WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 20: Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost

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Over two meters tall.

A white dress beneath a wide-brimmed hat.

At a glance, she looked like a woman suffering from gigantism. The problem was the sound she made.

【Po......】

A strange voice.

The sound spread from lips pursed as if she were whistling.

【Po... Po... Po......】

She slowly moved forward.

Her massive figure, hidden behind the two-meter wall, came into view.

"Get in!!"

Gagaram shouted.

None of us hesitated. We immediately piled into Gagaram's SUV.

Vroooom!

The engine rumbled. When Gagaram hit the accelerator, the sudden launch threw us back in our seats.

The SUV hit one hundred kilometers per hour in seconds and sped out of the school.

"That thing just now! Is it what I think it is?!"

"Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost!"

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost.

The Mystic Association had warned us not to confront it during this urban legend hunt. If we spotted it, we were supposed to report it immediately.

At minimum, it was Grade 1. I heard the original was equivalent to a quasi-special grade anomaly.

"Scholar Yoo! Report it first!"

"I'm doing it!"

Gagaram gripped the wheel while Scholar Yoo pulled out a phone.

I kept a close eye on the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost, but something was wrong.

It was gone.

Beyond the wall.

At the front gate.

It was nowhere.

There was no way something that big could vanish from sight, right?

"It's gone! It was right there a second ago!"

【Beside you! Beside you!】

I turned toward the noise and saw the old man attached to Park Bokrye pointing beside us.

There.

【Po...】

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost, wearing a white hat, bent over and peered through the window.

"B-Beside us..."

"Mother..."

"What?! We're doing one hundred and forty kilometers per hour!"

It was too close.

It wasn't falling behind at all.

We were going over one hundred and forty kilometers per hour.

And it was keeping pace beside us.

No.

It was walking.

Its long skirt fluttered as its legs moved in a walking motion.

Yet it was matching a speed no human stride could ever reach.

【Po, po, po】

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost followed without even losing its rhythm.

Gagaram gasped and floored the accelerator.

One hundred forty.

One hundred fifty.

One hundred sixty.

The SUV's sprint was nearly out of control.

The high-powered sports SUV squeezed out every bit of performance it had.

Then, at some point, it disappeared from view.

"D-Did we lose it?"

"Don't let your guard down!"

At that moment, a white dress fluttered in front of the SUV.

By the time I realized it was a figure larger than the car itself, it was too late.

"Ugh!"

Gagaram violently spun the wheel.

Screeeech!

The SUV skidded.

Just as the brakes we slammed on were about to send us into the guardrail.

Bang!

We hit something.

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost had been in our path.

Would a ghost die if it got hit by a car?

No way, right?

【Po...】

"Whoa."

Beyond the window, the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost turned its gaze toward me.

When I met those hollow black pupils, whose depths I couldn't begin to measure, it felt like my breath had stopped.

Still... something was strange.

Why? Because the window was closed?

Then.

"Ho ho ho ho......"

Shick.

Madam Park drew her sword in the seat beside me.

"Everybody duck!!"

Scholar Yoo's unusually urgent shout made me lower my head on instinct.

Shwaaaa!

A chilling edge swept past the back of my neck with an unnatural sound.

Before I could understand what had happened, the space around us suddenly felt empty.

"Ugh..."

"Wow..."

The vehicle's entire roof had been sliced off.

Madam Park's sword had cut the large SUV cleanly in half, taking the roof right off.

At the same time, the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost, who had pressed its face to the window, was cut as well.

A monstrous slash that had carved through an entire metal vehicle.

Come to think of it, I remembered the two anomaly heads Grandma had been carrying.

What kind of monster was this old lady?

The problem was that the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost had survived even that monstrous slash.

【Po......】

"That monster... It's still alive!"

It had done more than survive.

After taking that slash, it only had a wound on its arm.

"When the mind is still, the vital energy is still. Let righteous energy become a boundary. Do not move against propriety!"

Scholar Yoo snapped open a fan, and the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost stopped.

