Honbul: Flame of the Soul

There were two ways to defeat ghosts.

One was to force them into annihilation. The other was to resolve their resentment and let them leave on their own. Resolving resentment required time and effort. Naturally, most Naja preferred the former, since it was far more efficient.

To begin with, most Naja hated ghosts and harbored hostility toward them. They neither cared nor wondered what grudges those ghosts held. There was no reason to go out of their way to understand a ghost’s position.

“Why are you here?”

Yoon Taehee, however, was different from other Naja. Before clashing with a ghost, he would quietly try to ask about its story. Yoon Taehee was often curious about things no one else cared about. If he judged that the nature of the story allowed for resolution, he sometimes postponed annihilation.

“...”

The earthbound ghost, its withered body wavering like a mirage and its eyes glittering with malice, rose from the floor and stared at Yoon Taehee. Then it began slamming its body into the cement wall over and over with heavy thuds.

“Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! I said get out...”

Its cracked voice was enough to raise goosebumps. The building shook each time the ghost struck the wall. One characteristic of earthbound ghosts like this was their tendency to compulsively repeat certain actions. This must have been how it had shoved away the workers on duty.

Malice poured from the ghost with threatening force. It seemed to have no intention of holding a conversation and was enraged by the appearance of intruders. Just as the Naja, feeling that heavy, viscous energy, raised their arms to shield their faces, a pile of bricks off to one side floated into the air.

It was the earthbound ghost’s doing. The mass of bricks flew toward Yoon Taehee with enough force to pierce through him.

Uh, uhh, I guess I have to stop that...

Behind him, Jaegyeom’s hand twitched unconsciously. At the same time, Yoon Taehee swiftly swung his fan. The bricks flying like a flock of birds shattered into pieces and scattered in every direction. Jaegyeom, frozen in place, cautiously withdrew his hand.

“I was thinking of simply hearing your story, but if you’re going to act like this...”

Yoon Taehee did not ask twice. The rule was that ghosts that harmed people were to be annihilated. He had still wanted to hear its story, but there was nothing he could do if the other side refused.

“...then I have nothing more to say.”

Yoon Taehee folded his fan, lightly swept it through the air, and the ghostly force contained in the fan slipped out in the shape of a rounded boomerang. A fierce gust swept through with a heavy boom. Jaegyeom’s eyes widened.

In an instant, one side of the wall was blown clean away.

The earthbound ghost, which had been standing with its back to the wall now gone, collapsed like a pile of rocks. Trembling and convulsing, it let out a strange groan. The ghost seemed unable to do anything at all. Jaegyeom became curious about what Yoon Taehee had done. He quietly asked Kang Ibin, who stood beside him.

“Is that fan some kind of special weapon?”

At the whispered question, Kang Ibin turned to Jaegyeom.

“Huh? That? That fan is a ritual implement used to capture vengeful ghosts. You can trap ghosts inside it. It doesn’t have any other special function. But Chi— I mean, Fool, says it’s a hassle to carry a separate weapon, so he tries to handle things with that whenever he can.” 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Jaegyeom narrowed his eyes.

“Then why is that ghost like that...”

“Oh, that’s because it got hit by ghostly force.”

Handling ghostly force usually meant attaching it to weapons or tools. It was common to apply ghostly force to an object, draw out its effect, and use it that way, but exerting physical force purely through the energy itself was extremely difficult.

Jaegyeom was someone capable of doing that. He had once shattered the glass window of a bookstore with ghostly force alone, and he had aimed his ghostly force at Yoon Taehee’s neck. And Jaegyeom was not the only one who could use his energy freely. Yoon Taehee, too, had subdued the earthbound ghost with nothing but ghostly force.

The overwhelming ghostly force had blown open the entire exterior wall of the building, revealing the outside in full view. He had thought it was a trick, like the Ritual Implements Department Naja had used on the mountain before... Of course, he had assumed Yoon Taehee must have done something with that fan, but it turned out he had simply been imitating the shape of the fan while brute-forcing it with raw power.

That simple, ignorant method of pushing through with force was unexpected.

“If your ghostly force is as strong as Fool’s, the ghostly force itself becomes a weapon.”

Kang Ibin added a careful explanation for the youngest member.

“Fool can exert physical force with just ghostly force. Think of it as getting slapped hard even though nothing touched you. Well, compared to him, this earthbound ghost is basically chewing gum! Got it?”

The only flaw was that this was information Jaegyeom already knew.

