WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 19: Am I Pretty?
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Crunch, crunch!
Splat, splat!
Gulp!
The urban legend, the one that had introduced itself as Mary, was being desperately chewed up inside Gari's mouth.
Soon, just like with the urban legend bus, the strange energy was absorbed into the brass ring.
That meant the energy for using magic had been replenished.
"Using demonic power like this..."
Clack-clack-clack-clack!
"Was that a forbidden word? Hmm... spirit energy. Yeah, let's call it spirit energy."
Clack!
"If spirit energy gets replenished, I can keep using magic, right?"
Clack-clack!
Okay, I understood how it worked.
If I hunted and absorbed demons, I'd be able to command demons like King Solomon.
That also applied to the spells demons used. The magician had tried to offer ghosts to a demon as tribute.
Magicians probably offered tribute in exchange for something.
Still, what happened to the ghosts Gari swallowed?
They probably didn't really die.
Gari was an angel, after all. It wouldn't completely erase the soul of a ghost that was already dead, would it?
"Gari, where do ghosts go when you swallow them? The afterlife?"
Clack-clack? Clack!
Gari's teeth knocked together as if in affirmation.
Considering an angel's duty, that seemed right...
The visuals just made it hard to believe.
"Still, how am I supposed to collect the reward for this?"
I'd dealt with an urban legend, but I needed proof to get paid.
In the case of the urban legend bus, I'd removed its license plate.
It was a Japanese plate that couldn't possibly belong in Korea, and apparently the lingering traces of the urban legend made it valid evidence.
Then what could serve as evidence for this Calling Mary?
"Hmm..."
I looked at the phone I'd received.
It was the sort of retro phone people hardly used these days. Did phones like this even exist when I was in school?
I examined it more closely, and well, would you look at that?
"The phone line's cut."
It was a landline, so it needed to be connected to a phone line to work. Yet the line had been severed.
Looking closer, the writing on the phone wasn't Korean either.
They were Chinese characters, and since those were commonly used in China and Japan, I could reasonably conclude it was a Japanese phone.
"I'll take this with me."
Still, just to be safe, I should check.
I took out some holy water, dabbed it onto my fingertips, and flicked it onto the phone.
Fwoooosh!
The holy water definitely worked.
Seeing the phone burn up, it really was an object connected to the urban legend.
I took the phone and left, but something felt strange.
The foul smell hadn't disappeared.
* * *
Scholar Yoo walked slowly through the main building.
Tap, tap.
Even in the silent hallway, her crisp, light steps, the gait of a scholar, left behind the faintest noise.
That let Scholar Yoo listen more closely and focus on the ringing in her ears.
Tap, tap.
Her light footsteps stopped at the end of the hallway.
"Here."
Moonlight stretched across the floor beneath the women's restroom sign.
Scholar Yoo had seen it, though.
The shadow visible through the gap beneath the restroom door had rippled for an instant.
Urban legends were strange beings that were spirit entities, yet had to reveal themselves to people.
Since they had no choice but to take physical form for the story to work, they were much easier to detect than when they were only spirits.
Swish!
Scholar Yoo opened her fan and pushed open the restroom door.
Creeeak!
Once she stepped inside and shut the door, the outside and inside were cut off from each other.
Scholar Yoo looked over the restroom and murmured a passage from the scriptures.
"Do not look at what is improper, do not listen to what is improper, do not speak what is improper, do not do what is improper."
Illusions could not deceive a noble person. They could not taint the mind, and fear would not be allowed to claim the body.
After preparing herself thoroughly, Scholar Yoo inspected the restroom.
Since ancient times, restrooms had been gloomy places where ghosts could easily gather.
That was why so many bathroom urban legends existed across the world.
The problem was that there were so many bathroom-related urban legends that it was hard to predict which one this was. Since urban legends had to follow the logic of their stories, figuring that out was the key.
"I wish you'd come out already."
Scholar Yoo looked at the sink beneath the mirror.
Spirits appearing in mirrors were common, but nothing happened even after she stared into it for a while.
That was out.
She inspected the restroom stalls.
Tap tap.