It was Cheonghak's scripture, the same one that had pinned down the rampaging urban legend bus. Even that could not fully suppress the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost's terrifying strength.

"That's insane... It's moving through this?"

"A scholar shouldn't swear!"

Taking advantage of the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost being restrained, Gagaram rushed in.

"Malice shall burn, and purification shall remain. Eastern Azure Fire..."

【Po...!】

"What?!"

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost shattered Scholar Yoo's sturdy binding technique in an instant, then swung at Gagaram.

It had broken the binding that even the urban legend bus couldn't move under that easily?

Thud!

Gagaram was sent flying with a sickening sound.

Scholar Yoo was next.

【Po!】

"You... monster!"

Just before Scholar Yoo was struck.

"Missy. Hold on tight."

Madam Park hopped out of the SUV with her sword cane in hand.

The old man behind her said,

【Granny... Shall we take that out?】

His words did not reach Madam Park.

She had not opened the spiritual senses needed to hear spiritual voices directly.

Still, there was clearly some kind of exchange of intent between them.

Madam Park's eyes flashed.

* * *

The fight against the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost became a drawn-out battle.

'The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost... How can it be this tough?'

'I heard the original was exorcised. How the hell did they catch it?'

It was tough. It was powerful.

Gagaram, who was confident in his firepower and had enough strength to smash rocks with a gesture, could barely leave scratches on it.

There was only one reason this battle was even possible.

Madam Park's unimaginable combat ability.

Shwaang!

Madam Park's slash wounded the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost's arm.

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost reeled and counterattacked, but Madam Park had already disappeared.

"Ho ho......"

Madam Park muttered as she swung her sword.

Even as the wounds steadily piled up, the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost stubbornly held on.

Shwaang!

Then Madam Park's sword broke.

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost was so hard that the sword broke before its ghostly body did.

"Ho ho......"

Madam Park narrowed her eyes at the broken sword hilt, then lightly leaped backward to avoid the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost's counterattack.

Her footwork was as light as a spring breeze, impossible to believe for an old woman.

Soon, Madam Park gripped the broken sword hilt tightly.

"Old man. I suppose I have to draw it."

"......!"

"......!"

An extraordinary aura flowed into the sword.

Anyone with spiritual senses would have noticed the surging energy.

It was that sharp and wildly violent.

Until now, Madam Park had fought in pure close combat with an ordinary sword.

She was finally about to use her true ability.

What would happen when the monster who could slice apart urban legends with a sword revealed her real power?

"Weep, Hell..."

"Lord Jehovah of Hosts, I raise Your sword."

Bodhisattva Gari passed Madam Park.

Everyone focused on Bodhisattva Gari, who had not joined the fight until now, suddenly stepping forward.

'A prayer?'

'He was an exorcist?'

Gagaram and Scholar Yoo only realized it after hearing Bodhisattva Gari's prayer.

Bodhisattva Gari drew two Spirit Blades.

After sprinkling holy water over them, he continued the prayer.

"This is not for slaughter, but to sever darkness and drive away evil."

Gari's halo shone.

The angel who had stayed out of things even at this point.

Then.

"Do not let this blade cut the good."

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost did not stink.

"Let it sever only evil."

Amen.

Bodhisattva Gari thrust a holy-water-covered blade into the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost.

Tap.

The blunt blade failed to pierce its skin.

Even when touched by the blade covered in holy water, it did not receive a single wound.

"Bodhisattva Gari! Watch out...!"

Then.

【Po...?】

Something pounced on the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost.

In an instant, it was caught by something. The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost desperately struggled to break free, but whatever held it did not budge.

"W-What's happening?!"

"Is that the thing that was swallowing the school's urban legends?!"

To the three of them, the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost's body looked as though it were slowly melting into thin air.

Only two people recognized what was happening.

【Granny... Stay still. Looks like you don't need to step in after all~】

"......"

The ghostly old man and Baek Yohan, Bodhisattva Gari.

