of them.

If I acted rashly just to gain something, I might expose my identity. That would be dangerous. Besides, anyone with any sense coming to investigate a place like this...

Sion’s low voice rang out to reassure everyone.

“There are other agents outside. The signals I was sending have stopped, so they’ll be here soon.”

My eyes narrowed.

... Right. There was no way she’d come alone. She must have colleagues somewhere near the farm.

As she calmed the others, Sion briefly narrowed her eyes and studied Yohan.

There were other Special Response Section operatives outside. That was true, and she had said it to reassure everyone... but also to keep Yohan in check.

If Yohan really was responsible for the university murders, he possessed a powerful familiar. He could summon it to escape, then kill everyone here to silence them.

That was why she had revealed the presence of the other operatives outside—to keep him from making any rash moves.

Of course, it was only a warning, with no actual force to restrain him. She still had to be cautious, since Yohan might act unpredictably at any moment depending on how things developed.

With that in mind, Sion briefly explained to everyone that this was an organ-trafficking operation disguised as a livestock farm, and that they could escape safely if they remained calm.

I pieced together what I could from Sion’s explanation.

As expected, she was keeping the existence of magicians and the uncanny under wraps. Of course, the part about organ trafficking was probably true, too.

Judging by the farm employees’ conversation earlier, the boss here was a magician. Which meant this place must be a magician’s workshop.

Anyway, as I’d already thought, the appearance of an official from a secret government organization meant a change of plans.

I’d wanted to meet another magician in person to gather information... but not enough to risk exposing my identity.

Anyone who would kidnap people on this scale had to be out of their mind. Rather than meet them, quietly escaping with Grizzly and my bag containing the grimoire wouldn’t be a bad option.

The problem was how to retrieve the grimoire without arousing that official’s suspicions...

The kidnapped people sank onto the cell floor, dwelling on their fear and the hope that they might survive.

I quietly watched Sion, who had finished answering their questions. And at that very moment, she looked at Yohan, too. Their eyes met.

“...”

Suddenly looking away would seem suspicious, so Sion approached cautiously, sat beside Yohan, and spoke quietly.

“Unlike the others, you seem quite calm in this situation.”

Deliberately avoiding the conversation would look suspicious, too, so I answered.

“... I was just keeping my mouth shut because I was scared.”

Since Sion belonged to a government organization, I spoke on the assumption that she knew about the strange incident at Smith’s mansion.

“And I’ve gotten caught up in this sort of thing often enough that I’ve grown a little used to it.”

I was presenting myself as someone who often got dragged into uncanny incidents.

“... I see. If you get caught up in this sort of thing often, may I ask what you do for a living?”

“Oh, for now, I’m an exorcist.”

“An exorcist?”

Just as Sion’s eyes flickered at the unexpected answer...

BANG!

A gunshot rang out from the basement corridor.

It wasn’t just one shot.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

At the succession of gunshots, Sion’s eyes and mine widened at the same time. Her brow tightened as she stood up.

“I’ll go check the situation. It’s dangerous, so please stay here, everyone.”

Yohan’s gaze bothered Sion, but right now she had to act to keep the kidnapped people safe.

So she showed her hand.

Unlike the uncanny, humans might seem to have no connection to supernatural mysteries, but that was not necessarily true. Humans possessed mysteries of their own.

For instance, the inexplicable strength displayed during fires. Or the accounts of humans slaying monsters in folktales and stories.

Different from yet similar to magic, which plundered energy, power, and mysteries from elsewhere, these were techniques built up through training and then put into practice.

Sion placed her palm against the barred door.

“Whew...”

Taking a deep breath and bracing herself with her legs, she struck the door with an explosive blow of her palm.

BAM!

The lock broke with a clatter, and the barred door creaked open.

Sion looked at Yohan and said,

“Yohan, first, I’m sorry I deceived you.”

She had told the others to stay here for their safety, but Yohan’s circumstances were a little different. If she left him here, everyone else might end up dead.

Having already shown her hand, she decided to reveal a little more.

“I already knew who you were, Yohan. I read the report about what happened at the painter Smith’s mansion.”

“I heard that you helped the nun drive out the evil spirit. Could you assist me with this case? The situation has changed, and I need help.”

At Sion’s request, I stood up and answered.

“... I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I’ll try.”

A woman who had just broken open a barred door with her bare hand was asking me to come along. What else could I do? I had to go.

And ironically, in this chaotic situation, beside her seemed like the safest place to be.

I was also interested in the mysterious power Sion had just displayed.

... Of all the terms I knew, was “martial arts” the closest fit for what she had just done?

Yeah, to be honest, I was a little excited.

Could I do that if I learned? Could I even fire off sword energy or palm blasts?

My eyes narrowed.

If so, I’d ditch magic immediately and switch to martial arts.

No, I could just study both whenever I had time.

What was so special about magic, anyway? Magic was doing what an ordinary person couldn’t do.

In that sense, they were similar.

Yohan’s black eyes watched Sion.

Sion knew about magicians, but she did not fully understand what they were.

Beings who coveted even the techniques humans had built up.

That was what a magician was.

In other words, a magician’s mindset was that if swordsmanship could cleave the sky, it was no longer swordsmanship—it was magic.