Jaegyeom stared at Yoon Taehee’s back with a bewildered expression. Apparently, that confidence of his had not been a lie. Now that he thought about it, the arrows Jaegyeom had shot had bounced off the mountain several times... Yoon Taehee was far more skilled than he had expected. Jaegyeom was relieved, but secretly startled too. Besides, although Yoon Taehee usually acted so elegant, seeing him like this, he seemed a little rough...

“Whew. The completion date is going to get pushed back a lot.”

The Naja seemed used to that side of Yoon Taehee. As they joked among themselves, Jaegyeom saw Yoon Taehee look back and grin. Since the building had been damaged, the proper thing would have been to handle the work under cover of sunlight. Cleaning up the aftermath would be quite a headache, but headquarters would take care of it anyway.

“I went a little too hard. I’m tired...”

Yoon Taehee touched his chin and muttered to himself. After returning to headquarters, he had been living on brief naps for several days because of the backlog of work waiting for him. The short sleep had made fatigue pile up. Perhaps because of that, his control over ghostly force was looser than usual.

Yoon Taehee approached the earthbound ghost, lightly turning his wrist. Then he opened his folding fan and attached a prepared talisman to it. He tapped the ghost’s forehead with the talisman attached.

Then the ghost melted into the fan.

The fan, made of pure white cloth, was stained pitch-black. Yoon Taehee folded it with a click. At the same time, the earthbound ghost’s energy was abruptly cut off. The interior of the once-noisy building fell silent. It was as if time had stopped.

The situation had truly been resolved in the blink of an eye.

Yoon Taehee lightly tugged at the folded fan. The fan, which had worked properly until now, would not open no matter how he pulled, as though it had been sealed tight. After confirming the ghost was properly trapped, Yoon Taehee handed the fan to Pyo Jiho.

“The situation is settled.”

While Pyo Jiho dealt with the fan, Kang Ibin called the situation room at headquarters. After briefly reporting the situation, she requested the Purification Unit to cleanse the inauspicious site and handle the scene. Jaegyeom, who had been hovering pointlessly around Yoon Taehee, deliberately cleared his throat as if to show that he had been watching. Yoon Taehee glanced back at him.

He saw Yoon Taehee chuckle and say, “Ahem?” Then Yoon Taehee tilted his head.

Jaegyeom lowered his gaze as if trying to evade him, but reluctantly spoke again.

“Ahem...!”

He decided to interpret it as meaning, That was fairly impressive, though he was not entirely sure.

*****

The ceremony welcoming Probationary Naja Kim ended smoothly.

The Naja headed toward the busy streets near Jongno 1-ga. It was to celebrate the successful completion of the newcomer rite. The after-party was an essential step that could not be skipped. The alleys packed with bars, restaurants, and shops were lively with the evening energy of office workers who had finished their day.

Team 1 of the Exorcism Unit settled down at a charcoal-grilled meat restaurant. The noisy place was crowded with customers. It was almost full, with office workers sitting around round tables and enjoying drinks. Now out of their field gear, the Naja looked at first glance like an ordinary group of office workers.

As it happened, Jaegyeom and Yoon Taehee ended up at different tables.

There were nine of them, so the Naja had to split between two tables placed together. Jaegyeom had planned to sit next to Yoon Taehee, because Yoon Taehee was the person he was most comfortable with here. But while he was following him, Kang Ibin caught him. She grabbed his arm and said, “Jaegyeom! Come here. Sit next to me,” and pulled him away. Unable to resist, he ended up sitting separately from Yoon Taehee.

In truth, Jaegyeom had thought Yoon Taehee would come {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} over first and tell him to sit beside him. But even while watching Jaegyeom get dragged off by Kang Ibin’s hand, Yoon Taehee said nothing and simply took a seat farther inside.

“...”

Jaegyeom scratched his forehead and looked around.

The bustling interior of the restaurant, the thick smoke rising as the meat cooked, faces flushed with excitement, the occasional bursts of laughter...

He had seen company dinners often enough in TV dramas, so the scene was not entirely unfamiliar. Experiencing it himself, however, felt strange and unreal. For some reason, everything around him seemed both odd and fascinating. Then an employee pushed over a blazing grill, startling Jaegyeom. The strange horn-like thing hanging above the grill made him wonder all over again.

If he had sat next to Yoon Taehee, he could have quietly asked him what that horn was...

So what was that horn for? In the end, Jaegyeom decided to think about it by himself.