* * *

"You encountered the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost?"

Joo Seoyul, leader of Team 5 of the Mystic Association's Abnormal Ability Response Special Task Division, sounded unable to believe Team 1's report.

"I thought Team 5 was chasing the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost. Why did it come to us?"

When Gagaram pressed the issue, Joo Seoyul sounded apologetic.

"We lost the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost. I never imagined it would find all of you."

It looked like the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost Joo Seoyul's team had been pursuing really had come to us.

"Either way, that Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost was at least Grade 1. You'd better compensate us properly."

"Well... Evidence that it was the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost..."

Gagaram and Scholar Yoo looked troubled.

It made sense. Gari had swallowed the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost whole, leaving behind not even a trace.

They had made it clear that they could not pay rewards for exorcising urban legends without related evidence, which put us in an awkward spot.

"I saw it."

"Madam Park?"

Madam Park stepped forward before Team Leader Joo Seoyul.

She had returned to looking like an ordinary old woman and was leaning only on the scabbard of her broken sword cane.

"...I see. Understood."

Joo Seoyul was accepting that just like that?

Even Gagaram and Scholar Yoo looked surprised by how quickly Joo Seoyul accepted it.

"Then I'll verify everything before writing the report."

Joo Seoyul also examined the traces of the urban legends we had brought back.

"The telephone from the urban legend Calling Mary. The mask from the urban legend Slit-Mouthed Woman. The hair tie from the urban legend Hanako-san of the Toilet. Plastic organs from the urban legend Anatomy Model in the Science Room. Fragments from the urban legend Wooden Doll in the Gym. The license plate from the urban legend Unregistered Anomaly Bus."

Four Grade 3s, two Grade 2s.

Thirty million won for each Grade 3. One hundred million won for each Grade 2.

And the Grade 1...

"This includes the 1.2 billion won reward for the Grade 1 urban legend Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost. A total of 1.52 billion won will be deposited."

That was insane.

Even split four ways, it was 380 million won each.

That was enough money to ruin a person's sense of financial reality.

"I should buy a new car with this."

"Gagaram, are you okay? Your car looks like it's ready for the scrapyard."

"It's fine. More importantly, is Bodhisattva Gari okay? He wasn't much help catching the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost."

I shrugged at Gagaram's words.

"If Gagaram hadn't held the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost down, we wouldn't have caught it that easily."

"Oh, thanks for giving me credit. Here's my card. Call me if you want to work together."

Gagaram handed me a business card, then drove off in the completely sliced-up SUV.

I had no idea whether that thing would make it.

"Bodhisattva Gari. Or should I call you Pastor Gari? Or Father Gari?"

"I'm a layperson."

Scholar Yoo's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Thanks to you, the job went easily. Let's work together again sometime."

Swish!

Scholar Yoo opened the fan and lightly walked away.

Scholar Yoo walked away with awfully light steps, seemingly happy.

"Young man."

Madam Park approached me then.

She looked like a kindly grandmother, despite being the monster who used her husband as a shikigami and swung those horrifying slashes.

The old man standing behind her narrowed his eyes at me and Gari, but Grandma's voice was calm.

"Take this."

"What is it?"

She handed me a knot.

A traditional knot of dark green, or maybe black with a hint of deep green.

"Come visit the Association soon."

"......"

Where was the Association?

Before I could finish asking, Madam Park left with Joo Seoyul.

"Manager, will this be all right? There are procedures..."

Joo Seoyul muttered something to Madam Park, but they were too far away for me to hear.

It had been an exhausting night.

How many urban legends had we caught in one night?

We immediately took a taxi home.

Who knew the home I had left only a few hours ago would feel this welcoming?

It was already five in the morning. The sun was up, but I couldn't go to sleep like this.

"Gari. Spit it out."

Click. Click.

Gari opened his mouth with a craaack.

Then a huge, tall woman poured out of Gari's mouth.

【Po......】

It was the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost.

Footnotes:

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