外伝：俺たちは自由にやる！！ (Part2)
If anything, she seemed calm, perhaps even expecting this.
Her appearance was that of an ordinary female student in a sailor uniform. She looked no different from the boys who would likely be entering this place shortly after her.
"For now... if I go around crushing the focal points maintaining this otherworld, the idiot using this abandoned school will eventually show their face."
She uttered these incomprehensible words, ill-suited for a normal student, and marched into the abandoned school without a hint of fear.
"Still, I wonder if I have enough talismans on me? Not that I expect anything major to show up, but these kinds of gathering spots always attract the weirdest types."
She pulled out a stack of paper talismans. Yes, this was the reason she didn't fear the situation.
"Gyaaaaaaaaahhh!!"
Suddenly, as if to catch her off guard, a terrifying woman with a ghastly, tattered appearance lunged at her from the ceiling.
"Gotcha."
Without a trace of surprise, she slapped one of her talismans onto the woman.
"Oooooohhh..."
The woman, now plastered with the talisman, froze in place and began to fade away, as if she had never been there to begin with. Not even a trace remained.
"Hmph, try a little harder to hide yourself. For spirits like you, your heart and presence are reflected directly in your spiritual power."
Indeed, she was a professional in the field of the occult—the shadows of the modern world. However, she didn't do the things seen on TV shows, like chanting sutras or performing "spiritual readings" to exorcise spirits in some roundabout way. She belonged to a group of Japanese spiritualists who removed malevolent impurities that harmed people using physical force—or rather, spiritual power.
In recent years, these kinds of supernatural incidents had become increasingly troublesome. Modernization and the thorough demolition of abandoned areas had forced both harmful and harmless spirits alike to be driven out of their homes. Occasionally, a spirit or yokai would remain in the city, but that only meant they had either adapted and grown stronger, or were simply left behind.
Of course, the ones that appeared on television were easily and quickly dealt with. Conversely, the spirits driven out to depopulated rural areas, where they didn't make the news, gathered together and grew in power. If they were acting alone, it would be one thing, but if some fool intentionally activated a gathering spot like this school as an "otherworld," the resulting damage could be catastrophic.
Moreover, the victims would vanish without a trace, their bodies never recovered, leaving no clue as to where they had disappeared. In the worst-case scenario, it could trigger a massive supernatural disaster capable of erasing an entire village. Well, these days, the concept of a "village" was vague, and with instant communication, such isolated places rarely existed anymore.
That was precisely why the social impact of a supernatural entity manifesting with physical phenomena was incomparable to the past. Oni, giant serpents, giant centipedes, man-eating crabs, spiders—all the wonderful, uniquely Japanese yokai would begin to roam.
In the past, human settlements were limited, and if a supernatural entity appeared, it could be dealt with by warriors or traveling monks. But in the modern era, while technology was advanced, there were no weapons capable of killing such entities, and few people left who could wield the power of dharma or spirit.
That was why, when a supernatural entity appeared today, the damage was so severe. She was one of the hidden spiritualists who specialized in taking on such troublesome cases. She had thought this job was a low-level affair, no more than the typical rumors found in reports, but in reality, it was on the verge of becoming a major supernatural catastrophe. If it worsened any further, there was a risk the anomaly would spread and swallow up the neighboring houses.
"This really isn't worth the pay... Normally, the sensible thing to do would be to turn back and call for reinforcements."
She muttered to herself. Though young, she possessed genuine power as a spiritualist and did not overconfidently rely on her own strength. She knew well that in this line of work, one wrong step could turn her into a gruesome corpse. Her organization, wishing to avoid losing such rare talent, was thorough in its training of newcomers. She, too, had seen things during that training that made her lose the breakfast she’d eaten that morning, and since starting the job, she had seen such things with the added reality of their stench.