There was no response when she knocked on the first door.
The second stall was the same. Then the third...
【Who are you?】
There was a response.
It was Japanese, but that was only natural for a Japanese ghost.
That urban legend smuggler had brought in an interactive urban legend. If someone didn't know Japanese, they would have no choice but to fall victim to it.
Fortunately, Scholar Yoo had passed JLPT Level 1.
Simple Japanese conversation was no problem for her.
"Hmm..."
Should she open it?
No, urban legends followed the logic of their stories. They followed their settings. Opening the door carelessly might disrupt the story.
【Who are you?】
She had to make a guess.
Based on the clues she had.
Scholar Yoo identified the urban legend.
Japanese origin.
A restroom.
A three-story building.
The third stall.
Scholar Yoo knocked on the stall door and spoke in Japanese.
"Hanako-san, do you want to play with me?"
At that moment, a reply came from inside.
【Yes!】
The door opened.
Scholar Yoo hadn't opened it.
Inside the stall stood a distinctive little girl.
A red skirt.
Bobbed hair.
A young girl.
Just as expected.
This urban legend was Hanako-san of the Toilet.
It was an anomaly so famous in Japan that it had long since become a worn-out classic.
Because of that, methods for exorcising it had also piled up.
Someone in Korea had even exorcised Hanako-san before.
'No, was that really an exorcism?'
That person had physically beaten up a spirit and driven it away.
It was only possible because of an incredibly rare spiritual ability, so it wasn't a useful precedent.
"Hello, Hanako-san."
【Hello. Come in here.】
Hanako's ghost held out a hand.
Scholar Yoo couldn't take it.
In many versions of the evil urban legend, Hanako-san dragged people into the toilet and swallowed them.
The details varied by version, but entering Hanako-san's territory was always the wrong choice.
"Wait a moment."
Hanako-san still held out her hand.
As time passed, the act of pulling someone in would probably become compulsory.
Scholar Yoo had to settle this before then.
There were several ways to exorcise Hanako-san of the Toilet, but as a jinsa of Cheonghak, she would deal with it by...
【You know~】
"......!"
A chill ran down her spine.
Scholar Yoo slowly turned her head at the goosebumps crawling up her back.
A woman stood there.
She was tall and wore a bright red mask.
It was an urban legend known by almost everyone.
It was also known for having no reliable way to deal with it.
'There were two urban legends?!'
One of the urban legends scattered nearby might have moved here on its own.
The defining trait of this urban legend was that it could appear anywhere.
'Why now of all times!'
She hadn't even exorcised Hanako-san yet. If she had to face another anomaly now...
【Hey~ Let's play together.】
【Am I pretty?】
"......"
Scholar Yoo panicked.
Hanako stood in front of her, and the Red Mask stood behind her.
Handling even one would have been difficult...
'Don't panic. Don't rush. Stay calm and respond!'
Scholar Yoo covered her trembling mouth with her fan and assessed the situation.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman. The Red Mask urban legend.
Behind that bright red mask was a grotesquely torn mouth.
If someone said she was pretty, she would say she would make them look just like her and kill them.
If someone said she was ugly, she would grow angry, tear their mouth apart, and kill them.
It looked as though it presented a choice, but every choice led to death.
She had to face an entity with no proper countermeasure at the same time as Hanako-san.
First, she had to delay her answer and buy time...
"Ho ho ho..."
"......?!"
At that moment, a fourth person entered the restroom.
"M-Madam Park?"
It was old Park Bokrye.
Leaning on her cane, Madam Park calmly walked into the restroom where two urban legends had gathered.
"Scholar Yoo, are you busy?"
"Well..."
Scholar Yoo was at a loss for words.
The Special Task Division had placed Park Bokrye on the tracking team, so she clearly had some ability. Still, the current situation was terrible.
Hanako-san was Grade 3 at the very least. The Red Mask was Grade 2 or above, no matter the region.
Having another person lowered the burden of facing them alone, but that didn't mean one more person could handle anomalies like...
【Am I pretty?】
"Madam Park! You can't answer that..."
"You're cute."
"......!"
She answered.
No, did someone working in this field really not know the Red Mask?
In the early twenty-first century, what urban legend had been more popular than the Slit-Mouthed Woman?
【Really?】
The Red Mask grinned and removed her mask.
A grotesquely torn mouth was revealed beneath it.
It was hideous enough to make anyone turn away.
【Even now?】
"What a hideous thing to ask. Put it back on."
Madam Park answered in flawless Japanese.
The bluntness of it was practically verbal abuse, and the Red Mask bristled.
【You...! Then I'll make you look just like me!!】
The Red Mask charged.
The stories varied, but the Red Mask could run one hundred meters in around ten seconds.
An old woman couldn't possibly react to a speed that rivaled the best sprinters in the world.
"A gentleman does not speak of strange powers and spirits...!"
Scholar Yoo hurriedly opened her fan and recited a scripture, but she was too late.
Just as the Red Mask's grotesque kitchen knife was about to strike Madam Park...
"Old man, I'm sorry. I promised I wouldn't draw it again."
【Granny. That's the sixty-third time you've said that this year.】
Madam Park raised her cane.
A sharp blade emerged beneath the moonlight, gleaming coldly.
Swish!
* * *
There was a saying that when the body was weak, the mind had to work harder.
Usually, the opposite was true, but sometimes it was reversed.
"Ho ho ho..."
"......"
Scholar Yoo looked over the utterly wrecked restroom.
Hanako-san of the Toilet and the Slit-Mouthed Woman had both been physically killed.
Cleanly, in a single blow.
Their necks had been sliced through, and their heads were hanging from that old woman's hand by their hair.
'She's strong.'
Who would have thought she was this strong?
She had overwhelmed two urban legends with nothing but swordsmanship.
Urban legends gained powerful strength from rules and story progression, yet Madam Park had overpowered them with raw force.
"Madam Park, just who are you...?"
"I should check the other places too."
Madam Park slid the blade back into her cane, clasped her hands behind her back, and started walking again.
Two urban legends had appeared where Scholar Yoo was. That meant there could be more elsewhere.
Scholar Yoo and Madam Park headed out to find the other two, and they met Gagaram on the athletic field.
"Gagaram, are you okay?"
"There was an urban legend in the gym. I knew its rules, so I managed to deal with it somehow. What about you two?"
"Over here..."
"I think I get it without an explanation."
Gagaram looked at the two heads in Madam Park's grip and made a face of understanding.
She had physically killed anomalies.
Boom!
At that moment, the dirt on the athletic field exploded upward, scattering dust everywhere.
"Bodhisattva Gari?"
The three headed toward the source of the loud noise.
There, they found a human anatomy model dangling in midair.
The kind of model often displayed in science classrooms, made to imitate human internal organs.
It hung in the air and thrashed desperately.
"Tsk."
Bodhisattva Gari drove the Spirit Blade into the desperately struggling anatomy model.
The model let out a bloodcurdling scream.
────!!
The scream rang out as though it would tear the air apart.
It wasn't a roar of anger.
It was a shriek born from terrible pain and fear.
With its belly pierced, the anatomy model began melting in strips through the air before turning into blackened chunks of burned plastic.
"Whew. Another one taken care of."
"......"
Gagaram and Scholar Yoo were left speechless as they watched Bodhisattva Gari deal with the urban legend so easily.
Park Bokrye was the same, and so was Bodhisattva Gari...
Could urban legends really be physically killed like this?
That saying about a weak body making the mind work harder fit perfectly.
"Is everyone okay? I think all the evil spirits have been taken care of now."
"Wow."
"I have nothing to say."
Either way, the job was over.
They had dealt with six urban legends in one night. They could clock out now, right?
The four of them were about to head back while discussing what had happened when...
"Huh? There's someone over there."
Outside the school gate.
A woman stood beyond the wall.
A white dress.
A wide-brimmed hat.
Her face was too far away to see, but something felt wrong.
That wall had to be over two meters tall, didn't it?
Then the woman's lips formed a round O.
【Po...】
Po... Po... Po...
It kept chanting that.
Footnotes:
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